SEAN ADAMS

Sean Adams has spent 25 years a few steps ahead of music’s zeitgeist. What he’s building now is his answer to what comes next.

25 Years of DiS
300K Podcast impressions/month
2–3M Forum pageviews/month
200K Social followers

“For any rock misfit searching for an alternative to the mainstream music press, immersion in Drowned in Sound is a must.”

The Times

Sean Adams

25 Years, Briefly

  1. 1998 Curation Reviews first demos by Muse and Coldplay
  2. 2000 Community Launches Drowned in Sound and its community forums, still gathering 26 years later
  3. 2003 Curation Releases debut singles by Kaiser Chiefs and Bat for Lashes on DiS Recordings
  4. 2005 Broadcast Starts one of the UK’s first music podcasts
  5. 2007 Curation Recommends a new artist called Adele after seeing her first gig
  6. 2008 Publishing The Quietus launches out of DiS’ joint venture with BSkyB
  7. 2012 Management Launches CCCLX, a 360° artist management company (the Roman numerals give it away)
  8. 2016 Broadcast Joins the BBC to work the new frontier of social video, at 6 Music and Radio 2
  9. 2019 Community DiS pauses publishing; the community doesn’t
  10. 2024 Campaign Runs strategic comms for a tactical voting campaign that reached 1.75 million people
  11. 2026 Broadcast Launches the DiS Podcast Network, doubling in six months

Current Projects

Music fans have more collective power than they realise, they just don’t have anywhere to point it yet. Everything below is the same work I’ve always done, curating and convening, just aimed at a bigger problem now.

Podcast Network

Drowned in Sound Podcast

Conversations about music, power, and what comes next, joined more recently by co-host Helena Wadia. Recent guests include Enter Shikari, Faithless, Kelly Lee Owens, Gazelle Twin, and Lord Kevin Brennan. 300,000 impressions/month, 50,000 downloads/year, +100% growth in the last six months. Sponsored by Qobuz.

Art School Girlfriend - DiS Podcast Kwes - DiS Podcast Girli - DiS Podcast

Who We Platform

A male-hosted podcast where 63% of our 93 guests are female or non-binary, more than double the industry average.

Drowned in Sound female & non-binary guests
63.4%
Industry average DiS is 2.3× this
27.2%

88% of our episodes feature at least one female or non-binary guest

Industry average: 37.4%. Growing year on year - 70% in 2025, 77% in early 2026.

DiS guest data (internal audit, 93 guests, 2015–2026) · USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Nov 2025

Drowned in Sound newsletter homepage

Newsletter

The DiS Newsletter

A weekly newsletter recommending music and investigating the systems behind it - to 8,000+ subscribers, with a 48% open rate (industry average: ~20%). Streaming economics, venue closures, gender equity, AI, and climate, alongside the music DiS was built on.

Learn More →
DiS community forums

Community

The DiS Community

The forums launched alongside the website in 2000, survived the hiatus, and still rack up 2–3 million pageviews a month. A quarter of a century old and still going.

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The Sounding social sharing card

Media & Consultancy

The Sounding (co-founded with Tom Venvell, 2025)

The independent media production company behind DiS, the DiS Podcast, and a growing network of shows. What started as a growth consultancy is now the house that makes the network run.

Learn More →

Founded 2025

Association of Music Editors

A collective voice for editors of music publications, podcasts and zines. Because the attention economy is eating music journalism alive, and someone has to say so.

Learn More →

Coming This Autumn

A Print Magazine For Live Music Fans

A quarterly print magazine made possible by funding support from Music Venue Trust, distributed free in grassroots venues across the UK. Working title still to be locked, more to come.

'Spotify Is Over! (If You Want It)' t-shirt from the #DisarmSpotify campaign

Campaign · 2025

Spotify Exodus Series

DiS’s investigative coverage of the #DisarmSpotify movement sparked a movement among artists and fans, generating 10 million+ campaign impressions.

Quote card: Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, backing the Music Fans Voice survey

Campaign

Music Fans Voice

A survey engaging 8,000 participants that helped drive the UK government to launch a fan-led review of live music.

Learn More →

Watch

Video production is its own skill set, separate from the podcast itself, and I edit and produce nearly all of these myself.

