{"id":98916,"date":"2021-02-11T18:45:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T18:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?post_type=people&p=98916"},"modified":"2023-08-21T16:11:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T15:11:21","slug":"conrad-withey","status":"publish","type":"people","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/people\/conrad-withey\/","title":{"rendered":"Conrad Withey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conrad Withey is the CEO and co-founder of UK-based A&R platform Instrumental, the parent company to FRTYFVE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wihey launched the company in 2014, after stepping down as President of Warner Music Entertainment.<\/p>\n

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Conrad Withey: Early Career and time in film<\/h6>\n

Before joining the music industry, Conrad Withey worked at pharmacy retailer Boots UK and food company Kraft.<\/p>\n

Withey also spent time in the film industry, first joining Polygram Filmed Entertainment as Head of Acquisitions and A&R in 1996, followed by a stint from 1998 at Universal Pictures as Vice President, UPVP, and then moving to Momentum Pictures in 200 as Vice President, Home Entertainment.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Withey founded his own company, The Rights Company, a specialist DVD and digital production business that worked with talent including<\/p>\n

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Conrad Withey: Warner acquisition and Instrumental<\/h6>\n

Conrad Withey’s Rights Company was acquired by Warner Music Group in 2006<\/a>. The Rights Company was merged with Warner Vision to form Warner Music Entertainment, with Withey appointed President of the new company. While there he worked on projects including Hugh Laurie’s debut album.<\/p>\n

Withey left Warner in 2014 to found Instrumental.\u00a0In an MBW op-ed in 2018<\/a>, Withey said: “\u2018Data vs Gut\u2019 in A&R really isn\u2019t a binary choice. In the computerised world of 2018, the music industry truly does need both.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s time to welcome the machine into the creative process \u2013 not to replace your gut instinct, but, actually, to empower it.”<\/p>\n

Conrad Withey in 2018<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the end of 2018<\/a>, Instrumental announced the expansion of its artist services arm, frtyfve, which secured the UK Christmas No.1 with LadBaby’s sausage roll parody single We Built This City.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conrad Withey is an AI and A&R expert who has worked with the likes of Hugh Laurie and LadBaby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":86531,"template":"","class_list":["post-98916","people","type-people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people\/98916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/people"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people\/98916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}