London, England, United Kingdom
Chris Cooke is co-Founder and MD of CMU, a company that helps people navigate and understand the music business. It does this through media like the CMU Daily bulletin and Setlist podcast; a consultancy unit and training business; and a future talent programme. Via CMU, Chris writes, talks, teaches and consults about the music industry. He also wrote the acclaimed ‘Dissecting The Digital Dollar’ book and ‘Music Copyright Explained’ guide, and curated and hosted twelve editions of The Great Escape Conference. Chris also pursues other projects via UnLimited Media, through which he also publishes cultural recommendations service ThisWeek Culture and ThreeWeeks at the Edinburgh Festival; and helped to launch and develop the Taylor Bennett Foundation, which is enabling more ethnic diversity in the communications industry. With degrees in English and Law, Chris regularly talks about and comments on the music business, intellectual property, and the wider media and communication sectors.
UnLimited Media is a London-based company that champions and supports the music, culture, media and communications industries through journalism, research and training, educational initiatives, and live events. We co-founded and co-own CMU, helping people to navigate and understand the music business. We also co-founded and co-own ThisWeek Culture, championing the very best in fringe theatre, comedy and culture. We also co-founded the Pathways Into Music Foundation, which seeks to build connections between the music industry and music education. We also provide training and consultancy for music companies via CMU, and for culture, media and communication businesses. Our areas of expertise include copyright, content creation, audience building and digital technologies, as well as best practice and current trends in music, culture, media and communication.
Through a partnership between my company UnLimited and this innovative marketing partnerships consultancy, I worked as a freelance consultant and content director on a number of exciting projects, helping to develop and manage innovative music partnerships, providing music based promotions for the likes of the Evening Standard, Mail On Sunday, Daily Mirror and Virgin involving artists like Brian Wilson, Blondie, The Stranglers, Oasis, Kasabian, The Killers, Mylo and Moby.
Through a partnership between my company UnLimited and the entertainments division of the National Union Of Students, I led design and print projects for NUS Ents, including their own publicity and publications, plus the design and print elements of NUS Ents-managed student marketing programmes involving the likes of Orange, Sony PlayStation, Tiger Beer, Motorola, Trouble TV and Bass Brewers.
I worked with leading corporate communications expert Alison Rankin Frost, assisting her on communication consulting projects, in particular for the Post Office Group, and researching, co-writing and editing benchmark reports on best practice in communication and reputation management. Companies involved in those research projects include BBC, BT, BP, Capital Radio, Hewlett Packard, Natwest, Railtrack, Shandwick, Shell, Tesco, Whitbread, GE Financial, McDonalds and Swiss Re.