TMT:64 Rich Castillo On Indie Labels’ Big A&R Opportunity

Oct 12, 2025

01:02:44

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Welcome to The Money Trench! This week, Mark is joined by Rich Castillo, President of LionBear Music Group and one of the UK’s most influential A&R executives of the past two decades.

From his beginnings as a boy band hopeful, to discovering N-Dubz, signing Tion Wayne, and leading A&R teams at Polydor, Sony, and EMI, Rich’s career spans the past 20 years of British music.

Now running his own independent label, publisher, and management company, he shares his hard-won insights into what it takes to survive and thrive in the modern music industry.

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