Clifton Consults is a strategy and management consultancy for clients in the audio, music and tech space. Founded in 2023 by Patrick Clifton, the practice offers expertise and advisory services from high-level corporate strategy, to business strategy and management best practice for start-ups, to the development of music ecosystems that connect artists and labels to fans.

Clifton Consults lists Universal Music, Warner Music, BMG, Edition Records, PlaylistKING, Cantilever and vinyl start-ups Press On Vinyl and Fairsound among its clients. 

Founder Patrick Clifton has over 25 years’ experience working in both music and technology. He worked as a publicist and marketing executive in the indie music sector; he also worked at The End, an underground dance music club in central London, where he was also a resident DJ. Patrick lived and worked through the peak of compact disc consumption and the decline of the recorded music sector in the 00’s where he experienced the challenge of internet piracy and the shift to digital formats. 

After a break to pursue a masters’ degree he joined Amazon in Seattle in 2011, relocating to the UK in 2012.  Over the next ten years he helped transform Amazon’s music business in the UK, where he launched the firm’s music streaming service and helped to grow it to take the position as number two in the market behind Spotify. He eventually led the corporation’s music business in the UK, a role he left in 2022 to work in the vinyl records industry. 

Patrick established a strategy consulting practice in 2023, where he advises companies in music, audio and technology. He’s a frequent panelist and speaker at conferences and events. He also comments on music and technology issues for British news publications like The Guardian and The Telegraph. He writes and publishes articles about music, technology and culture on Medium and Substack, his articles having received tens of thousands of reads. He holds an M.A from Cambridge University and an M.B.A from the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia.