A long time veteran of the music business, Michelle Bayer is an executive who knows how to get things done from both the artists’ and management side of the table. Her diverse experience includes record labels, publishers, and artist management. Prior to opening the doors of Shelly Bay Music, Michelle held the position of Vice President, Creative Business Development and Music Publishing at Tommy Boy Music. Shelly Bay Music provides music consulting, music placement, music publishing and royalty administration.
As VP of Creative Business Development at Tommy Boy, Michelle developed a TV/Film/Soundtrack department into a major revenue generator for the label ($3.8 million in just 36 months), giving new artists exposure in non-traditional formats when it was tough to get radio play.
As VP of Music Publishing, Michelle oversaw publishing activities for all writers signed to Tommy Boy. During this time she also developed the company’s B2B website, copyright and royalty systems and negotiated licensing deals for sampling, mechanicals, and synchronization. She also implemented the use of the Right Track System as their main royalty system for the publishing.
Prior to Tommy Boy Michelle was the Manager of Tracking at EMI Music Publishing.
She was a liaison between the Copyright, Royalties and International Departments. She also dealt with Mechanical Rights and Performing Rights societies to secure proper licenses and payments for their enormous catalog of songs.
Prior to EMI, she worked with Peter Leak at The New York End Ltd managing artists such as 10,000 Maniacs, The Waterboys and Cowboy Junkies. She liaised between the artists and the publicity/promotion/marketing departments at their labels and she coordinated their touring and travel.
During her early days in the music industry, Michelle worked with the legendary
John Hammond (who discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan among others) in A&R; with CBS Records in A/C Promotions; and at ASCAP in the membership department, learning the workings of a U.S. Performance Society. Finally, her experience as a Runner at Media Sound Recording and face-to-face with the consumer at retail managing a Record Town chain store, has given Michelle an extremely well-rounded education about the ins and outs of the music business.
She has a BA in Management of Music Enterprises and continuing passion for music and entertainment.