Lucy Dickins is one of the most influential talent agents working in music today.
The UK-born, Los Angeles-based exec was promoted to the role of Global Head of Contemporary Music and Touring at William Morris Endeavor (WME) in August 2022.
In that role, Dickins oversees all aspects of the agency’s contemporary music and touring business across Beverly Hills, New York, Nashville, London and Sydney.
She joined WME in 2019 from her prior role at rival agency ITB, which was founded by Dickins’ father, Barry Dickins.
At WME, Lucy Dickins’ roster includes Adele, Mumford & Sons, Stormzy SAULT, Cleo Sol, Little Simz, James Blake and Jamie T.
She also represents the likes of Grammy nominees Hot Chip, Bryan Ferry, and Laura Marling, popular singer-songwriters Rex Orange County and Mabel,
Lucy Dickins’ brother, Jonathan Dickins, is the manager of Adele and the founder of September Management.
In June 2023, it was announced that Lucy Dickins would collect the prestigious Music Industry Trusts Award (MITS) in London in November the same year.
Lucy Dickins: Career history
Lucy Dickins began her career working as a junior product manager for an independent UK record label PWL before joining International Booking Talent (ITB) as an assistant in the early 1990s.
During her tenure at ITB, she rose through the ranks at the world-renowned agency.
Dickins’ grandfather, Percy Dickins, founded the long-running music weekly the New Musical Express (NME). Her father, Barry, formed ITB in 1978 with a client list that included Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
Her uncle Rob was longtime head of Warner Music in the UK.
Dickins is a member of Endeavor’s Diversity and Inclusion working group, which focuses on the amplification of marginalised voices, and ways to further develop the company’s commitment to both diversity and inclusion.
In 2022, Dickins and her team at WME booked over 40,000 dates for live performances.
Lucy Dickins: Professional philosophy
In an interview with Hits Daily Double published in 2023, Lucy Dickins said: “To this day, if I’m going for an absolute baby band — and I still sign baby bands — I do the exact same amount of work and preparation with the same passion I did [at the start of her career].
“I think artists appreciate that, and it doesn’t happen enough. I get personally connected to my clients and I just don’t ever want to let them down, or let myself down.”
“I get personally connected to my clients and I just don’t ever want to let them down, or let myself down.”
Lucy Dickins, speaking in 2023
Discussing the first time she met Adele, Dickins added: “I was going to see Hot Chip at a club in London and I asked Jack Peñate if he wanted to come down. He said yes and asked me to put him on the list plus one, because he wanted to bring his friend who he said was this amazing singer. So I’m at the venue, and Jack’s there with this girl and she says, ‘Hi, I’m Adele.’ She was just the most hilariously funny, warm, lovable character.
“I told her that I’d heard she was a singer and asked if she had any music. She said, ‘Hold on a minute’ and tapped this guy next to us whom she’d just given a CD. She made him give it straight back to her so she could give it to me! The next day I’m home doing housework and I popped her hand-written demo into my little JVC stereo system. The first track that came on was Daydreamer, followed by Hometown Glory and My Same —it was the most insane thing I’d ever heard.”Music Business Worldwide