- Salt + Sass hear from an industry insider who's always ahead of the curve.
- As a longtime behind-the-scenes music industry figure, Liz Miller experienced a conspicuous period of overground exposure a few years ago. In 2012, as nouveau dubstep artist Skrillex collected a trifecta of Grammy Awards for his polarising breakthrough album Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, he name-checked Miller—then the head of the record label he was signed to, Big Beat—in his winning speech. In the wake of that album's success and the popularity of fellow Big Beat signees Icona Pop and Chromeo, Miller became a regular fixture in music industry ranking lists of EDM's power players.
Despite the brush with the mainstream, Miller's four-year tenure at the label was just one chapter in a career consistently marked by an instinct for early adoption. The Colorado native left her record store job to join fledgling local company Beatport in the early 2000s, and she was quickly dispatched to Berlin to evangelise for the potential of digital music distribution to reluctant record label owners. She also worked as an independent marketing consultant with the likes of Richie Hawtin's Minus roster as they bridged the gap between underground mainstay and identifiable brand.
Now Miller is spearheading another new venture, managing the Talent and Content divisions of Dubset, a start-up initiative that is wading into the tricky, tangled world of publishing rights for unlicensed remixes and DJ mixes. Miller discussed some of her highlights—and lowlights—with Christine Kakaire for the second instalment of Resident Advisor's partnership with the Berlin-based initiative Salt + Sass, a series of public talks with women in the music industry.
Find out about the next Salt + Sass talk on their website.
TracklistRichie Hawtin - (R)Edit #1 (Freek'd)
Theorem vs Stewart Walker - Dive