The Paradigm Shift
The music industry is changing. Again. Just mere years ago, social media and streaming platforms were all the rage. Now, artists are actively boycotting many mainstream streaming platforms in a show of force over unfair royalty payouts. While some artists thrive in social media land, others prefer to keep things more mysterious and aren’t as out there and in your face as the algorithm might like, while other acts choose to completely remove themselves from these platforms.
Meanwhile, there are whispers of major labels slowly phasing out physical products and focusing solely on digital. While this may be of value in some genres, metal music consumers are loyal collectors. We enjoy holding something in our hands, getting lost in the artwork and the lyrics as we consume the album in its entirety, the way the artist meant for it to be enjoyed. Along this same way of thinking, there are many metal fans that refuse to use streaming services and don’t have social media accounts. Yet agents, promoters, and labels still seemingly refer to places like Spotify as the be-all, end-all when measuring the success of an artist as it relates to signings or bookings.
How do we change the narrative that just because an artist doesn’t have a minimum number of streams or followers, they’re not worth your attention, ticket sales or physical album sales? What does this mean for the future of bands and how can they prove their worth and get your attention? Especially when bands are seemingly getting dropped due to poor streaming numbers or not enough social media presence.
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Julia Markiewicz (PO)
Knock Out Productions / Mystic Festival
Julia Markiewicz is responsible for Marketing and Social Media for Knock Out Productions and Mystic Festival. In the past few years she also got involved with Artist Management at Goetia Productions, gaining broader perspective on their needs and building diverse, tailored PR strategies.
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Christer Alexander Hansen (NO)
Tidal
Metal curator (amongst others) at Tidal and occasional vinyl pusher at Big Dipper, with 20+ years of experience from retail and streaming.
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Tomas Fiala (CZ)
Brutal Assault Festival / Obscure Promotion
Tomas Fiala is a Czech promoter with over 25 years of experience in the extreme music industry. As the primary promoter for Brutal Assault, he and his team have overseen the festival’s steady evolution from a 1,200-capacity gathering to its current status as a well-respected, sold-out staple event hosting 20,000 fans. Beyond the festival, Tomas leads Obscure Promotion, which organizes roughly 130 events annually. For over two decades, Tomas has been the key architect of the extreme music scene in the Czech Republic, prioritizing artistic integrity and underground culture.
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Theresa Henze (DE)
Century Media Records / InsideOutMusic
Theresa Henze has been shaping heavy music campaigns since 2016, combining hands on label execution with deep market intelligence on how audiences discover, stream, and commit to artists.
She began her music industry career at major label Universal Music, then moved to an independent metal label to sharpen her instinct for scene culture and heavy music audiences. In 2020, she joined Sony Music Entertainment’s market and consumer research department, focusing on combining data-driven market insight with cultural understanding to drive audience growth, streaming performance and long-term artist brand development.
Since 2023, Theresa has been back in the operational label business as Senior Project Manager International Marketing for Century Media Records & InsideOutMusic, where she leads global campaigns for internationally established artists like Lorna Shore, Lamb Of God, Of Mice & Men, Arch Enemy and Dark Tranquillity, while also shaping launch strategies and positionings for newcomer acts like Allt and Humanity’s Last Breath.
Theresa is an international marketing expert, founder of a social age tech venture, holds two master’s degrees in International Marketing & Management and is a singer in an indie choir.
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Mod: Kjersti Brochs (NO)
Virgin Music Group / Beyond the Gates
Kjersti Brochs has for the last 5 years worked as a Senior Label Manager with Virgin Music Group, where she’s the point of contact for several labels and artists on all things related to digital distribution. She’s also been doing social media for the Beyond the Gates festival for the last 4 years. Before this, she worked at Indie Recordings and was a board member at the Norwegian Grammy Spellemann (one of the highlights there was to award Mayhem with the Honorary Award).