Get to know us

Richard Kirstein – Founding Partner

Richard is the author of Music Rights Without Fights, a sought-after conference speaker and music rights expert. His 30 year career spans performance, composition, music publishing, advertising and independent consulting. He served as Head of Film, TV & Media at Zomba Music Publishers during a period of rapid growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. In this role Richard oversaw a tenfold increase in sync licensing income and brokered publishing administration deals with broadcasters and production companies. In 2003, Richard established & ran Leap Music, a JV with ad agency BBH. Leap built a catalogue of original scores and brokered over a thousand sync deals for global advertisers.

In 2010, Richard established Resilient Music LLP as an independent consultancy to help brands buy music smarter. Resilient serves advertisers in luxury, fashion, alcoholic beverage, automotive and financial services sectors.

In 2017 Richard was invited to join Advertising Production Resources (APR) for whom he consults in a non-exclusive role as their music rights specialist. In 2020, Richard produced a second edition of Music Rights Without Fights for US advertisers in conjunction with APR.

Jemma Skidmore – Creative & Licensing Consultant

After graduating from Music Industry Management degree in 2004, Jemma joined Kobalt Music Publishing where she pitched and licensed songs by acts including Eminem, Gwen Stefani, Guns N Roses, Max Martin & Ryan Tedder. In 2010 Jemma moved to PIAS as Sync and Brand Manager, running a new division to secure sync deals and brand partnerships for indie label clients.

Following PIAS, Jemma expanded into Music Supervision as Head of Music Buying for Cord at McCann Erickson. In this role she was responsible for all music supervision for client campaigns.

In 2012, Jemma established her own consultancy, providing creative and licensing services to agencies and brands. She also represents a select group of artists.

In 2018, Jemma joined the Resilient team as a freelance creative and licensing consultant.

Sharen Norden – Licensing & Business Affairs Consultant

Sharen Norden boasts over 25 years in the music industry, starting as a PA and marketing coordinator at Sony Music Entertainment’s Epic and Columbia labels.

She later established and managed the acclaimed Bedrock Records, winning the ‘Best Label’ Award at the DanceStar Awards in 2002.

Transitioning to artist management, she co-founded her own management company before joining The Weird and the Wonderful Management in 2015, co-managing KDA who achieved a #1 platinum hit record.

In 2017, she founded 15 Step Management, representing artists like Lxury, Luciano, and Sarah Ruba. Additionally, she serves as a Senior Music Consultant for various sync agencies and rights owners, offering expertise in music licensing and business affairs.

Sharen holds a Masters degree in Entertainment Law and joined the Resilient Music team in 2023.

Joanna McNally – Licensing & Business Affairs Consultant

Joanna has over 16 years’ experience working in the music industry, working for PRS for Music, Microsoft, Spotify, DICE and Universal Music Group.

Joanna has extensive digital music licensing experience representing music rights holders and digital service providers, ensuring all necessary rights are licensed fairly for different music services.

Joanna launched her own consultancy to help companies understand the value of music, advise on digital strategy and assist with all licensing obligations.

Joanna joined Resilient Music in 2023 as a Licensing and Business Affairs consultant to assist Resilient’s brand clients in brokering music rights for use in marketing campaigns.