Phil Nelson is an artist manager and music business educator. He has worked as an artist manager since 1998. Current clients include Matt Hales, Duke Special and Sweet Billy Pilgrim.
Previous clients include The Longpigs and The Levellers, the latter of whom pioneered the direct-to-fan approach that is now industry standard and worked with Phil to launch their own 15,000 capacity festival Beautiful Days, which continues to this day.
Phil is also an experienced educator, currently teaching music business at BIMM. Since 2017 he has been working with CMU on mapping music careers, music industries and music education, research work that resulted in the creation of the Pathways Into Music Foundation.
Throughout his career, Phil has played an active role in the wider music industry. He was Vice Chair of the Music Managers’ Forum from 1997 to 2007 and he co-founded The Great Escape showcase festival with Martin Elbourne and Jon McIldowie. He’s also led a number of initiatives for BIMM helping students to connect with and gain practical experience in the music industry.
