AIMP Panel

Place: View Map
House of Blues
8430 Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood. Valet parking, on site $7. Call for directions.

Panelists from left: Moderator Kasaan Steigen (AIMP Board),  Ronit Mevorach, Phil Sandhaus, Jarrett Mason, Michelle Belcher

Photos by Janet Landrum, courtesy of House of Blues Sunset

Additional Speaker Information

Phil Sandhaus has 25 years of experience as a Brand Marketer, Record Executive, Artist Manager, and Producer, with expertise, domestically and internationally in strategic planning, business development and traditional and innovative, non-traditional marketing. He has been involved in the marketing and development of influential and successful artists, including The Beatles, Aerosmith, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Garth Brooks, the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra. Prior management positions include Head of Strategic Marketing and Product Development for the EMI-Capitol Group Entertainment Properties Division, overseeing projects such as The Beatles Anthology and Sinatra Duets II, as well as senior marketing positions at Capitol Records and Columbia Records. Mr. Sandhaus was Creative Manager for David Bowie, responsible for all of his music, film and theatre affairs, worldwide, including The Glass Spider Tour. He served as Executive Producer of “M. Butterfly”, the feature film version of the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, produced by The Geffen Company/Warner Bros. Pictures; and Executive Vice President, Tribeca Music, Robert De Niro’s soundtrack label distributed by Sony Music. He was a senior consultant on the worldwide album management of The Rolling Stones – Forty Licks CD release on Virgin/EMI, and most recently developed the Spice Girls/Victoria’s Secret cross-promotion. Mr. Sandhaus is currently a Managing Partner with Membrain LLC, an entertainment brand marketing company and is currently consulting for Capitol – EMI and Apple Corps on the upcoming Beatles re-mastered catalog reissues, MTV Rock Band video game release and ABC-TV Special.

Michelle Belcher heads the Film & TV department for Primary Wave and facilitates new business development and marketing strategies as GM for the company's west coast operations. She has over 15 years experience having started in the world of soundtrack production with Morgan Creek, Columbia Records and Arista Records, where she worked on successful albums including The Last Of The Mohicans, Bad Boys, and The Preachers Wife. She then moved on to BMG Music Publishing where she pitched, placed and closed deals for the likes of Coldplay, The Who and Christina Aguilera, among many others. She is a member of NARAS, the AIMP and the CCC and routinely speaks on industry panels and also guest speaks at UCLA Music Extension classes.

Jarrett Mason's career has spanned many sides of the music for branding business. He began as a production assistant at Sacred Noise New York, one of advertising's oldest commercial music houses, then known as 'jingle houses'. There he learned the unique art of storytelling through original and customized music for the 30-second TV commercial. From Sacred Noise he was hired as Music Director at JWT Advertising where he oversaw the musical creative for clients such as Quest, Thermasilk, DeBeers Diamonds and Merrill Lynch. Later as Music Director at Publicis New York, through clients like Heineken, BMW and Garnier Fructis, Jarrett witnessed the ushering out of the Jingle and the ushering in of licensed pop songs and direct participation from artists and musicians - an area once seen as taboo. Now as a publisher, having spent the last 5 years at EMI Music Publishing and now SonyATV, Jarrett has found the relationship between musician and brand client expand even wider to include a myriad of partnerships and services, both traditional and also 'virtual'. As the recorded music industry continues to decline he feels publishers now have one of the most important roles in our business today.

With a decade of entertainment and marketing experience, Ronit Mevorach brings a unique perspective having worked in the music industry and also on the agency side of the business. After working in almost every aspect of the music business - from management and tour marketing to stints at record labels and recording studios - Ronit is now responsible for running music strategy and developing fully integrated music programs for major brands. As an integral member of Davie Brown’s music team, Ronit has managed award-winning music programs for clients like AT&T and Doritos. Ronit joined Davie Brown from SS+K, an integrated marketing agency partially owned by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where she managed branding and strategy efforts for clients like msnbc.com, UCLA and Revver. Her work with msnbc.com won several awards for its groundbreaking “Newsbreaker Live” program which introduced a new form of branded entertainment: crowd gaming. Before joining SS+K Ronit passionately followed her pursuit to learn all areas of the music business; gaining valuable experience from Azoffmusic (now Frontline Management), Miramax Films, Universal Music Group, DreamWorks Records, Grand Royal and The Magic Shop Recording Studio.