Essie Holt signs with UNIFIED Artist Management, Ashleigh Hills promoted

UNIFIED Music Group is bolstering its management activities with a new artist signing, a leadership appointment and a pair of artist management hires.

Announced today, rising indie-pop talent Essie Holt is the latest addition to the Melbourne company’s artist management roster, where her career will be guided by Eddie Deal (Trophy Eyes, John Floreani, CLEWS).

Joining the UNIFIED family was “a complete no-brainer,” Holt explains in a statement unveiling her new management arrangement.

Essie Holt, “Magnetise”

A Melbourne native, Holt’s young career is starting to flourish. Her 2018 singles “Magnetise” and “Better For You” were both added to spot rotation on triple and her new track “Give Me The Night,” released this week, scored a four-star review from Triple J’s Group Music Director Richard Kingsmill.

Holt will road-test her new material when she joins British folk-pop artist Nina Nesbitt as the main support on her Australian tour kicking off this month.

In related news, UNIFIED announced Ashleigh Hills’ promotion to co-run the Artist Management unit alongside Jaddan Comerford.

Hills started with UNIFIED in 2017 as Comerford’s assistant, and has had a “front row seat in watching the mechanics” of the independent music company in action, a statement reads. The promotion was announced Thursday, and effective in mid-2018.

“When discussing a management company the focus is usually on the artists,” Hill says in a statement. We are fortunate enough to work with incredible artists, but we’re also fortunate to work with incredible talent in our Artist Managers. It’s mine and Jaddan’s job to nurture this talent and to ensure there is enough support to continue to build on our internal network of Artist Managers and in turn, our current and future artist roster.”

Essie Holt, “Better For You”

Also, the Melbourne company welcomes veteran industry professionals Sarah McMillan and Lauren Poulter to its artist management team. McMillan’s experience includes stints with A Day on the Green, Premier Artists and more than a decade within the Mushroom Group, and she brings clients Slowly Slowly and Batpiss with her.

Lauren, founder of the Palmary music management business, brings Bloods into UNIFIED Artist Management and she rounds out team Vance Joy alongside Jaddan and Rachael Comerford. She’ll assist in managing the ARIA Award-winning singer-songwriter’s day-to-day and help build his global business.

The UNIFIED Artist Management Roster is now home to 28 artists, including The Amity Affliction, Illy, REMI and Tash Sultana (for the Americas).

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.