Deborah Mannis-Gardner — the “Queen of Sample Clearance” according to Billboard, Forbes, Variety, and more — is the go-to expert for global music rights clearances. After starting DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, Deborah’s sample clearance skills quickly became legendary, and she has cleared releases for artists including Drake, Tyler the Creator, DJ Khaled, Eminem, Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, John Legend, Megan Thee Stallion, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and more. She also worked with Reservoir to clear samples and prepare the De La Soul catalog for its long-awaited release on streaming services in 2023.
Deborah has also handled music clearances for video games such as Rockstar Games franchises “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption”; metaverse platforms such as Meta and Roblox, including a live concert from Post Malone; films by Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, and Richard Linklater; TV series on networks such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and Paramount+; ad campaigns for Google, Ciroc, and Kmart; and podcasts such as Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Broken Record” and Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli, and yasiin bey’s “The Midnight Miracle.” In addition, Deborah has handled Grand Rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton” and music clearances for its release on Disney+, and she was the award-winning music supervisor of HBO’s Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine docu-series “The Defiant Ones.”
In 2024, Deborah teamed with fellow music licensing and tech veteran Pär Almqvist to co-found AYO Music Group, an active copyright administrator offering global administration of publishing, neighboring rights, and recordings. The company helps clients “copyright copy-wrongs” by correcting administration issues that can date back decades, and prioritizes rightsholder education at the forefront of the company’s services. AYO has already built a strong catalog of songs totaling well over 1 billion streams, with several tracks crossing the 100-million-stream threshold.
