#37: How James Dale Scaled Sine Digital in Broadway and the West End

Sep 8, 2025

James Dale, CEO of Sine Group and Sine Digital, shares his unconventional journey from musician to digital agency leader in live entertainment. He discusses the challenges artists face in the streaming era, emphasizing data ownership and performance marketing. Dale reveals how Sine Digital grew rapidly by focusing on niche services for Broadway and West End productions. He also examines the industry's volatility, managing talent during sudden show closures, and the importance of specialized strategies in a competitive landscape.

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ANECDOTE

From Musician To Data-Driven Founder

James Dale lost his music career after Spotify changed the economics and he no longer owned audience data.
He then taught artists about data, managed acts, started a label, and founded Sine Digital in 2017.

INSIGHT

Data Is The New Lifeblood

Owning audience data proved central to sustainable income in music and live entertainment.
James Dale studied data and built services to help artists and productions reclaim and monetize their audiences.

ADVICE

Double Down On Proven Content

When you find authentic content that resonates, put the whole marketing budget behind it.
Reinvest returns from that single piece of content to fuel algorithmic afterglow and wider reach.

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Welcome to Agency Business.

This week, James Dale, CEO and founder of Sine Group and Sine Digital, joins Olivia on the show.

Dale’s path into agency life was anything but conventional. A former musician whose band once played at Glastonbury and toured with Band of Horses, he saw his career collapse when streaming upended the music business and data slipped away from artists. That experience led him to build an agency rooted in performance marketing, conviction-based media, and data ownership.

Sine Digital began advising musicians and grew quickly into a 50-person agency serving Broadway and West End productions, music artists, and major arts institutions. Dale explains how the company scaled by building out its own programmatic desk and data warehouse, expanding into connected TV and digital out-of-home, and developing deep relationships with producers and venues. He also reflects on the volatility of project-based work in theater, how the agency manages staffing when shows suddenly close, and why Sine Digital has stayed focused on a specialized niche rather than diversifying into full-service creative.

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