Deborah Mannis-Gardner — the “Queen of Sample Clearance” according to Billboard, Forbes, Variety, Music Week, Okayplayer, Midem, and more — is the go-to expert for global music rights clearances. After starting DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, Deborah’s sample clearance skills quickly became legendary, and she has cleared releases for artists including Drake, Tyler the Creator, DJ Khaled, Eminem, Pop Smoke, Logic, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, John Legend, Megan Thee Stallion, Big K.R.I.T., Brockhampton, French Montana, Big Sean, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and more. In 2023, she worked with Reservoir to clear samples and prepare the De La Soul catalog for its long-awaited release on streaming services. In 2025, Deborah cleared all samples for Justin Bieber’s surprise album, “Swag,” in less than 24 hours. She also worked on Clipse’s long-awaited comeback album, “Let God Sort Em Out” and Tyler the Creator’s surprise album, “Don’t Tap the Glass.”

Beyond sampling, Deborah has handled music clearances for video games such as Rockstar Games franchises “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption,” as well as Turtle Rock Studios’ “Back 4 Blood”; metaverse platforms such as Meta and Roblox, including a live concert from Post Malone; films by Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, and Richard Linklater; TV series on networks such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and Paramount+; ad campaigns for Google, Ciroc, and Kmart; and podcasts such as Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Broken Record” and Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli, and yasiin bey’s “The Midnight Miracle.” In addition, Deborah has handled Grand Rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton” and music clearances for its release on Disney+, and she was the award-winning music supervisor of HBO’s Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine docu-series “The Defiant Ones.” Deborah recently expanded her music supervision credits with the LL Cool J-hosted docuseries “Hip Hop Was Born Here,” Neil Bogart biopic “Spinning Gold,” and U2 Sarajevo documentary “Kiss the Future,” which was produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

In 2024, Deborah teamed with fellow music licensing and tech veteran Pär Almqvist to co-found AYO Music Group, an active copyright administrator offering global administration of publishing, neighboring rights, and recordings. The company helps clients “copyright copy-wrongs” by correcting administration issues that can date back decades, and prioritizes rightsholder education at the forefront of the company’s services. AYO has already built a strong catalog of songs totaling well over 1 billion streams, with several tracks crossing the 100-million-stream threshold.

Deborah has spoken at SXSW, Music Biz, MaMA Music & Convention, the Ohio University Music Industry Summit, Midem, the A3C Festival & Conference, CMJ, the Nashville Film Festival, and SyncSummit Nashville, as well as at New York University (NYU), Temple University, and Widener College. She was a Clio Music 2025 jury member and currently sits on York College of Pennsylvania’s Music Industry Advisory Board.