Nabil Ayers is the President of Beggars Group US, where he has run campaigns for The National (GRAMMY award winner in 2018), Big Thief (GRAMMY award nominee in 2020, 2021 & 2022), Grimes, Future Islands, and St. Vincent as well as reissue campaigns including Pixies’ album Doolittle, which was certified Platinum in 2019. Ayers is a Recording Academy Trustee who served as an elected Governor of the New York chapter of the Recording Academy from 2018-2022. Ayers was named one of Billboard magazine’s “Indie Power Players” every year from 2019-2022.

After co-founding Seattle’s Sonic Boom Records store at age 25, Ayers sold it to a longtime customer in 2016. As both an executive and an artist who began his career as a musician, Ayers has performed on several albums on both independent and major labels. On his
own label, The Control Group, Ayers has released music by Lykke Li, The Killers, PJ Harvey, and his uncle, the jazz musician Alan Braufman.

Ayers has written about race and music for The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and GQ, and he published his memoir My Life in the Sunshine with Viking/Penguin in June 2022.