Music Leaders Gather in London at Exclusive Dinner Hosted by Luminate, Music Business Worldwide

An impressive assortment of top music executives from the U.K. and around the world — plus one Grammy winning artist — came together in London last week for an exclusive cocktail reception and dinner hosted by Luminate and Music Business Worldwide.

The Music Leaders Dinner, SWXS London Edition — held June 5 during the inaugural U.K. offshoot of the famed Austin conference — saw around 60 execs and entrepreneurs from the music biz gather at Little House Mayfair, Soho House’s more intimate London offering.

Hosted by Luminate CEO Rob Jonas and Music Business Worldwide founder and publisher Tim Ingham, the event — described as the most meaningful industry gathering since before the pandemic — brought together leaders from labels such as Recognition/Hipgnosis, Goldstate, Amuse, Mixcloud, Epidemic Sound, Pophouse, UMPG, Believe, AWAL, UMG UK, Sony Music Publishing, Believe, Beggars Group and more. Meanwhile, industry heavyweights such as Max Lousada and Merck Mercuriadis, plus artist managers behind Adele, Arctic Monkeys and The 1975 and finance leaders such as Raine Group attended, as did even Grammy-winning musician James Blake.

Alongside the chance to chat with their industry friends and peers, guests enjoyed a three-course menu that included sea bass, beef carpaccio, cauliflower quinoa, dry age sirloin, chalk stream trout and sticky toffee pudding, plus Thienot Brut champagne and Soho House’s signature Picante cocktail.

The first London dinner of its kind took place amid a period of international growth for Luminate, the entertainment data and analytics company that works across the music, film and TV industries and powers the Billboard music charts. Its country-level engagement date has been broadened to now cover some 60 international markets, while it recently partnered with South Korea’s KreatorsNetwork to help support K-pop labels in their global expansion efforts.

The inaugural SXSW London closed on Saturday after five days of panels, talks, shows and more. Among the musicians to perform were the likes of Tems and Mabel, while the legendary Abbey Road curated a series of live shows and conversations, including an on-stage Q&A with Chic legend Nile Rodgers.

Variety parent company PMC owns the SXSW franchise and Luminate.