From the Radio Desk to the Release Campaign: Ian Bredenkamp’s I Be Music

Before he began selling music-promotion services, Ian Bredenkamp was receiving the pitches. His career in commercial radio included programming leadership at KFM and strategy work involving KFM and 947—experience that put him inside the decisions artists wanted to influence. [1]

The business he founded, I Be Music, now works across radio and television promotion, publicity and streaming. Its nomination for Best Music PR & Marketing Agency at the Music Business Awards recognises a company whose founder learned one side of the release campaign before moving to the other. [1][2]

A business built beside a day job

Bredenkamp’s move into entrepreneurship was not an overnight departure from employment. In a 2019 interview with The Media Online, he described starting his own operation while still earning a salary. He had identified room for a more effective approach to the music submissions that broadcasters received. [3]

The commercial instinct had appeared earlier. The same interview traces small childhood ventures and a high-school job at Musica in Stellenbosch, where working around recordings helped fund his own CD purchases. Music was both an interest and something he encountered as a product. [3]

That combination matters to the company he eventually built. A campaign is not only about enthusiasm for a record; it is also about presenting it to someone with an audience, a format and a decision to make. Having worked inside radio gave Bredenkamp a concrete view of those constraints.

Beyond a single channel

I Be Music’s current service description combines broadcast promotion with artist PR and digital activity. Its company portfolio names local and international artists, including Sjava, lordkez and Lady Zamar alongside Madonna, Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa. These are presented as past and current clients, rather than a claim that every relationship is active today. [1]

For four consecutive quarters, the biggest song on South African radio has come through I Be Music. “Aweh” by lordkez led the way in Q4 2025, followed by Bruno Mars’s hit, "I Just Might" which held the top spot across Q1, Q2 and Q3 2026 - marking a full year of radio chart leadership for I Be Music's artists and labels, both domestic and international.

The team’s published backgrounds also extend beyond radio. Wendy Verwey Bekker brings label and digital-service experience, while Ashley Lobo & Mellissa Ngcobo’s biographies connects publicity with broadcasting backgrounds. The company is presenting more than a founder’s contact book: its offer spans the different places a release needs to be understood. [1]

That wider brief was already becoming visible in Bredenkamp’s 2019 account of the business. He described a shift in what clients wanted, with streaming platforms entering conversations previously centred on traditional media exposure. [3]

For a promotion company, that changes the task without removing the original one. A release still needs an intelligible introduction. What changes is where that introduction happens, what material accompanies it and what the artist wants the listener to do next.

I Be Music works with an extensive network of labels and artists, including Warner Music Africa, Virgin Music Africa, Universal Music Africa, EMPIRE and Ditto, alongside many independent labels and unsigned artists. From emerging talent finding an audience to established recording artists, every client receives the same respect, care and commitment from the same dedicated team.

Turning experience into a service

The awards nomination places I Be Music in a category that joins PR and marketing rather than treating them as interchangeable labels. The distinction suits the company’s trajectory: publicity gives an artist a public story, while a release campaign must also consider how the recording reaches its intended listeners.

Bredenkamp’s career gives that work a particular perspective. He has occupied the broadcaster’s desk and the promoter’s side of the conversation. I Be Music’s business is built in the space between them—translating a release into something the next person in the chain can use.