ARTIST & CREATIVE PARTNER
Strategic Advisor to the Music and Creative World
Experienced Perspective | Trusted Sounding Board | Someone in your Corner
WORKING TOGETHER
An experienced voice around the table
when it matters most
WHEN THE WAY FORWARD FEELS UNCERTAIN, CLARITY CHANGES EVERYTHING
The music and creative industries are full of opportunity - and full of noise. Everyone has an opinion. Every decision can feel like it carries the weight of your future. Whether you're building an artistic career, launching a creative business, leading a project or standing at an important crossroads, it's easy to lose sight of what matters.
You don't need another expert telling you what to do. You need someone who's walked the path before you, who understands both the industry and the person navigating it - offering honest advice, an independent perspective, and practical guidance.
We work alongside artists, songwriters, producers, talent managers, music and creative freelancers, and creative organisations.
PEOPLE GET IN TOUCH BECAUSE...
-
they're questioning their next move
-
they've outgrown how they used to work
-
they have an opportunity they can't afford to get wrong
-
they're leading a team for the first time
-
they arrive with one problem — and find a deeper one underneath
-
Or simply because they want an experienced voice around the table before their next move.
HOW WE HELP - SOMEONE IN YOUR CORNER
Creative careers can be exciting and rewarding. They can also be unpredictable, demanding, and deeply personal. We understand the pressures of freelancing and building something that's yours.
Our role isn't to tell you what you want to hear. It's to ask the right questions and help you make decisions that are right for you. Clients leave our conversations with a plan — clearer, steadier, and ready to move.
TOGETHER WE CREATE THE SPACE TO STEP BACK, THINK CLEARLY, AND MOVE FORWARD WITH PURPOSE
Whether you need support for one important conversation or an ongoing strategic partner, we work with clients across:
-
Artist, music & creative career development
-
Creative business strategy
-
Commercial partnerships and negotiations
-
Project and team leadership
-
Independent advice during key career decisions
-
Selective co-management
Every creative journey deserves someone who understands both the machine and the human navigating it. You deserve experience, perspective, and someone genuinely in your corner.
MUSIC
New + Established Music Talent
ESTABLISHED TALENT:
We offer bespoke, senior-level guidance on long-term vision, brand positioning, team development, company culture, and diversified revenue strategies. We act as a trusted, non-executive sounding board for major campaigns, contract discussions, pivotal industry negotiations and career milestones.
EMERGING ARTISTS & CREATIVES:
We provide practical, real-world support to build your career. With hands-on advice and guidance for brand development, recording, releases, and marketing strategies, plus help growing your profile, team, and professional network.
CREATIVE ARTS
Freelance Creatives + Businesses
Across the wider creative arts, we work with theatre and stage designers, TV writers, playwrights, podcasters,
photographers, videographers, lifestyle creatives and independent creative businesses.
We work alongside you to strengthen the business side of your creative work while protecting the creativity that drives it. We offer experienced, thoughtful support, perspective, focused guidance, strategic feedback and a collaborative space to help you develop your long-term career and business plans. This includes strategies and practical planning for busy periods and quieter months to help you stay focused, resilient and creatively fulfilled.
ORGANISATIONS
Creative Business Advisors
We are industry advisors with board, education and governance experience. We work with music companies, creative businesses, music education organisations, CICs, and arts charities.
We present guest lectures and webinars, are panellists at music events and provide one-to-one specialist coaching for music BA Hons and MA degree students.
We are always curious and open to new adventures and inspiring collaborations. If you have a project, initiative or opportunity where strategic thinking, industry experience and creative insight could add value, we’d love to hear from you.
WHO WE WORK WITH
CREATIVES, FRIENDS & TEAMS
Some of the talent and organisations we champion
PAST
Our former artist management clients
ABOUT US
Diane Wagg
Artist Advocate, Music + Creative Arts Adviser
An experienced voice at the table + Someone in your Corner
“Whatever stage you're at - emerging, established, or somewhere in between - chances are I've been where you are. Probably more than once”.
Diane Wagg is a music executive and creative arts adviser whose career has spanned artist management, A&R, record production, studio management and creative business consultancy.
She began her career in EMI Records' A&R division before moving into artist management, working with Philip Lynott and Thin Lizzy - then became Director of Tony Visconti's group of companies, managing Good Earth Recording Studios and working with artists including David Bowie, George Michael, Duran Duran, U2, The Stranglers, The Boomtown Rats and Altered Images.
She went on to co-found Rise Management - representing Republica, Beth Orton, Mike Scott (The Waterboys), Rialto, Miles Hunt (The Wonder Stuff), Sunhouse, Towering Inferno and The Drum Club - before founding Deluxxe Management, where she developed Scouting for Girls from an unsigned band into a No.1, triple-platinum act with arena tours, multiple hit singles and BRIT and Ivor Novello Award nominations. Her roster also included A Girl Called Eddy, REWS, Carla Marie Williams, Touriste and Lockdown Project.
TODAY
Diane's fascination with music began at five years old, collecting records - not dreaming of fame, but curious about the people behind the songs and how the industry worked. At sixteen, she left school and started at
EMI Records, quickly discovering a world that was exciting, creative, chaotic and demanding in equal measure.
Over the decades since, working with artists, producers, songwriters and managers at every stage of their careers, she's celebrated extraordinary highs and witnessed heart-breaking lows.
Along the way, one thing became clear: talent isn't what separates the people who build lasting careers. It's how they respond when things go wrong - and when they go right. Because things always go wrong. Careers stall. Bands split up. Confidence disappears. Even hugely successful artists experience self-doubt. And success brings its own pressure - the noise, the schedule, the fear of losing what you've built.
Staying grounded matters as much in the good times as the hard ones. Success is never just about getting there. It's about still loving what you do twenty years later.
That realisation shaped how Diane works today. She is an Artist & Creative Partner, rather than simply an adviser or manager. Her role isn't to tell people what to do - it's to help them build careers, and lives, that are sustainable. Her clients don't just need business advice - they need someone who believes in them, understands them, and who they can trust. Someone who'll ask the difficult questions and challenge them when it matters. Someone who reminds them who they are when they've forgotten.
In practice, this takes two forms. Through Deluxxe Creative Consultancy, Diane works as a strategic adviser and trusted sounding board to artists, managers, songwriters, producers, music professionals and creative arts entrepreneurs. Alongside this, she selectively takes on co-management roles - partnering directly with artists and their teams where her experience, strategic input and industry network can help accelerate an
artist's development.
Diane is a former Chair and current Custodian of the Music Managers Forum (MMF), an experienced Board Director, Women in Music Roll of Honour recipient, Business Adviser, qualified Professional Coach and Mental Health First Aider.
