Co-founded in 2025 as a multi-platform production company to surface music’s collective power for change.
Led by music industry veterans Sean Adams and Tom Venvell, The Sounding combines three decades of experience scaling businesses, launching global campaigns, and driving creative innovation.
Our co-founders
Co-Founder & Creative Director
Sean Adams
Sean founded music publication, community and podcast Drowned in Sound in 2000 and ran its record label helping launch artists including Kaiser Chiefs and Bat for Lashes. Since then he's led communications and growth campaigns for artists including Charlotte Church and Max Richter and brands from Burberry to BMG. He transformed BBC Radio 6 Music’s social strategy and collaborated with Carol Vorderman on an election-shifting campaign. He founded The Association of Music Editors and is co-host of the DiS Podcast.
Co-Founder & COO
Tom Venvell
Tom brings 15+ years of business leadership as former International Director at digital music tech leader Muse Group, and a Managing Director of Hal Leonard, the world's largest printed music publisher and distributor, where he also ran the independent retail chain Musicroom. Previously a director at the Music Publishers Association, he currently sits on the board of the Music Industries Association and works as a strategy consultant to businesses across music publishing, music education and the charity sector.
The team
Head of Partnerships
Salli Greaves
Salli has worked in partnerships for 16 years, across fashion, tech, music and film. She's grown a magazine to 6 million readers and built her career around social impact, backing the artists, causes and communities that don't always get a seat at the table. She's also co-founder of Cactus City UK, set up to create safe spaces and equal opportunities for women in the music industry.
Georgia is an ARIA Award-winning musician, broadcaster and podcast producer with 15 years' experience across music, media and digital storytelling. She co-hosts, produces and edits Fwends, the comedy-interview podcast named one of Apple Podcasts' (Australia & New Zealand) 10 Best of 2025, and previously produced My Favorite Album, with guests including Phoebe Bridgers, Bob Odenkirk and Fred Armisen. Georgia has led social and digital campaigns for her solo work, ARIA-winning band All Our Exes Live in Texas, and her live music series SUPERGROUP, and worked as a broadcaster for Double J and ABC Radio.
Raissa is a designer working across type, colour and shape, with a practice that extends into exhibitions, festivals and talks. Her client list includes Apple, Nike, MTV, Gucci, and The New York Times, alongside artists such as The Rolling Stones, Blur, Kneecap, and Måneskin. She works closely with charities such as Brian Eno's EarthPercent, Endometriosis UK and Rape Crisis, and mentors through LCC and the Working Class Creatives Database. An international speaker (TEDx, Adobe Live, UAL), Raissa’s work sits in the V&A's permanent archive, and she's been named in recent Patreon and She Said So Top 100 lists.
Hannah is an award-winning writer and editor covering music, culture and spirituality. A former senior journalist at Rolling Stone, VICE and The Independent, she specialises in profile interviews. She has been widely published in the Guardian, GQ, Vogue, Sunday Times, Empire, i-D, Kerrang!, Crack and more. Her critically acclaimed debut non-fiction book, Fangirls: Scenes From Modern Music Culture, was a Financial Times and Pitchfork book of the year and she also publishes the spirituality newsletter Heaven Sent. Hannah holds an MA in Journalism from City, University of London and an MFA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck.
Arusa is a writer, editor and music programmer based in Edinburgh. Formerly Editor of both Fest Magazine and The List, she now writes mainly on arts and culture. Her first book, Flip the Script - about women in UK hip hop - was published by 404 Ink, and her writing has appeared in The Scotsman, The Guardian, Time Out, The Quietus, NME and more. She sits on the boards of the Music Venue Trust and Hen Hoose, and co-curates the award-winning Amplifi series at Edinburgh's Queens Hall.
Kate is a music journalist and editor who works across both print and digital as well as in event spaces. She is the editor-in-chief of print music magazine Negativland and was the lead writer for The Bristol Gig Guide. She has written for Clash and LOVE Magazine.
Staff Writer
Emma Wilkes
Drowned In Sound's resident newsletter gremlin and festival freak joined the team in August 2025, after leading a DiSpatch podcast episode on her first Glastonbury that same summer. Emma writes regularly for Kerrang!, with bylines also in NME, Alternative Press, Revolver, DIY, The Guardian and Guitar.com. Emma covers rock, metal and alternative music and culture, along with grassroots music and the fight to keep independent venues alive. Her debut book, Queens Of Rock, is out in 2027.
Network collaborators
Host of Sounds Like Change
Ariana Alexander-Sefre
Ariana is a social innovator and systems thinker at the intersection of music, mental health, and social change. She is the Founder of SPOKE, a multi-award-winning platform that delivers mental healthcare through music and lyrics. She is a winner of the SXSW Innovation Award 2024, East London Innovator Award 2020, WISE100 Woman Award 2022, NatWest Trailblazer Award 2023 and more.
Catherine is an artist, producer and industry advocate working at the intersection of music, motherhood and systemic change. Recording as The Anchoress, she has released three critically acclaimed albums, including UK Top 40 record The Art of Losing, and is a three-times nominee of Music Producers Guild Awards. A published author, she is Professor of Music Production & Songwriting at ICMP and Senator of the Ivors Academy.
Helena Wadia is a multimedia journalist and award-winning presenter working across print, video, and audio. She was a longtime news anchor on London Live's News at Six and regularly presents NME magazine's In Conversation series. She has worked for the Evening Standard, Channel 5 News, BBC Asian Network, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit, and more. Helena specialises in feminism, race issues, and social justice.
Shain is one of the world's foremost music policy thinkers - the founder of economics consultancy Sound Diplomacy and the non-profit Center for Music Ecosystems, author of the acclaimed book This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, and director of the Music Economy Development Initiative. Named one of the Top 25 people to watch in the music industry by Spin Magazine in 2025.
