The 2008 Young Music Entrepreneurs award have been announced

About the award

UK is the third largest world market for the sale of music and is dominated by a small number of record companies and retailing chains. With the advent of digitisation and global convergence the industry is changing rapidly and today it is the fastest growing online music market in Europe.

YME is an exciting opportunity to engage with young entrepreneurs, nurture them to become the next generation of leaders in the Indian music industry, support them in their promotion of the best in national creativity, and linking them with the UK at this key stage in their development.

In 2008 the following 10 countries are participating in the IYME awards: Colombia, Estonia,

India, Jordan, Kenya, Argentina or Venezuela, Lithuania, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland

Who can apply:

• 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.

Download application form

Closing date: Tuesday 18 March 2008

India YME Winner 2007

Girish (Bobby) Talwar, the India Finalist for the YME awards in 2007 is the Promoter Director of Only Much Louder, an Events and Artist Management Company, which professionally manages the leading bands in India including Pentagram, Zero, Pin Drop Violence, Helgas Fun Castle, Artistes Unlimited and are booking agents for about 8-10 other bands across genres of music including popular Hindi artistes. They also facilitate production services and infrastructure needs for live musical concerts and events.

The two other companies he manages includes Counter Culture Records, that produces, markets and distributes independent performers and musicians (Raghu Dixit, Pentagram and Pin Drop Violence) and Babble Fish Productions which produces music videos, advertisement films and corporate audio visuals.

A lawyer by profession he also plays for the band, ZERO. He is a member of Telecommunications, Information, and Media and Entertainment Forum (TIME), which is a part of the Young Entrepreneurs Wing at Indian Merchant Chambers.

The jury in India selected Girish as the national winner since he had a clear and strong vision and was extremely entrepreneurial. He had charisma and came across as a leader in his field. All his business models were clearly focussed on music as the core component.   

This was reiterated by the jury in UK who said, “Bobby is real networker who has already achieved a great deal through three companies serving the vast Indian market – including his role in bringing the first international music festival to India, the Big Chill Goa (Big Chill is a UK based music festival which has close to 40 foreign performers). He has principled aims to change perceptions of music as viable career option. In a comprehensive and interesting presentation he impressed with his ambition to take on Richard Branson, his industry role model, and be competing with Virgin in 10 years times.”

Following is an excerpt of Bobby’s feedback after his return:

On the whole, I must say that is was an experience of a life time, the places we went to, the things we saw, the people we met and interactions we had, could never have happened if it was not an opportunity given to me by the British Council, and for that I will always be appreciative. We met a diverse mix of people - from record label executives, to managers, to people from the council, to venue managers etc. Their perspectives were very enlightening. It made me relook at issues from a broader perspective and also from an international angle. It also helped me network with people in the music industry in the UK which will hopefully develop into working relationships over time. The programme was very educative. I feel that because I was exposed to this kind a programme at an early stage of my career, I can now decide clearly where I should go from here.