Deborah Mannis-Gardner, dubbed the "Queen of the Sample" by Billboard, Forbes, Variety and many others, is the world's leading expert in music rights clearance. After founding DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, Deborah quickly established a legendary reputation in the field of sample clearance. She has obtained clearances for artists such as 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 many others. She has also collaborated with Reservoir to secure sample rights 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' "Grand Theft Auto" and "Red Dead Redemption" franchises; metaverse platforms such as Meta and Roblox, including a live concert by Post Malone; films by Martin Scorsese, the Coen brothers and Richard Linklater ; TV series on channels such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix and Paramount+; advertising campaigns for Google, Ciroc and Kmart; and podcasts such as "Broken Record" by Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell and "The Midnight Miracle" by Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey. In addition, Deborah handled the rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit musical "Hamilton" and the music rights for its broadcast on Disney+, and was the award-winning music supervisor for HBO's documentary series "The Defiant Ones" about Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.
In 2024, Deborah teamed up with Pär Almqvist, another music licensing and technology veteran, to co-found AYO Music Group, an active copyright administrator offering global management of publishing, neighboring rights and recordings. The company helps clients correct copyright errors by resolving administrative problems that can go back decades, and prioritizes rights-holder training as part of its services. AYO has already built up a strong catalog of songs totaling well over a billion streams, with several titles exceeding the 100 million stream threshold.
