Amazon Music U.K. is opening 2025 by pointing users to some of the most intriguing new acts on the horizon, via its Artists to Watch series.

This year’s crop includes Good Neighbours, who earned a platinum cert in the U.S. last year for their Capitol single, "Home," Bea and her Business, Jordan Adetunji, Luvcat, Nieve Ella, nimino, Sammy Virji, Sasha Keable, SNAYX and Victor Ray.

As part of the initiative, each artist will receive support from Amazon Music over the next year, including editorial and social media promotion across Amazon Music channels.

Reacting to the honor, Uganda-born, Newcastle-raised singer-songwriter Victor Ray said, “I used to spend hours singing in front of Amazon's artists to watch billboards, so to be a part of this year's list is genuinely crazy,”

Bea and Her Business, also known as Bea Wheeler, said “Huge love to Amazon Music. I am so very honoured to have been chosen as one of their ‘Ones To Watch’!!! The pressure is on baby! Bring on 2025 and lots of new music!”

Laura Lukanz, head of music industry, Amazon Music U.K., said, “Curating our Artists to Watch program is always an exciting and rewarding process and this year has been no exception. It has never been more important for us to demonstrate our deep commitment to championing emerging UK Artists, both at home and internationally.”

You can sample Amazon Music U.K.'s Artists to Watch on this playlist.

Sony U.K.’s Jackie Hyde has been awarded an MBE for her services to music and charity in the King’s New Year Honors List. The recognition comes as Hyde marks an incredible 46 years at Sony Music.

“Receiving this recognition feels overwhelming and I never thought an honor such as this would be given to me,” Hyde said of her new title. “When I joined CBS Records/Sony Music back in 1979 I couldn’t have imagined that I would be in the industry 45 years later or that I would receive an MBE. It’s been an incredible and very happy career in the business, which I am very proud to be a part of, and a privilege to have worked with such brilliant artists, whom I so very much admire.”

Hyde, VP of Artist Relations, has worked with such artists as George Michael, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Celine Dion, Sade, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand, Bob Dylan and The Clash.

In other U.K. News, we have been strongly cautioned to stay on our side of the pond.

British singer-songwriter Sam Ryder has signed with management company mtheory and will release his second album in 2025.

Ryder, who was placed second in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022 while representing the U.K., released his debut album on Parlophone that year and hit #1 in the U.K. He’s had two #2 singles at home: Eurovision entry “Space Man” and “You’re Christmas To Me.”

Lewis Allen, who has been a key part of Ryder’s previous setup over the last few years, and Derek Gridley, will assist in the advancement of Ryder's career.

Next year, Ryder has multiple festivals booked and a tour in the pipeline.

Cameo Carlson, CEO of mtheory, added, “mtheory could not be more thrilled to partner up with Lewis Allen and Derek Gridley to help take Sam Ryder’s incredible talent to the next level. Sam embodies everything we believe in as a company: unmatched global talent, drive, and he’s a damn good person."

The number of festival cancellations in the U.K. continues to rise, with 72 events either postponing, being cancelled or announcing a complete closure in 2024—double the amount in 2023.

According to the Association of Independent Festivals, 204 U.K. festivals have disappeared since 2019, including 96 events lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After taking place in October, the 31-year-old Tenterden Folk Festival was among recent closures, with rising costs given for the decision to not continue in 2025.

Since the start of February, AIF has campaigned for a temporary lowering of VAT on festival tickets from 20% to 5%. It says a reduction of this kind would have saved most of the events that closed this year. However, intervention from the U.K. government has not yet materialized.

“This has been a devastating period for the U.K.’s festival organisers," AIF CEO John Rostron said. "We have campaigned tirelessly for targeted, temporary government intervention which, evidence shows, would have saved most of the independent events that have fallen in 2024. It is sad to see that this erosion has been allowed to continue under this government. We have great events, with great demand, and we’re doing all we can. They need to step up, and step up now.”

One under-recognized aspect of a music agency’s services is hooking up their clients with all manner of brand partnerships.

UTA’s Music Brand Partnerships group, headed by Toni Wallace, has been an industry leader in that category. The division, which Wallace says is by far the largest among its competitors, saw a 40% growth in revenue last year, thanks in part to high-profile deals starring Bad Bunny (Adidas, Pepsi, Jacquemus) and Cardi B (NYX Cosmetics, McDonald’s).

Meanwhile, in the company’s Nashville office, Emily Wright counts Rauw Alejandro, Brittney Spencer, Carin León, Megan Moroney, Midland and Tyler Hubbard among her clients, and as country music has expanded both its audience and its sound in the past year, Wright has been on the forefront of creating new opportunities for her artists.

We somehow managed to figure out how to use Zoom and spoke to Wallace and Wright about the explosive growth of their business, and why top-tier brands continue to ignore us.

Tell me about UTA’s Music Brand Partnership division. What does it do, and how many people work in it?

Toni Wallace: We started the group about eight years ago. It was just me and an assistant. Today, we’ve grown to a team of 23 people globally, in L.A., New York, Nashville and London. We’re actually three times larger than any of the other agencies in terms of our brand partnership groups.

The team is focused on building brand partnerships and strategies for our UTA roster of over a thousand musicians globally. Those could be endorsements, sponsorships, equity-based deals, licensing deals, the gamut.

