About Nick Dryden

Nick has been helping organisations use the Internet since 1989. In 1995 while innovating in the use of voice, data and video with Optiva, a tech consultancy based in Shoreditch, he became immersed in a vibrant artistic community in the East End of London, creating Out Real Studios in 1997. Out Real biog; a venue to showcase art, music and innovation was set in the cavernous basement of an old tobacco factory in Spitalfields. The studios featured permanent and temporary art installations from local artists and became the backdrop of many album launches; fashion shows, film festivals, conferences and exhibitions. In 1998 Creative Review Magazine held its "Creative Futures" exhibition with Out Real Studios. From 1998, he built ‘The Fly’ into the UK’s highest circulating music magazine distributed through 104 live music venues. During 1997, Nick also signed a band to the EMI record label, entering the music business when using the Internet was still in its infancy and its power to transform fan engagement not really understood. In 1998 Nick co-founded ChannelFly.com (now MAMA Group). ChannelFly.com listed on the London AIM market in November 1999. As music and fans got online in numbers Nick engaged them with live streamed performances. These broadcasts included the early live performances of Muse, Coldplay, Elbow and Biffy Clyro among many others. Between 2003 and 2010, Nick founded Xtaster, a social network of over a million active music fans across the UK and Germany. Xtaster developed a relationship management and media platform to interact and measure responses from the network, providing music, brand and media partners with valuable data, real-time prediction and a word of mouth marketing model. Working with most major and independent record labels, retailers and brands activating campaigns. In 2009, this resulted in a project with MasterCard. This project engaged music fans and UK festivals with a cash less ‘NFC payment capability’ on wristbands..