Michel Lambot

Co-President - PIAS (Belgium)


Michel Lambot’s career is inseparable from PIAS (Play it Again Sam) as the co-founder and co-president. Created in 1983 in a Brussels cellar by Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot, with a derisory amount of capital, PIAS has become a leader of the European independent record industry.

PIAS started out through the distribution of independent labels, then extended its activities to production through the creation of its own label in 1984. In 1990, PIAS set up offices in Hilversum, Holland, then followed the takeover of Vital in 1993 (which is now the top distributor of alternative music in the UK). PIAS offices were set up in Paris and London in 1994, and in Hamburg in 1995 and Madrid in 2000. Pias current turnover exceeds 110M€ realised by a staff of over 260 people.

Until July 2006, Michel Lambot was also President of Impala, an international non-profit organisation founded in 2000, uniting independent music companies. Its most recent success was the annulment by the European Court of First Instance in July 2006 of the European Commission’s authorisation of the Sony-BMG merger.