Daniel Buckman

When Daniel Buckman started BELLOSOUND 16 years ago, the plan was always to grow the company into a global creative agency with a peerless reputation. Along with his late business partner Peter Ralphs, they drew up a business strategy in his Toronto apartment to bring the latest eclectic music into people’s homes and businesses, using the latest technologies mixed with a keen sense of design and aesthetic. They were greatly inspired by their travels to Miami and South Beach – then an epicentre of DJ, electronic music, and hotel culture – and wanted to explore how they create unique environments using those elements,

“I was always the DJ even before I knew what a DJ was,” says Buckman, crediting his immersion in the rock, rave, and underground hip-hop scenes in the late 80s and early 90s as pivotal to his love of diverse genres. After attending business school, he spent a decade in artist relations working with some of the world’s biggest musicians, including Britney Spears, Beyonce, OutKast, and The Tragically Hip. It was there that he learned the value of building relationships with all types of personalities, a skill which he credits as a cornerstone of BELLOSOUND. In 2006, he partnered with the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto in Yorkville to organize a DJ lounge during the Toronto International Film Festival, which kick-started a long and fruitful relationship with the luxury hotel brand. 

Since then, the hospitality and music landscape has changed greatly, but BELLOSOUND has only grown while staying true to its roots. Today as president, he’s proud to lead a like-minded team who are constantly “working for similar goals and adding new goals to the list.” In charge of music direction and business development, Buckman’s responsible for finding clients who fit with and recognize the value in BELLOSOUND’s services, while staying on top of musical, hospitality, fashion, and design trends worldwide. The former is still greatly influenced by his crowd-pleasing open-format DJ sets, which he describes as being about “the right music at the right time, cool-but-not-too-cool, and having fun and being there in the moment. Whether he’s rocking house parties or playing the grand opening of a property’s new signature venue, Buckman continues to soak up inspiration as he travels the world.  

Yet even with all of his and the company’s many successes, the president believes that BELLOSOUND is well-positioned to go to the next level — growing the team organically picking up new business in regions like Japan and the Middle East, and finally becoming the full-scope global music agency he knew it could be.  

Favourite BELLOSOUND memory to date?

“I remember moments with Pete and his wife Christine really well, especially down in Miami and South Beach during the Winter Music Conference in the early days of BELLOSOUND. He was so different from me, but yet we were on the same page. Also spending New Year’s Eve on the beach in Nevis and Bora Bora, there’s a certain feeling when you’re playing by the ocean, and dancing with your feet in the sand. I’ve been lucky enough to play some of those settings and I look forward to doing more.”