Creative agency North Inc. has hired Dave Allen, formerly of Apple Music, as director of artist and music industry advocacy.
Allen comes to North after a long career in music, beginning as bassist for the post-punk band Gang of Four and culminating as a digital music visionary at eMusic.com, Intel and as of late, Apple Music where he spearheaded partnerships with artists and their managers as a member of the artist relations team. This is Allen’s second stint with North; he was previously a digital strategy director in 2010. In his new role at North, he will pioneer a forthcoming music venture and collaborate with artists and their managers to help them seek new revenue streams in the constantly shifting music business.
“I’ve spent more than two decades working in both the music and tech industry, and I want to use what I’ve learned to level the playing field for musicians by creating revenue streams that go directly to the artist,” Allen said. “I want brands to license music directly from artists that are as authentic as their brand.”
North has been built around music since its inception—in fact, CCO Mark Ray and managing director Rebecca Armstrong bonded at their first meeting over a Radiohead song they were both listening to at the same time. Ray was the force behind independent label Undertow Music, which worked with artists such as Jay Bennett of Wilco, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
“It made perfect sense to collaborate with Dave on our vision of bringing bands and brands together in a new context. Our ambition is to develop, with integrity and soul, new revenue models between artists and brands,” Ray said. “Dave, like North, has music in his DNA.”
A Nomination Tradition: DGA Award, Best Director Oscar Discrepancy Continues
The awards season norm has seen the nearly annual occurrence of at least one difference between the lineups of Best Director Oscar and the DGA Award nominees. In only five of the  77 years of the DGA Awards have the Guild nominations exactly mirrored their Academy Award counterparts. This time around Edward Berger and Coralie Fargeat are in line with the predominant history. Fargeat earned a Best Director Oscar nomination this week for The Substance (MUBI). Berger, who didn’t make the directorial Oscar cut, earned a DGA Award nomination for Conclave (Focus Features). Four of the five directors vying for the DGA Award and the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Oscar are in sync this year: Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez (Netflix) Sean Baker for Anora (Neon), Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (A24), and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown (Searchlight). On the flip side of tradition, if Fargeat were to win the directing Oscar, that development wouldn’t be aligned with but rather bucking history. Only eight times has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened most recently in 2020 when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for 1917 while Bong Joon-ho scored the Oscar for Parasite. Fargeat has already made a bit of history, scoring just the 10th Best Director Oscar nomination ever for a woman. The Substance is up for five Oscars--the other nominations being for Best Picture, Leading Actress (Demi Moore), Original Screenplay (Fargeat), and Makeup & Hairstyling (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stephanie Guillon, Marilyne Scarselli). Even without a Best Director nomination, Conclave tallied eight Oscar nods--for Best Picture, Leading Actor (Ralph... Read More