Lars Brandle
AFIC 2025 MC & Head of Content – Vinyl Group
Lars Brandle is one of Australia’s leading music industry writers, an agenda-setting and award-winning journalist who is a regular speaker at conferences at home and abroad, on television, radio, and as a pundit for online and traditional news channels.
In June 2024, Lars was appointed as Head of Content at The Brag Media, now part of the Sydney-based Vinyl Group. In that role, Lars oversees the content for The Brag’s titles, including Rolling Stone AU/NZ, Variety AU, Tone Deaf and The Music Network.
Lars has been the face of Billboard in Australia as its Australia correspondent, and global “overnight” editor. He joined the legendary trade bible in London in 2000 as International Editor of the multiple award-winning daily newsletter Billboard Bulletin, and served as Global News Editor from 2004 until 2008, when he returned to his native Brisbane.
Lars is a sought-after guest speaker and moderator at major music industry conferences at home and abroad. In Australia, he has appeared at Bigsound (Brisbane), ARIA Masterclass and Electronic Music Conference (Sydney), SXSW Sydney, Venues Management Association Congress (Melbourne, Brisbane), Clearer Festival industry conference (Kiama), Australian Music Prize (Sydney), Face the Music (Melbourne), One Movement (Perth), iNTune (Darwin & Alice Springs) and Amplified (Hobart), and across the Tasman for the Going Global Music Summit (Auckland).
Internationally, he is a regular speaker at All That Matters/Music Matters, Singapore, where highlights include keynote interviews with YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen (2017), EDM star Alan Walker (2018), and a virtual interview in 2020 with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Chuck D and Cohen. Other conference appearances include MIDEM in Cannes, Popkomm in Cologne and Berlin, the Amsterdam Dance Event, and London’s City Showcase.
Lars is regularly interviewed by ABC TV and radio on music-related topics and has conducted live-to-air interviews on CNN and American Public Media’s Marketplace. He featured prominently in the “Australian Story” documentary on Luc Longley (2021), which has racked up more than seven million views across multiple platforms, making it the most-watched special in the ABC series’ long history. Lars shared in the spoils when “One Giant Leap” won for best sport profile – broadcast at the 2021 Sport Australia Media Awards.
