Artists and Speakers

Nabil Ayers is the President of Beggars Group US, where he has led campaigns for artists including The National, Big Thief, and Grimes, as well as landmark reissues such as Pixies’ platinum-selling album Doolittle. He is the chair of the A2IM board and he served as a Recording Academy Trustee and elected governor from 2018–2024. He has been named one of Billboard’s “Indie Power Players” consecutively from 2019–2025. Ayers co-founded Sonic Boom Records in Seattle at age 25 and has recorded and toured internationally as a drummer in several bands. Through his own label, The Control Group / Valley of Search, he has released music by Cate Le Bon, Lykke Li, Bad Brains, The Killers, PJ Harvey, and his uncle, the jazz musician Alan Braufman. Ayers is the host of Identified, a podcast exploring family dynamics, with guests including Michelle Zauner, John Legend, and Tom Morello. He is the author of the memoir My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022) and has contributed writing on music, race, and family to The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ.

Thomas Golubić is a four-time Emmy nominated music supervisor, twice Grammy nominated record producer, podcast host and DJ based in Los Angeles. His music supervision credits include Pluribus, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Poker Face, Silo, The Walking Dead, Halt and Catch Fire, and Six Feet Under, among many other film & television projects. In 2017 Thomas became the president of the Guild of Music Supervisors, the same year he was nominated for the first Outstanding Music Supervisor Emmy Award for his work on Better Call Saul. The Guild twice awarded Thomas with Best Music Supervision in a Television Drama for his work on Breaking Bad. In 2014, Thomas programmed and launched the Guild of Music Supervisors ‘State of Music in Media’ conference, currently running over a decade. He has also served as producer and director of the Guild of Music Supervisor Awards.

Rachel is the Senior Director of Creative & Synch Licensing at Kobalt Music, where she oversees strategic placements for a diverse roster ranging from Max Martin and Doja Cat to the legendary catalogs of Stevie Nicks and John Denver. With a foundation built at RCA Records handling master-side rights and entering her seventh year on the publishing side at Kobalt, Rachel brings a 360-degree perspective to the synchronization landscape. Her expertise spans the full media spectrum, including high-stakes Super Bowl campaigns, major film and TV projects, and immersive video game soundtracks. She remains focused on finding innovative ways to integrate music into the ever-changing gaming and visual media spaces.

Alex began his career in sync as an intern at Warner Music Group immediately after graduation in 2018. Seven years later, he is now an Associate Director on their Global Sync team - primarily focused on Gaming & New Media projects. His main slate of clients include Epic Games, 2K Games, Electronic Arts, Rockstar Games, Meta, Roblox, and many more.

Deborah Mannis-Gardner — the “Queen of Sample Clearance” according to Billboard, Forbes, Variety, and more — is the go-to expert for global music rights clearances. After starting DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, Deborah’s sample clearance skills quickly became legendary. She has cleared releases for artists including Drake, Tyler the Creator, Justin Bieber, DJ Khaled, Eminem, Clipse, De La Soul, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, John Legend, Megan Thee Stallion, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and more. Beyond sampling, Deborah has handled music clearances for video games such as Rockstar Games franchises “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption”; metaverse platforms such as Meta and Roblox, including a live concert from Post Malone; films by Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, and Richard Linklater; TV series on networks such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and Paramount+; ad campaigns for Google, Ciroc, and Kmart; and podcasts such as Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Broken Record.” In addition, Deborah has handled Grand Rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton” and music clearances for its release on Disney+. She was the award-winning music supervisor of HBO’s Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine docu-series “The Defiant Ones.”

Marcus J. Moore is an esteemed music journalist and author of two books: "The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America" (2020), and "High and Rising (A Book About De La Soul)" (2024). He has been a contributing writer with The Nation and a senior editor with Bandcamp Daily, a platform he helped launch. He co-leads the jazz-focused "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love..." series at The New York Times. Elsewhere, his music coverage can be found at NPR, Pitchfork, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone and The Atlantic, among other outlets.

Frankie Pine, working under Whirly Girl Music, is an Emmy & Grammy-nominated Music Supervisor creating memorable soundtracks for high-profile projects. She has received 11 Guild of Music Supervisors Awards nominations, winning four times for Magic Mike, Nashville, and Sylvie's Love. Recently, Frankie supervised music for the Emmy-nominated Amazon series Daisy Jones & The Six, earning Emmy and Grammy nominations in 2023. She's also working on Lionsgate's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Apple TV+'s The Last Thing He Told Me, Amazon's Carnival Row (Season 2), Netflix's Florida Man, Focus Features's Book Club: The Next Chapter, and Amazon's The Idea of You. Her previous work includes The Flight Attendant, Big Sky, From Scratch, and A League of Their Own. Frankie's diverse portfolio spans television dramas like Nashville and The Newsroom, comedies like Santa Claus 2, and box office hits like Magic Mike38. As a Music Consultant, she worked on Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy and the Grammy-nominated soundtrack for Traffic. Frankie is a long-time member of the Guild of Music Supervisors.

Jason Rawls, renowned music producer and educator, has worked with artists like Black Thought, Busta Rhymes, Mos Def, and De La Soul. In 2024, he released The Confidence of Knowing with Talib Kweli. An educator with over 20 years of experience, Dr. Rawls is an Assistant Professor of Hip Hop at THE Ohio State University and a leader in the #HipHopEd movement. He co-authored Youth Culture Power and is developing a Hip-Hop Studies program at OSU. His work is featured in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and he has pioneered Hip-Hop Based Education initiatives in higher education.

Allison Wright Clark is a music executive, music supervisor, producer, licensing and music publishing expert, educator, and entrepreneur creating impactful musical experiences across all media. She’s a “walking” studio music department" collaborating notably with Oscar and Grammy winning talent with next gent studios and content creators worldwide.