When musicians collaborate...keeping music as the focus.

Soon after I joined Burberry , Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey chose an emerging musician to front a seasonal ad campaign.

I mentioned to Christopher that this afforded us the opportunity to help establish the singers music career rather than just set him up as a.n.other model.

Christopher enthusiastically allowed me to partner with the singer (called Roo Panes) to explore using this opportunity to develop his music career and create a unique soundtrack for the campaign.

We had recently introduced another emerging singer, Marika Hackman, to her first manager & record label and understood our unique position in being able to positively support partner musicians to establish careers.

Roo and I discussed his ambitions and dreams. We explored his music to find a song to soundtrack the campaign and he agreed that I would set up a record label with all costs covered by Burberry and all revenue going directly to Roo, as we wanted the music focus to be solely on him.

Roo was a staunchly independent artist, but agreed that he might benefit from having a manager as a business partner.

I set up meetings with some of the best independent managers who represented artists such as Radiohead and Amy Winehouse.

Raye Cosbert and Roo immediately clicked with Raye showing a clear understanding of what Roo was looking to achieve and they went on to work together for many years, alongside the brilliant Selena Dion .

I took Roo in to RAK Studios with producer Rupert Coulson , who I had recently met when recording a track for a fashion show with the singer Rae Morris. Cellist Amy Langley wrote and recorded a beautiful strings part as a quartet with her sisters.

The campaign launched with global media attention and with ‘musician’ Roo Panes at its heart. We released the song on the same day and put out a Burberry Acoustic performance film.

Roo performed all over the world at Burberry events, all the time growing his music audience through being a Christopher Bailey/Burberry-championed musician.

While his dalliance with fashion has long since passed, Roo has continued to tour and release new music and established a really healthy music career. His music continues to be streamed 750,000+ times a month on Spotify.

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?? I spent 7 years leading music at Burberry and now consult creative and marketing leaders on stitching music into their brands.

?? DMs are open if you would like to discuss a project with me ??

www.LSTNR.co