Mammal Sounds in 2026: Behind the Scenes with Jez Ryan on Artists, Releases, and the Indie Music Game
From artist management to record label operations and publicity, Mammal Sounds has carved out a reputation as one of Australia’s most dynamic independent music agencies. Founded by Jez Ryan, the Sydney-based company has spent more than 15 years building sustainable careers, championing boundary-pushing releases, and helping artists navigate an industry that never stands still.
We caught up with Jez to explore the vision driving Mammal Sounds, how the team balances long-term artist development with the demands of modern marketing, and what listeners can expect from the label’s roster in 2026.
The Daily Music Report: Mammal Sounds wears a lot of hats—label, management, publicity, consulting. What was the original idea behind starting it, and how did it evolve into what it is today?
Mammal Sounds: It all actually started with a music news platform called Acid Stag that I established about 15 years ago. I loved (and still do) going down the rabbit-hole of discovering new music/artists, and Acid Stag was the perfect way for me to be able to share all of those with a wider audience (aside from hassling my friends all the time). Over time I got to meet a bunch of great upcoming artists, and a lot of them were struggling with getting their music out there. I figured I could maybe do a better job at publicity than a lot of the agency submissions I was getting at Acid Stag, so I started offering a publicity service, which went really well. After a while, and after working with a few particular artists that I really connected with, I started exploring the management side of things, and came to realise that I really enjoyed that aspect. The management direction then became my primary focus (while still doing as much as I could on Acid Stag), and from there it just seemed to take on a life of its own. I now mange 11 Australian artists/projects across a variety of different genres, plus one artist called Munan who is based in Seoul, South Korea.
I’d always thought it’d be super cool to own a record label, so that was actually just a natural next step for me. After working with a great distributor (Believe Music) for a while on the management side of things, we start to explore the idea of creating Mammal Sounds Records. I kicked that off in 2018 with JVLY and daste. as my first signees, and we soon moved them off the label and onto my management roster, because there was just so much great content in the works and I wanted to dive right in and help them with it all. Yes I find it hard to draw the line sometimes haha.
The name Mammal Sounds is pretty distinctive. What’s the story behind it?
The animal theme came across from Acid Stag. I was thinking along the lines of “animal sounds,” and then started thinking about the crossover between people and (some) animals being mammals, and from that came Mammals Sounds.
You’ve often emphasized long-term artist development over quick wins. Why is that approach especially important in today’s music landscape?
Quick wins can be amazing if you’re lucky enough to get them, but that’s just not possible for everyone, and they usually don’t last very long either. If you’re serious about having a career in the music industry, you really need to start planning long-term. It’s a lot of hard work but it’s totally worth it. After a while a lot of people also lean into other areas like co-writing, producing, mixing, top-lines etc. for other people’s music.
How do you help artists balance creative instincts with the realities of release schedules, marketing, and audience growth?
A lot of artists can be a bit pedantic when it comes to finishing a song, and sometimes need to be told when enough tweaking is enough tweaking. Setting up deadlines to work toward is a great way to achieve this. But you also need to be thinking about all the other creative aspects of your project as well. As much as we’d love it to just be about the music, it’s not. Other creative elements like artwork, photos, and visual assets, all play a role in the success of a song/album. But I do find most artists understand that these days, and the planning for those aspects does tend to happen quite early on as well.
How do you decide whether an artist is the right fit for Mammal Sounds—whether that’s for management, the label, or publicity?
Firstly it’s the music, and that’s not always the same genre/style either, it’s whatever my brain reacts to at the time. Generally I tend to work with artists on some publicity releases first, which gives us both a good idea of what it’s like working together, and from there it’s honestly more of a organic transition if we’re both on the same page and looking for the same things.
What does a “successful” campaign look like to you beyond numbers, streams, and chart positions?
The more people talking about your music the better, and having an online footprint is super important. If someone were to google your artist name, what comes up?…and if you don’t have any media outlets featuring your music, what does that look like to potential labels, publishers or booking agents?
Social media is an obvious one here, and while that does lean into “numbers” it is mostly about building and connecting with your audience. And whether you have 500 or 5000 followers, these people are following you because they like your music!
Radio play is also still quite important, especially when it’s coming from other countries. You can make a bit of extra money from radio as well, and I’d suggest getting yourself set up with SoundExchange if you haven’t already. Those things can also lead to more streaming revenue and audience growth.
You’ve worked across multiple sides of the industry. What’s something you think artists understand less now than they did 10 years ago—and what do they understand more?
There are a lot of artists out there that don’t make much money through streaming services, and I totally agree that streaming services should be paying artists a lot more money, especially smaller artists. But you don’t ever really hear about all the artists that are making a living off their streaming revenue. So I’d like all artists to know that this is a very achievable goal to set yourself. It’s not easy, there are a lot of variables at play, but if your music is good, you’ve got a strong aesthetic, and you do everything you need to be doing around each release to help maximise your exposure, you can get there!
Want to break any news here? Any artists you would like to spotlight or upcoming projects you’re especially excited about?
There is something new brewing at Mammal Sounds HQ but I can’t share any info around that just yet…but here are a few of my artist’s projects that I’m really excited about.
Management Roster:
– 1tbsp is just about to embark on a North American tour (dates here) which also has him playing at Coachella (Do Lab Stage on April 10th) and he’s also giving us a brand-new single this week call ‘Soulseek,‘ featuring Columbian-American artist Soltera.
– daste. are busy working on their next album, but while that’s underway, Callum MacDonald has also just launched a solo-project called Monsieur Mellow, along with his debut single ‘Paris Strut.’
– JVLY is working on a deluxe version of his 2025 SUNDER EP, which will include a remix of each song plus a previously unheard B-side track that was written during the SUNDER sessions. Remixers include Contrecoeur (FR), Lemonade Baby (AUS), Mel Blue (AUS), and dj poolboi (USA).
Label Roster:
– Arky Waters will be releasing his debut album in June. He’s given us three singles off that over the last 2 months with the most recent ‘UGETME?,’ winning a lot of support from the Spotify curation teams.
– Lemonade Baby also has a new album in the works which we plan to start rolling out very soon.
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