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co-Founder and director, Only Much Louder Event Mgmt Pvt Ltd, Counter Culture Records, Babblefish Productions, OML Digital
 Vijay Nair was named the International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 at the UK music industry event Great Escape where he was presented with the prestigious award by Martin Elbourne, founder of Great Escape and Womad on 14 May. He was awarded a financial prize of £5000 to be spent on a collaborative project with the UK’s international cultural relations body, the British Council.
Vijay embarked on his music career after he started managing bands at the tender age of 17. What started as a hobby soon became a fully fledged career as he founded Only Much Louder (OML), the first artist management company for indie bands in India. Fuelled by a strong DIY ethic, OML launched Counter Culture Records who started their own distribution and became a viable option for artists looking at releasing their material with no major support. Babblefish Productions was started in 2008 as the video production arm of OML and helps give indie artists a visual identity by developing music videos, documentaries and podcasts. Over the last 7 years OML has booked artists for over 500 concerts, produced festivals of international repute, released independent artists and established themselves as one of the key players in the Indian music industry.
The judges for this year’s International award were Chair of Judges-
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Doug D’Arcy owner Songline, Chairman of the Music Export Board and a member of the Creative Industries Strategy Board |
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Martin Elbourne, booker Glastonbury Festival, Lovebox, Jersey Live and Guilfest |
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Paul Fegan, Co-Director of Better Days |
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John Worne, Director of Strategy & External Relations for the British Council |
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Joel Mills Senior Music Consultant, British Council |
Judges' citation:
Vijay gave a superb, creative presentation, which cleverly illustrated and analysed the Indian music market. He is an outstanding entrepreneur, having already achieved a great deal for someone so young, and is buzzing with ideas to further drive his business forward The judges feel he has the character and potential to make an important contribution to the Indian and wider international music industry.
Other Finalists:
 Sanjeev Thomas
Music Director and Owner, Rainbow Bridge Studio
Sanjeev calls himself an Entrepreneur with a foresight into changing today’s music entrepreneurship theoretic and a vision for untapped Indian talent. The Rainbow Bridge Studio is into advertising, film and theatre, recording and producing many Indian artists and has also composed India’s First Rock Opera with Mr.Ashok Cherian. He describes himself to be a Singer, Guitarist, Sound Engineer, Event Manager and a music critic.
 Gaurav Dobhal
Co-founder, TempoStand Online Music Private Limited
TempoStand aims to establish a new economic model for the artists in an endeavour to change the way music is perceived as a career option in the country. Besides working on new ideas, Gaurav loves doing theatres. He has done a lot of stage and street theatres, scripted several plays and also loves writing poetry and Urdu Shayaris.
 Amit Wanchoo
Owner, Space Communications
Amit defines himself as a human who believes in humanity. He believes in using music as the tool for converting negative energy in the society into positive. Bridging gaps between communities within and outside Kashmir and leading challenging assignments has been his passion.
He started a multi-religious fusion band in Kashmir IMMERSION, to accommodate the aspirations and feelings of people from different religions and regions. Immersion is a part of his media company SPACE COMMUNICATIONS, which has AVID as another group company. This band has been successful in bridging gaps between communities, creating positive energy in the society, relieving stress among youngsters, and utilizing music in bringing smiles on the faces of people who have witnessed bloodshed and violence for past two decades.
 Akshai Sarin
Owner, AXYZ Music International
AXYZ Music International is a vertically integrated, globally active group of companies involved in all stages of the music economy from development to delivery. With a content distribution network spanning 26 countries, their offices in India, Egypt, Philippines and Australia specialize in Artist Management, Brand Consulting, Digital Music & Video Distribution, Events, Music Marketing, Music Production, Radio, Record Label, Venue Conceptualization, Venue Management. His desire for a connected existence is compounded by awareness that music is an eloquent form of communication – music moves the world. Consequently, focusing on using music to connect people and drive a gamut of business verticals.
The jury
- Stephen Budd, Founder / Council member of the Music Managers Forum, Founder Stephen Budd management.
- Luke Kenney, Contributing Editor and music journalist, Hindustan Times, RS India.
- Radha Krishnan Nair, Publisher & Editor, Rolling Stone and MW
- Simon Gammell, Director British Council (West India)
 Luke Kenny, Contributing Editor and music journalist, Hindustan Times, RS India.
Born in Calcutta, Kenny moved to Bombay when he was 3 months old. Brought up in a family who were all musicians, his musical education began very young. In 1995 he became India's first Indian male VJ on Channel V. In 2005, he directed and produced his first feature film 13th Floor starring Purab Kohli and Sandhya Mridul. Kenny played the character of Rob, a keyboardist, in the Hindi film Rock On directed by Abhishek Kapoor. He writes a weekly music column in the Hindustan Times supplement HT Café and has recently signed on as contributing editor for Rolling Stone India, writing a column called LukeBox, and a live music column called Gig-A-Bites.
 Radhakrishnan Nair, Publisher & Editor, Rolling Stone and MW
Radhakrishnan Nair is Publisher & Editor of Rolling Stone India and MW (formerly known as Man’s World). He is also the Editorial Director of Verve, India’s first women’s luxury lifestyle magazizne. He’s been a print and television journalist, and a magazine editor for nearly two decades. He was the Executive Editor of Business India till 1999, when he quit to start Man’s World, India’s first men’s lifestyle magazine. Rolling Stone, the Indian edition of the iconic American music magazine, was launched under his watch in February 2008. Radhakrishnan is based in Mumbai, where he lives with his two sons and wife, Tista Sen, who is a senior advertising professional.
