Music Business 101 for Artists

Imogen Heap is a Grammy-winning English singer, songwriter, producer and technologist whose influence runs through two decades of pop, electronic and film music — and through much of the technology modern artists now take for granted.

Born in London in 1977 and classically trained on piano, cello and clarinet, she released her debut album 'iMegaphone' in 1998 before forming the duo Frou Frou with producer Guy Sigsworth, whose song 'Let Go' reached a global audience through the film Garden State. Her self-written, self-produced album 'Speak for Yourself' (2005) delivered 'Hide and Seek', the a cappella landmark that later powered Jason Derulo's chart-topping 'Whatcha Say' and Ariana Grande's 'Goodnight n Go', and continues to find new generations of listeners.

'Ellipse' (2009) won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical — recorded and engineered in her own home studio — and she went on to co-write and produce 'Clean' on Taylor Swift's Album of the Year-winning '1989'. She also composed the score for the stage play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'.

A relentless innovator, Heap developed the MI.MU gestural gloves — recognised with three honorary doctorates — and founded Mycelia and The Creative Passport, initiatives building a fairer data ecosystem for artists. In 2024 she returned with 'What Have You Done to Me?', created with her AI vocal alter ego Mogen, while a viral resurgence of 'Headlock' brought her music to millions of new fans.

Ed O'Brien is the guitarist and backing vocalist of Radiohead — one of the most influential bands in modern music — and a founding director of the Featured Artists Coalition, the UK body that champions the rights of recording artists.

Born in Oxford in 1968, he formed the band that would become Radiohead with his schoolmates in 1985. Across nine studio albums, from 'The Bends' and the epochal 'OK Computer' to the electronic reinventions of 'Kid A' and beyond, O'Brien's atmospheric, textural guitar work became a cornerstone of the band's sound — favouring colour, space and effects over conventional riffing. Radiohead have sold tens of millions of records and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, and Fender honoured his sonic signature with the EOB Sustainer Stratocaster.

In 2020 he stepped out on his own with 'Earth', recorded as EOB with producer Flood — a debut shaped by his time living in Brazil, weaving folk, electronica and indie rock into widescreen songs. Following Radiohead's 2025 European tour, their first live shows in seven years, he released his second solo album, 'Blue Morpho' (2026), under his own name.

Away from the stage, O'Brien has long been one of music's most active advocates for artists: he helped launch the Featured Artists Coalition in 2009 and remains a prominent voice on fair pay, artists' rights and the realities of building a sustainable career in music.