Masterclass with Kobalt Music’s Miller Williams

The BIMM Masterclasses aim to expose students to all sides of the music industry, including the crucial label, management and publishing businesses, as well as the artists they sign.

At BIMM Brighton in November we were excited to host a Masterclass with Miller Williams, the Senior Vice President Creative from Kobalt Music Group.

Kobalt is one of the UK’s most successful independent companies for music publishing, label services and rights management. In his role as Senior Vice President Creative there, Miler works variously across A&R, collaborations and music marketing.

The Masterclass session was hosted by Phil Nelson, Music Business Lecturer at BIMM Brighton. Phil’s own insights as an artist manager for 25 years helped steer the Masterclass to get the very best from Miller’s considerable knowledge about the business.

Miller spoke to the students about his own career path, moving from a role as Creative & Sync Manager for Sony ATV UK to Managing Director of Global Talent Publishing, which grew to become one of the UK’s Top 10 music publishers. Along the way, Miller signed artists such as Ellie Goulding, Corinne Bailey Rae, Becky Hill, Alex Clare, Prides and Justin Hayward Young of The Vaccines.

Miller covered complex topics in his talk, such as ‘neighbouring rights’, as well as explaining the unique approach of Kobalt and the more general backdrop of music publishing as a whole. There were plenty of quality questions from our students too which Miller answered with expertise.

Gwinny James-Reynolds, one of our first-year Songwriting students said:

“It was very informative. Miller gave me much more of an insight into how to earn money from my songwriting.”

Augusta Coca, also a first-year Songwriting student, agreed:

“I was grateful for an insightful and eye-opening talk on what it takes to have a career in the music industry.”

When it comes to learning about the real music business we think knowledge is power, so thanks Miller for sharing yours!