 Simon Gammell, Director, British Council – West India
Simon was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and London. His first career was as a theatre director in Scotland, England and Italy; he also worked as a freelance journalist, teacher and film-maker. In 1985, he joined the British Council, and worked for several years in Italy and Argentina.
Between 1994 and 1999 he worked in London, first as Director of the British Council’s Performing Arts department, and latterly as Director of the whole Arts Group. During that time he took a leading role in producing several theatre tours to India by companies such as Shared Experience, Out of Joint, The Right Size, The Kosh and the Royal Shakespeare Company (with Comedy of Errors, directed by Tim Supple – who recently directed Midsummer Night’s Dream in India). It was these projects that gave him his first experiences of India, and seeded the idea of seeking an opportunity to work here.
He arrived to take up his new job in Mumbai in February 2006 from Sydney, where he had spent the previous six years working as Director of the British Council in Australia. He lists as his main interests the arts, history, literature, travel, sports and people.
 Stephen Budd
Originally starting as a roadie for Motorhead, Generation X, X-Ray Specs etc. Stephen went into artist management representing Big Sound Authority, The Sound, Tanita Tikaram and Heaven 17. In 1988 he founded Stephen Budd Management representing record producers and songwriters whose roster includes; Rick Nowels, Tore Johansson, Mark Saunders, Stephen Hague, Arthur Baker, Mike Hedges, producing recent hits from Dido, Franz Ferdinand, Shiny Toy Guns, Yusuf Islam, Bonnie Prince Billy, Nelly Furtado, Santana, U2 and many others.
In 2001 he became a director of the Channelfly Group which includes the Barfly Clubs, The Fly Magazine and SuperVision artist management - started by Stephen and Paul Craig in 2001 - which manages acts including Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and The Cribs. (Channelfly is now a part of MAMA PLC which also owns Hammersmith Apollo, The Forum, Jazz Café venues and the Lovebox, Global Gathering and Great Escape festivals). Stephen also runs Pollination Music (recently signing Paul Oakenfold) the MAMA group music publishing operation. He also created the successful ‘Passport :Back To The Bars’ project, featuring major artists (inc. Amy Winehouse, The Cure, David Gray etc) playing in the Barfly Clubs for charity and is a co-exec producer along with Damon Albarn of the Africa Express project, promoting African music to western artists through travel to Africa and concerts in the UK. Stephen is a founder / council member of the Music Managers Forum.
About the award
British Council announces the Young Music Entrepreneur (YME) award to champion and celebrate the importance of creative entrepreneurs working in the field of music and to showcase international innovation in music promotion using the UK as the nexus for cultural, creative and commercial exchange.
Entrepreneurs between 25 and 35 years working in any of the following music sectors:
- Record companies; Artists & Repertoire (A&R); producing, recording, engineering; music licensing, and distribution
- Venue and/or festival programming and management
- Artists management and agents
- Music broadcasting
- Music journalism and publishing
- Music development & management
- Music marketing; public and media relations
- Music retail; online (including digital) and high street outlets
- Consultants offering specialist services in any of these areas
We recognise that a participant may be active as a musician or DJ, however their work as an artist should be secondary to their focus as an entrepreneur in the promotion of music. Musical talent/output will not be factored into the judging procedure – finalists will be judged solely on the merit of their entrepreneurial abilities in the music business.
For any queries, please contact:
“YME”
Jily Joseph
British Council
Mittal Tower, C Wing, 2nd Floor
Nariman Point
Mumbai 400 021
Receipt of applications will be acknowledged by email. Applications can also be submitted on email to yce.india@in.britishcouncil.org.
If you have any enquiry about the process for submitting applications please contact
Jily on 022 22790114 or email at yce.india@in.britishcouncil.org.
Young Music Entrepreneur (YME) - India Finalist
- A selection committee will shortlist the applications received, and conduct workshop followed by an interview.
- The selection committee will nominate an India finalist to travel to the UK to represent India and compete for the international award.
- The India finalist will attend The Great Escape (14-16 May 2009), where he/she will have the opportunity to attend all activities within the conference (talks, seminars, networking events), as well as a wide variety of gigs throughout the three days.
- The India finalist will get an opportunity to travel to the UK (London and Manchester) on a visit programme tailored to one’s business needs which includes group and individual meetings to introduce them to fellow entrepreneurs and exemplary initiatives, to give them an overview of the music sector in the UK.
- During the UK tour the national finalists’ takes part in a judging procedure where they make a presentation to an experienced UK industry jury about their work and their understanding of, and vision for their creative sector in India.
- Finalists will be asked to select one track from their country that they feel could have a wider UK and international appeal. All tracks will be collated onto a CD which the British Council will promote and distribute at The Great Escape and through its wider network. In addition, work selected for the CD will also be featured on our Creative Economy webpage for visitors to vote for their favourite.
- The jury selects the overall international winner of the award (International Young Creative Entrepreneur of the Year). The winner will receive a YCE bowl designed by acclaimed glass designers Gillies Jones Glass.
- In addition to the award title, the winner receives a financial prize (£5000) to be spent on a collaborative project with the British Council that builds the relationship between the winning country and the UK.
The Great Escape (14-16 May 2009):
The Great Escape has established itself as the leading event in Europe for showcasing new talent from around the world, aimed at 'export ready' bands and Industry Professionals. The Great Escape takes place in Brighton, UK over three days and nights every May with a total attendance of over 10,000 people. An industry convention includes a variety of insightful industry talks, panel debates, keynote interviews, and networking sessions. This runs alongside a live music festival which includes performances from 200 new local and international artists, themed parties and club nights in over 25 different venues.
Read about the 2008 award panelists and finalists.
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