Sounds Like Change: “What’s Broken Collectively Can Be Fixed Collectively”

Kelly Lee Owens: Record Shops to Depeche Mode Stadium Shows

My current music obsession: Sofia Isella

A food bank for tickets: how Tickets for Good is changing live music

More on YouTube →

More on YouTube →

Music is upstream from politics.

Why Music Matters

Sean Adams in his home studio, pointing at his t-shirt which reads 'Another World Is Possible'
Not a slogan. A t-shirt from Music Declares Emergency’s shop, and the whole argument in four words.

I used to think DiS was a music site that occasionally got political. I don’t think that anymore.

Andrew Breitbart built a media empire on the idea that politics is downstream from culture, and the far right spent two decades proving him right while most of the media treated culture as the entertainment pages. I want to flip that around: culture, and the millions of working people who make and love it, are upstream of the 3000 billionaires now trying to own it.

Corporate power has consolidated across the music industry in ways most fans never see. The same private equity funds buying up festivals are invested in fossil fuel. Spotify’s Daniel Ek has poured money into the military AI company Helsing. Deezer’s Len Blavatnik, who also holds a large stake in Warner Music, is under Ukrainian sanctions while backing Netanyahu.

Music fans have more collective power than they realise, they just don’t have anywhere to point it yet. Everything I’ve built, the records, the grassroots shows, the tactical voting campaigns, has been an attempt to build that somewhere. The newsletter, podcast, and forthcoming magazine is the current version of that vision.

Read

Predictably, the right-wing culture war is wrong about the BRITs Read →
Nine Inch Nails still sound like the future Read →
The internet is furious at Spotify, and not because of royalties this time Read →
Decoding Hayley Williams' 17-song masterpiece Read →

Press & Interviews

Artist Management

Catherine Anne Davies (The Anchoress)

Catherine Anne Davies

The Anchoress

theanchoress.co.uk →
2 Studio Albums
20K+ Physical Sales
UK #31 The Art of Losing
83/100 Metacritic Score

Critical Acclaim

  • PROG Magazine Album of the Year
  • Sunday Times Best Albums of 2021
  • HMV Welsh Album of the Year
  • MPG Self-Producing Artist Nominee (2022, 2023)

Collaborated With

Bernard Butler Simple Minds Manic Street Preachers James Dean Bradfield Band Spectre Riz MC

Notable Admirers

“One of the best albums of the year.”

— Elton John, Rocket Hour

“Wales’s much more explicitly feminist answer to Lana Del Rey.”

— Ann Powers, NPR

Managing campaign strategy, release coordination, and industry positioning for The Anchoress’ forthcoming third album.

Work With Me

Book a Talk Partnership Enquiry

Speaking & masterclasses

I speak about music, power, platform ethics, and the future of independent culture. Past talks at SXSW, Iceland Airwaves, Primavera Pro, Tallinn Music Week, and Tony Wilson’s In The City. I also run masterclasses at BIMM, EEMA, and ICMP, available to book for music industry education programmes.

Book a talk or masterclass

Podcast guest

I’ve been hosting and making podcasts since 2005. I can talk about music journalism, streaming & creator economics, climate justice, independent culture, platform ethics, broligarchy, tactical voting, and the politics of music fandom.

Get in touch

Media & Consultancy (The Sounding)

Content strategy, campaigns, and media production for purpose-driven organisations in music and beyond. Co-run with Tom Venvell.

Visit The Sounding

DiS partnership

8,000+ newsletter subscribers. 48% open rate (industry average: ~20%). 300K podcast impressions/month. An audience that actually cares - about music, ethics, and what comes next.

Talk to us

A Quarter Century

25 years. 5 eras. From email fanzine to podcast network, via record label, festival stages, artist management, BBC Radio 6 Music, and a tactical voting campaign that reached 1.75 million people.

Releases

DiS Recordings (2003–present), CCCLX Music, and The Anchoress’ imprint Hiraeth Records. Debut releases by Kaiser Chiefs, Bat for Lashes, Martha Wainwright, Metric, Brett Anderson, Ed Harcourt, and The Anchoress.

Beyond Music

Recognition

As seen in & worked with

BBC Radio 6 Music The Sunday Times The Observer Huck Magazine Qobuz Music Venue Trust StopTheTories UN Human Rights

“Better a spectacular failure than a benign success.”

Malcolm McLaren