Karen Allen

Karen Allen is a digital entertainment business development executive specializing in emerging platforms in music, television, and film. She helps entertainment tech startups understand what they’ve built and where it fits in the market, devises strategies for B2B adoption of their product/service, and sources and pursues opportunities that execute on the strategy. Often startup founders have great ideas and solid tech, but no background in entertainment. Major companies build services that don’t get traction because they are out of touch with user trends. Karen leverages her considerable background in entertainment technology to address each situation and devises actionable solutions to resolve them.

Most recently, Karen was VP Client Services at TAG Strategic, a digital entertainment consultancy, where she led business development for over 90 clients and ran operations. Clients included LyricFind, Tunezy, Urturn, Coca-Cola, Sandisk, and Dada. Previously she was the General Manager, Americas for the Mobile Entertainment Forum, where she led the association’s industry initiatives, oversaw operations and produced MEF Americas’ inaugural trade conference, MEFCON. Prior to MEF, Karen was the Internet Evangelist for the RIAA, the trade group that sued Napster. She worked as an in-house digital music expert with the RIAA’s lobbying, piracy, litigation, licensing, and marketing divisions, advising all on the current state and future of digital music and creating inroads with startups and other industry associations. In addition, she spearheaded the trade group’s efforts to bring their programs and services into the digital age.

A true digital music pioneer, Karen was on the ground floor of Rocktropolis.com (part of N2K), one of the first major music websites for fans, where she produced and marketed live broadcasts, chats and other events. In that role, Allen worked closely with artists, labels, and managers encompassing all facets of online content acquisition, event production and marketing. She began her career as an artist manager under Miles Copeland (Sting, The Police, IRS Records).