MusicTank

Paul Hitchman is co-founder and CEO of Playlouder and Media Service Provider (MSP).  A Cambridge Economics graduate, Paul worked in the music industry for 10 years (including stints at BMG and Warner Music) before founding Playlouder in 2000.

Playlouder is an award-winning digital music & media company that has consistently been at the forefront of innovation in online music services including the first legal downloads in the UK, the UK’s first internet-only digital singles, and pioneering webcasts of live events such as Glastonbury Festival.

In 2004 Paul co-founded Playlouder MSP (subsequently re-named Media Service Provider), a music channel partner for ISPs that enables music to be bundled with broadband access, and offers ISP subscribers unlimited downloading and streaming of music, including legal file- sharing, for a fixed monthly fee.  MSP-powered services are the first in the world to monetise P2P file-sharing on broadband networks, and are the first to bring together the Music and ISP industries in a commercial partnership.  MSP has been awarded the Popkomm IMEA award for innovation.

Paul co-founded and is a director of Consolidated Independent (CI), Europe’s leading provider of digital asset management and distribution services to music companies, with clients including Beggars Group, Sanctuary, Ministry of Sound, PIAS, Pinnacle, Mute, Domino, Naïve, K7 and Demon.

Paul is also a director of the Playlouderecordings record label and the Concrete & Glass arts festival and has provided strategic consultancy to a number of media companies including Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC, Chrysalis Group, Entriq and Global Cool.