We want to really understand what our clients are looking for in terms of brand partnerships. What are they really passionate about? Do they love fashion? If so, who are their favorite designers? So on and so forth. And the only way you can really know that is if you’re really close with them.

We want to build partnerships that last. If an artist has a 30-year career, we want them to work with that brand partner over and over again. And you really find that when there’s true love and passion for one another.

What’s a good example of that kind of true, simpatico connection between artist and brand?

Wallace: Bad Bunny and Adidas are a great example. When he signed with us, he really wanted to work with a footwear partner. He viewed the shoes that he wore as an important part of his lifestyle. And so we put together a partnership between him and Adidas. It’s not just a traditional endorsement, it’s actually a joint business. They’ve released a number of collaborations together. We just released an indoor Gazelle sneaker that is doing incredibly well.

Emily, tell me about what’s going on in Nashville these days. Must be exciting times, as country grows and broadens its audience.

Emily Wright: It’s great to see artists blending genres. It’s opening up new audiences. It’s great to see Kane Brown collaborating with a Regional Mexican musician like Carin León, or Beyoncé working with emerging artists like our client, Brittney Spencer. It’s growing the audience and reshaping the way people are thinking about country. I mean, even just last night, our client Machine Gun Kelly won two People’s Choice Country Awards for his projects in the country space. So it’s great to see new voices being welcomed.

And that expands into brand business as well. Recently we put Carin in a deal with Boot Barn alongside Miranda Lambert, Riley Green, Ian Munsick and Elle King. We think it puts him in the right positioning of where he wants to take this new genre that he’s spearheading.

Brittney Spencer wanted to be in mass fashion. We worked really intentionally with her publicist and her management team to help build her credibility in that category. Eventually, we put her in a Victoria’s Secret campaign. To this day, it’s the only time they’ve ever featured a country musician, let alone Black woman who represents extended sizing. It was a huge win and really created a lot of momentum for her.

Brands have always been a part of the country community, and country fans have always been fiercely loyal and such strong audiences. But what’s been fun to see is country grow beyond the standards of trucks, beer and boots. They’re always going to be an instrumental part of the genre. But now there are lot more brand categories —beauty, say, or athleisure—taking a more serious look at country.

Do you find that there are some genres of music in which artists are more amenable to striking brand deals?

Wallace: To be honest, no. Regardless of genre, everybody’s looking to partner with brands that make sense and are authentic to them. Those dollars are important to unlock and can help support a lot of different tours and endeavors, creative projects, music releases that need financing in new and interesting ways. And on the flip side, brands need new ways to reach audiences because younger consumers are just not watching television the the way they used to. The way we look at it, an artist’s Instagram or TikTok channel functions the same way that Cartoon Network or the Disney Channel do. That’s where audiences are going.

How did the Megan Moroney/Charlotte Tillbury deal come about?

Wright: Megan is very intentional with everything that she’s doing and she knows what’s going to make sense. And we’re very protective of how that needs to happen for her, particularly in the brand space, because she brings a lot of value into a relationship. Charlotte Tillbury is one of Megan’s favorite beauty brands, something she wears rather consistently. Anna Gregorek in our London office knew them pretty well, and when Megan was in London, she made the initial intro. Then we had their team come out and see Megan on the first headline show she did for the Lucky tour at Bowery Ballroom. Ultimately the timing was right and we were able to put together a partnership.

Wallace: We don’t view successful partnerships as transactions. We’re not just getting an offer, reviewing it and sending it to a client. It’s much deeper than that. We’re very thoughtful in having a point of view, what’s happening in the category, how does that dovetail into what the artist is doing, where they’re looking to go, how they’re looking to build. Does it make sense to do this right now? It really is a very deep and thoughtful strategic approach to every partnership and conversation.

Categories like soft drinks and fashion have long been traditional partners with artists. What’s a brand category that hasn’t traditionally worked with musicians where you think there’s room for growth?

Wallace: That’s a great question. If you’d asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said we hadn’t seen much innovation in the QSR (Quick-Service Restaurant) space. But we’ve recently seen some really innovative partnerships. I think one of the best is Post Malone and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. It’s one of his favorite foods. He’s had it on every set I’ve been on with him since 2016. Now they’ve built two restaurants together and Post co-designed those. We also put together the Cardi B-Offset partnership with McDonald’s, which was the first time McDonald’s had ever done a couple’s meal.

I also think there’s room for growth with financial services. They’ve always been part of tours and pre-sales, but there’s a lot of opportunities to think about: co-branded cards, special VIP access for fans in new and interesting ways. You’ve sort of seen that with the likes of Cash App. We did partnerships with them and Karol G and Lil Nas X.

Finally, I’d love to see hotels and airlines do more in music. A lot of those programs went away post-COVID. Artists fly everywhere, they stay in hotels when they’re on the road, they stay in Airbnbs. There’s a lot of opportunity there. A lot of those programs went away post-COVID.

Is there a non-UTA artist-brand partnership that you particularly admire?

Wallace: I loved the Chappell Roan-MAC partnership. I thought that was really organic, authentic, no-brainer, made complete sense. I thought it was very, very well done. I also think the Feid-Salomon partnership was incredible. He’s helped completely rejuvenate the popularity of that brand.

Wright: I like the Kacey Musgraves x Reformation collaboration. I thought it was an authentic pairing that showcased their shared values of sustainability, creativity and just being cool.