Karen Emanuel, Founder and CEO of Key Production Group, Awarded an OBE for Services to Music

29 December 2025 - Press release

 

 

• Karen Emanuel named in The King’s 2025 New Year’s Honours List, announced today
• Karen set up Key Production in 1990 - now the biggest physical music manufacturing agency in Europe, servicing the music industry
• A significant figure in improving gender imbalances within music and transforming the industry’s approach to sustainability

 

Karen Emanuel, the Founder and CEO of Europe’s largest physical music manufacturing agency, Key Production Group, has been awarded an OBE in the King’s News Year’s Honours List for her services to music.

Named in the New Year’s list by His Majesty the King, Karen started out in the music industry in 1988 at Rough Trade Distribution, before setting up her business Key Production in 1990. Karen has worked tirelessly over the last 35 years, guiding Key to become the largest physical music manufacturing agency in Europe - producing vinyl, CDs, cassettes, DVDs and bespoke packaging for the music industry.

In that time, Karen has become a significant figure in tackling gender imbalances in music, setting up peer-to-peer support initiatives for women in their careers. She’s also led the way transforming sustainability within physical music production, byadvocating and advising more sustainable processes, carbon footprinting and life-cycle analysis and contributing to resetting the agenda for trade bodies. In 2023, Key was B Corp certified, the first B Corp company in the music manufacturing sector, becoming part of a global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.

Karen is one of the most respected and successful businesswomen in the UK. Starting as a one-woman team, Key Production Group now comprises six companies with four offices in the UK and one in Europe, with a dedicated workforce of nearly 70 staff. She has worked alongside almost every record label and distribution company, including Universal, [PIAS], EGA Distro, The Orchard and hundreds more - delivering products and solutions for thousands of chart successes and cult classics, for artists including Oasis, Little Simz, Idles and Nick Cave.

Karen Emanuel OBE, Founder and CEO of Key Production Group said: “I am truly blown away. To be awarded an OBE and recognised in this esteemed list is an incredible privilege that I’m hugely grateful for. I dedicate this to my passionate team around me, who make Key Production Group what it is, by providing the best physical music products for the music industry. Without them, I wouldn’t be on this list today. 

“It’s been a long road here and I’m incredibly proud to have played a part in levelling the playing field for women in music and shaping a more sustainable physical music industry. There’s still lots to do, but I’ll continue to work hard towards making the industry a better place with each day.”

Karen founded ЯevolutionƧ (formally Moving the Needle), a not-for-profit, providing mentoring, peer-to-peer support and a path for women entering the industry. She has organised, hosted and sponsored events focusing on mental and physical health, menopause and equality. 

As a dominant voice in ensuring environmental responsibility across the music manufacturing industry, Karen has worked to improve best practices in physical music manufacturing and distribution. In the CD market, between 2017-2025 Key has driven a 50 per cent reduction in plastic jewel cases, with 90 per cent now in card packaging. While currently in the vinyl market, Key has supported the promotion of bio-attributed vinyl, growing it to make up a 12 per cent share thereby reducing reliance on fossil fuels in vinyl manufacture.

Karen has previously been awarded the NatWest Everywoman Award (2018) and nominated for AIM Awards’ Entrepreneur of The Year (2022). In 2024 she won Businesswoman of the Year at the Music Week Women in Music Awards and was named an ERA Entertainment Champion. In 2025, she became Music Entrepreneur of the Year at the AIM Awards and received an Outstanding Contribution Award at the IMPALA Awards. Key, alongside SharpTone Records, received a joint Grammy nomination (2025).

In 2024, Karen transitioned Key Production Group into an Employee Ownership Trust to ensure its future and empower staff.

Established in 1990, Key Production has been the beating heart of physical music for decades. It offers end-to-end manufacturing solutions in vinyl, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray, cassettes, print and bespoke packaging, working with major and independent record labels as well as individual artists in music, media and corporate sectors. Founded as Key Production, the Key Production Group now comprises Key Production, Key Production EU, [PIAS] Production, Think Tank Creative, Breed Media and Modo Design. For more information, visit keyproduction.co.uk.