Opinium Hires Music Industry Economist for New Unit

London-based insights agency Opinium has hired music economist Chris Carey to lead its newly launched Music, Media and Entertainment division.

Opinium was founded in 2007, and also has offices in New York. The firm offers qual and quant research and consultancy across five practice areas - brand and communications, product and service development, stakeholder, market intelligence and thought leadership. It also owns and manages panels of UK consumers, IFAs and small businesses, and runs an omnibus which interviews 2000 UK adults in each wave. In December, Opinium received the Market Research Society's Agency of the Year Award.

The firm's new Music, Media and Entertainment division will focus on the changing relationships fans have with entertainment and creators, initially relating to live music and the recorded music industry, and then examining theatre, comedy and podcasts. Carey (pictured) joins after a long career in the music industry, including serving as Head of International Marketing at TicketSwap, Global Insight Director at Universal Music, Global Insight Director at EMI Music, and Senior Economist for PRS, as well as consulting roles with Spotify, Sony, The O2 and Hipgnosis. He also founded the FastForward music conference, held in London, Amsterdam and Sydney.

Alongside his new position, Carey will continue his part time role as Chief Economist for LIVE, the trade body representing the live music industry in the UK, and will continue as a mentor for music tech incubator Abbey Road Red. Opinium CEO James Endersby comments: 'After yet another year of strong growth Opinium is thrilled to be attracting the most ambitious new talent to support its existing and future clients in the music and entertainment space. Chris has a huge passion for the creative industries, I'm absolutely delighted he has chosen to join our agency, and I know our clients will feel the same'.

Web site: www.opinium.com .