ABOUT
Mayowa Arogundade is a Nigerian-American entrepreneur, creative executive, and Grammy-nominated producer building at the intersection of music, technology, and finance. He is the Founder and CEO of Equal IQ, a financial technology platform helping music rights holders value, finance, and transact their catalogs. Through Equal IQ, Mayowa has supported over seven figures in music rights transactions.
Equal IQ was incubated through Andreessen Horowitz’s TxO Fund and has received support from the NBA Foundation, American Express, and Stripe.
Across his career, Mayowa has worked with artists including Kelly Rowland, Blxst, and Eric Bellinger, and on music licensing projects with Netflix and the Bob Marley: One Love film. He also works closely with JELEEL!, helping build the financial infrastructure, partnerships, and operational support behind the growth of his independent career.
Mayowa’s work focuses on building infrastructure that helps independent creators access capital, retain ownership, and build sustainable careers.
PANELS
Artist Development Reimagined: Who Builds a Career in 2026?
Artist development was once largely associated with the traditional label model. Today, artists can emerge from virtually anywhere, audiences can develop before traditional industry infrastructure is in place, and the path from discovery to a sustainable career is increasingly nonlinear. Managers often play a central role, but labels, distributors, agencies and other partners may enter the process at very different stages. This conversation examines what artist development actually means in 2026 — how talent is discovered, audiences are identified and grown, creative and commercial strategies evolve, and early momentum is converted into lasting opportunity. As traditional roles and timelines continue to shift, who drives the process, when do different partners enter the picture, and what does meaningful artist development look like today?
Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 2:50 PM