In our latest roundup, we present eight rising professionals from various parts of the biz whose dedication and effort make their superiors look good.
This week's entrants will also find their faces in our latest mag. Lucky for them, we're told the pages burn nicely, which could come in handy during this cold snap.
Kelly Ford
Senior Creative Director, AWAL
Ford, who began her career at
Weller Media Agency, where she worked with the likes of
Ellie Goulding and eventually co-led the shop’s global design team—was AWAL’s first in-house creative director. Aside from creating imagery for
Laufey’s
Grammy-nominated
Bewitched, Ford co-produced 180° visuals for AWAL’s first U.S. immersive showcase, headlined by
Little Simz. She’s presently designing campaign essentials for
Maddie Zahm,
Angie McMahon,
mxmtoon and
Blake Rose. As a teen, Ford had her own makeup-tutorial channel on
YouTube. We could use some tutorializing.
Read Davis
VP, Digital, Big Loud Records
Davis fondly recalls the team effort expended to execute the livestream of
Morgan Wallen’s surprise Nashville concert—his biggest cinema-quality such outing to date—promoting the March 2023 release of
One Thing at a Time. More recently, Davis has been devising marketing strategy for singer-songwriter
Stephen Wilson Jr., among other acts on the Big Loud roster. Long before he was crafting digital rollouts and seizing opportunities for
Hailey Whitters, he played guitar for her at a handful of shows in the 2010s.
Our musical skills are limited to the triangle.
Rachel Wein
A&R Manager, Prescription Songs
Among Wein’s career achievements, she inked
Maddie Zahm to her first pub deal and helped her song “Fat Funny Friend” go viral. The Chicago native was also proud to see clients
Joy Oladokun,
Parson James and
JORDY play
Lollapalooza, the festival she grew up attending. She’s lately worked with artists like
Spellz in Lagos, Nigeria,
Lxandra in Finland and
Greyson Chance in the exotic locale of Oklahoma. Fifteen minutes before meeting President
Biden, Wein split her pants. Most people split when they see us—even if it means leaving their pants behind.
Sam Sciarra
Head of A&R, Mad Decent/Higher Ground
In 2022 Sciarra handled A&R for
Diplo, the artist’s first full-length since 2004, recruiting underground collaborators like
TSHA,
Seth Troxler and
Damian Lazarus alongside heavyweights
Lil Yachty,
Miguel and
Busta Rhymes―the album amassed 100m+ streams and earned two
Grammy noms. Today Sciarra’s focused on LGBTQ+ acts like
DJ Minx,
Carlita and
TDJ and serving as a consultant to
DJ Tennis and his
Life and Death label. As a child, the talent whisperer was featured on the
Today show dancing an Irish jig. Some would like to see him high-kick
us outta here.
Micheline Medina
Director, Artist Relations & Marketing, Sony Music Latin
Medina led the marketing strategy for
Christina Aguilera’s 2022
AGUILERA—which earned seven
Latin Grammy noms and one win—and
Farruko’s “Pepas”— 52-times platinum in the U.S. with 3b+ streams. Next up:
Prince Royce &
Gabito Ballesteros’ “Cosas de la Peda,” a new project by
Nicky Jam (who’s announced his impending retirement from music), further advancing the career of
Manuel Turizo and March’s SOMOS M
íA Women’s Month Showcase (SOMOS MIA is Sony Music Latin’s employee-resource group). Medina is an avid sneakerhead.
We’ve spent a lot of time in head shops.
JJ Cassiere
Co-Founder/Agent, 33 & West
Working with
DMX was a life-changing experience for Cassiere, who represented him on 2019’s sold-out comeback
It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot 20th Anniversary Tour and watched him perform that year for 50k+ fans at
Rolling Loud. Cassiere’s now handling tours and festival appearances for clients like
Devo,
Santa Fe Klan,
Maoli and
Tornillo and lending his skills to the
Chaos and Carnage Tour, among other projects. Prior to becoming a full-time agent, he planned to pursue a career as a basketball official.
We’ve been officiating music-biz losers since 1986
Blair Miller
Founder/CEO, Chaos Creators Entertainment
Miller remembers with relish watching
Melanie Pfirrman, her first client after college, hit the top of the
Radio Disney charts, then release a song with
Pitbull and open for the
Jonas Brothers. Fast forward to Miller’s supporting social media efforts for
Interscope’s
Kassi Ashton, who opened for
Old Dominion on its
No Bad Vibes Tour before making her
Grand Ole Opry debut and releasing her single “Drive You Out of My Mind.” When Miller was 11, she represented the U.S. at Finland’s
Children’s International Summer Village camp.
We’ve been banned from Finland.
Mike Spinella
Head of Consumer Programming, SoundCloud
Spinella once worked with
Beyoncé’s team on a digital campaign and got to listen to session mixes in the studio with Queen Bey herself. After partnering on a livestream initiative with
Jack White, he hung out with him backstage at his sold-out
MSG show. Spinella’s currently all about SoundCloud’s new
Sound Advice series, on which artists who’ve broken out on the platform discuss how they’ve built community thereon and speak to their creative process. The programming chief is into long-distance cycling, which could help him keep a safe distance from
us. 
