Jerome Williams (EBB Music, The Netherlands)
Agent & Co Owner @ EBB Music – Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Owner Amsterdam Music Service – management, career development and performance related matters.
Jerome started Earth Beat with 2 partners in 2002 after more than 10 years experience as sound engineer and tour manager with various artists touring around the world.
Earth Beat started out as an agency for “world music” in the Benelux countries and has gradually expanded into a company with a theatre division ( operating in Holland and Belgium until 2013 ) , an international agency and as a local promoter in the BeNeLux.
In 2022 Earth Beat and BLiP Agency decided to merge and become EBB music.
EBB Music is a booking and artist management agency specialised in forward thinking music from all over the world, representing the very best established artists and upcoming talents across genres such as, (afro) jazz, psychedelic pop and electronic music in all its forms and – especially – anything that crosses the borders between these styles. The extended expertise and network enables the newly found company to organise even more shows than in the past.
EBB Music was built on the realisation that in Europe, artists from the US and the UK were historically over represented, whilst incredible artists from other continents hardly ever played in Europe. It is part of EBB Music’s goal to change the world’s live music landscape by making it more diverse: by giving non-European artists a chance to build a career in Europe, but also the other way around; EBB Music has enabled many European artists to play shows and build their careers in overseas continents.
Internationalisation comes with responsibility. As a company EBB Music realises that where travel is involved, there is always the challenge to keep footprints at a minimum. Bringing the artists to their audience is a cleaner solution than the other way around, but the potential damage is considerable nevertheless. Therefore EBB Music and its artists always take the planet into account when planning tours. As part of UIMA we support the Green Rider to reduce the ecological footprint.
Jerome also works in artist management and is program advisor on Asian music. He has been a jury member for showcase festivals as APaMM, Womex and Jazz in Seoul. He also speaks at music conferences and gives lectures on music (management )related matters. In 2019/20 Jerome was a mentor in a EU initiative to train young world music managers.
In March 2020 Jerome co-founded United Independent Music Agencies (www.uima.org) to gather more support for the artists in the music industry during the covid pandemic and to look into ways to create a more sustainable ecosystem, in all her aspects, for artists and all involved in the music industry.
