Education meets industry.
SongShift was born out of a simple belief: the creative industries don’t invest enough in developing their people. Companies put money into platforms and processes, but the skills that drive long-term success, like communication, collaboration, leadership, and resilience, are too often left behind.
Research shows that 85% of job success comes from soft skills, yet more than 70% of training budgets still go to technical skills. That mismatch hits the music industry especially hard, where pressure is high, teams move fast, and careers can stall without support.
SongShift exists to change that. We provide professional development for music industry professionals and creative teams that actually sticks. By combining proven leadership frameworks with hands-on, music-driven learning, we create training that resonates with managers, A&R teams, marketers, publicists, promoters, and artists alike. The result is sharper communication, stronger collaboration, and more confident leaders. The skills that keep creative companies moving forward, lowers retention and increases impact.
Companies invest in processes and platforms, but not their people. SongShift was created to balance that equation.
The story so far. . .
Hi, there. My name is Brandon Kirby.
My first job was in a music store, where I spent more time talking to customers about guitars than selling them. I played in bands that never really went anywhere, but it didn’t matter, I was already hooked. In the 90s, I fell in love with dance music, taught myself to DJ, and later to produce. But the real turning point came when I founded and ran an independent label. That experience taught me what it actually takes to build something from nothing, signing artists, releasing records, putting bands on the road, managing budgets, and learning the business side the hard way. That mix of curiosity, persistence, and love for sound has shaped everything I’ve done since.
Over the years, I’ve worked across advertising, music, and executive leadership development. At Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, I designed and facilitated leadership programmes that worked across cultures and industries. I’ve travelled to more than 60 countries to see what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to culture, education and leadership. Those experiences taught me how to help executives, managers, and creative professionals build clarity, confidence, and cohesion no matter where they come from.
Before that, I spent years on the agency and client side, building brands, sharpening messages, and scaling strategies that drove real growth. And throughout it all, music has remained my compass — from founding a label and promoting records to mentoring artists and releasing my own tracks. I believe music has the power to teach us more about leadership, collaboration, and resilience than almost anything else.
That’s the perspective I bring to SongShift: a career that bridges creativity and strategy, lived experience in both the music and business worlds, and a belief that professional development should be hands-on, memorable, and built for the realities of the creative industries.
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