On The Road: Stacey Tang & Hari Ashurst-Venn join Beyond The Music 2026 in Manchester
On the Road is a series spotlighting Sony Music UK’s people speaking at industry events across the UK and beyond.
Earlier this month, Stacey Tang, Co-President of RCA Records UK and Chair of the BRIT Awards Committee, and Hari Ashurst-Venn, Senior Director of Digital & New Tech at Sony Music UK, joined industry leaders at Beyond The Music in Manchester.
In a keynote conversation with music journalist Mark Sutherland, Stacey discussed the BRIT Awards’ move to Manchester earlier this year, the importance of creative communities across the UK and the role labels play in building long-term artist careers.
Stacey said that creativity doesn’t happen in just
Stacey said that “creativity doesn’t happen in just one postcode”, highlighting the infrastructure of songwriters, producers, promoters, managers and venues needed to support artists nationally and internationally. She also described the role of a label as a “long-term creative partner”, bringing experience, resilience and commitment to artist development.
Turning to the realities of breaking new talent, Stacey reflected on an increasingly crowded music landscape and the longer journey artists can now face in establishing themselves. Against that backdrop, she emphasised the continued importance of patience and human judgement, alongside the wealth of data available to labels when making decisions.
“The role of conviction and the role of making bets, not just measuring bets, are really important.”
For Stacey, that conviction goes hand in hand with a willingness to stand behind creative decisions and give artists the time and support needed to develop for the long term.
Elsewhere at the conference, Hari joined a panel
Elsewhere at the conference, Hari joined a panel exploring music discovery among younger audiences. He spoke about the importance of understanding what audiences want from music, where they spend their time online and how partnerships and experiences can create meaningful opportunities for music to reach them. The discussion also explored how discovery is changing as younger audiences encounter music across an increasingly broad range of platforms, and the importance of meeting fans in the spaces they already use.
The panel also discussed BBC Introducing’s role in supporting emerging talent, the growing independence of Generation Alpha as listeners and the importance of artist storytelling. Hari highlighted the opportunity for platforms and media to help younger audiences understand who artists are and connect more deeply with their music, , rather than discovery beginning and ending with an individual track. Creating that wider context around an artist can help turn initial discovery into a more meaningful, long-term connection.
Across their sessions, Stacey and Hari explored different parts of today’s music landscape, from the BRIT Awards’ move to Manchester and the conviction and long-term thinking needed to develop artists, to the changing ways new audiences discover music and build deeper connections with the artists behind it.
