Kat MacLean Daley, the A&R for AYO Music Group as well as the founder & CEO of KatClearedit and founder & COO for Karousel, is a Berklee College of Music Alumni, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a double major in Music Business Management and Professional Music with concentrations in marketing and performance. She spent the last year and a half of her schooling as a college marketing rep for Universal Music Group, establishing the basis of her professional career. Upon graduation, she was hired at Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). After nine months, Kat was promoted to coordinator of sampling, a department she would climb the ladder in over the course of the next five years, creating processes, data tracking standards and clearing samples for over 2,000 songs including releases by Drake, Mac Miller, Summer Walker, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Megan The Stallion, Cole Swindell and more. Kat cleared the samples for Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, Kings & Queens by Ava Max, Break My Heart by Dua Lipa, Go Crazy by Chris Brown, Young Thug and many other chart-topping hits. Kat was also a driving force in setting sampling standards outside of the US and in new genres including country music. After rising to a director title at UMPG, Kat was tapped by Snoop Dogg via Deborah Mannis-Gardner to become the VP & Head of Publishing at Death Row Records, where she reported directly to Snoop and was responsible for the company’s day to day operations in music. After exiting Death Row Records, Kat founded KatClearedit, where she provides services including management, industry consulting, licensing, advising for emerging tech in music and sample representation for publishers. As a consultant she is also the A&R for AYO and a clearance agent for DMG Clearances. At AYO, Kat has signed several songwriters and producers including SoulSoundz, Lily Rose Depp, Chills, PACKGOD, Kayla Diamond and more. Kat has a wide range of experience from the corporate and major level to the indie sector; she lives for the license and is striving daily to break the cycle of gatekeeping in the industry.