Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share insights, tips, and strategies for artist managers on how to navigate through the music business.

Ruiz’s Letter:

“YOU HAVE TO BE A FORCE”

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the prolific Troy Carter.

Simply put, and I don’t say this lightly, Troy is a LEGEND in our industry.

He was once an artist manager who catapulted talents like Lady Gaga and Eve from obscurity to superstardom. His portfolio also boasts managing the careers of John Legend, Priyanka Chopra, and Meghan Trainor, among others. 

Holding various distinguished titles, from CEO & Founder of Atom Factory to Global Head of Creator Services at Spotify, Troy’s expertise spans far and wide. This expertise includes his keen eye for investment, which led him to early successes with start-ups such as Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, and Spotify.

Today, he runs and operates Venice Music with his Co-Founder, the brilliant Suzy Ryoo. Venice is a music distribution, artist services platform, and community that gives independent musicians the knowledge, network, and tools they need to achieve real growth on their terms.

It would be impossible to capture the extent of his illustrious career and impact in this bio. Nevertheless, I’m honored to be able to share some of our conversation with you all, exclusive to The Manager’s Playbook subscribers. 

In many ways, Troy has been a mentor and a beacon of light in my career. His insights are abundant. Candidly speaking with him is an absolute honor, and I’m sincerely grateful for the opportunity. There’s a wealth of information in this conversation that even I still find myself reflecting on. I hope it’ll be the same for you.

Read the exclusive talk below.

Thank you for your continued support. Enjoy the weekend.

KEY PLAYS

(FEAT. TROY CARTER)

My Conversation With Troy

MAURICIO: What do you think is the role of a great artist manager in 2024? 

TROY: I don't think the role has changed much from the very beginning of artist management all the way up until now in terms of protect and serve. I think a great manager, their job is to protect that artist as much as possible and be of service to that artist as much as possible and be the best possible partner to them. I think one of the things that has changed is just the landscape now. Before you had a set group of partners, your record label, your publishing, your booking agent and maybe a couple of endorsements or something like that.

And now with artists having to be so self-sufficient now, the manager serves more of a CEO level role and an organizer in their entire infrastructure because artists now have to be content studios, they have to be marketers, they have to be all of these things. So I think there's a bit of a new level of complexity and nuance to being a manager. You've got to learn a lot more. You've got to be really, really curious. I think the job before was 24/7, now it's like 48/14. 

MAURICIO: How do you identify great artists? 

TROY: You know, talent aside…songwriting…the work ethic is everything. Like whenever you have to drag people over the finish line to do the right thing for their careers, that's more than a red flag. It’s just obvious this person isn't going to get to the promise land. They may have some success, but it won't be the level of success that it takes to win championships. When I look at the largest artists in the world, some of them I either know or just sort of trace back, watching them from the beginning of their careers and their level of work ethic, commitment and showing up is unmatched.

You know, it’s millions of artists right now and to actually become the best in the world… Like Taylor Swift… I mean, sitting in a room with her and actually hearing her talk about her career and why she makes decisions and why she strategizes in a certain way… You couldn't talk to managers with that level of thoughtfulness and strategy. It’s no surprise she's where she is.

You look at a Rihanna, you look at a Bey…it’s artists who really, really show up, but they've been showing up from the beginning. They develop really great habits from the beginning. Those habits count.

I talk to artists regularly and I see sometimes where it's like, you know what? This person's a flake. And I’m straight up. Don’t waste my time. Like, I got other things to do. Other people got other things to do so if you can't show up in a meaningful way that's showing up for yourself in your own career, why should other people show up for you?

MAURICIO: Yeah, exactly. That's a very true thing. If I have to work harder, or want it more than the artist, it’s just not going to work.

TROY: I'm used to working with artists who are giving me a list of publications that they want to work with or these are the partners that I want to have or “Hey, did you call XYZ, XYZ about such and such?” It's like it’s this sort of push and not the “I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that.” It's levels to it.

MAURICIO: Or the expectation of just waiting for something to happen for the artist because the manager is going to take care of it. It's like no, you need to take control of this career of yours because management, label…everybody's going to only take it as far as you want to take it and they can see that… People can read bullshit from a mile away in this business. 

TROY: I had a conversation recently with a label who were complaining about this manager who I know and I said, “Don't worry about the manager, worry about the artist.” I said, “because if that artist really, really, really wants it, that manager is not going to be around because that artist isn't going to let anybody get in their way.” I said, “It’s the artist that's not showing up and it’s the manager that's covering for that artist right now.” Because I know the situation. I said, “But you never worry about the manager. That's going to be temporary.” If that artist really wants it, if that artist is a real superstar who’s driving his or her career, they're not letting a lazy manager get in their way. They're getting it. They're like, no, I'm going to hire the best. 


 MAURICIO: Do you still take the approach in what you do now… because you're not in management…

TROY: No, I do consulting. 

MAURICIO: You do consulting, yes, so do you give consulting advice to managers to be the Mack truck to go through the cul de sac, as you said?

TROY: Yes. Because you still, no matter what, you have to be a force. So being that Mack truck through the cul de sac is getting things done. Like can you actually get things done! If you got to close that deal, you got to close that deal! If you got to get this tour done, you got to get this tour done.

So whatever that task is, your job is to go in and finish that task. Because that's what you’re judged on at the end of the day it’s like can you actually get it done? 

MAURICIO: The results and the execution.

TROY: Yeah. That's it. That's all that matters because you can have the best intent in the world, but if you can't get it done, somebody else is going to get it done.

MAURICIO: The ideas are ideas unless they get executed. 

TROY: Absolutely. 

MAURICIO: Is that how you find great managers? 

TROY: You know, the great managers that I see now are like, who's the most curious? Who's learning about what the future holds? Who is finding new opportunities for their artists, who's not being complacent? And that level of focus, how can you sort of stay focused while you do it all.

TROY: And that humility piece, that piece it’s so important. I work with a few managers where they're super successful at what they do, but yet they're looking for more. They're like, how can I learn more? They're looking for those blind spots or whatever and that's how you grow. Every level you get to you’re like, okay, how do I get to that next level? And honestly, I think this is sort of across our business what I see happening. Like, I watched the making of the We Are the World (“The Greatest Night in Pop”) 

MAURICIO: I was watching that the other night. Fire by the way

TROY: And it's so funny I texted Lionel after.

MAURICIO: That's Lionel Richie by the way.

TROY: When you look at the star power that was in that room, those are REAL SUPERSTARS. Every genre, real superstars. And even the newer artists that were in there, the Cyndi Lauper's, you know, like superstars…

And so one of the problems that we see now is that people think they're superstars before they're superstars, and managers think their artists are superstars or the manager thinks he or she's a superstar before they're superstars.

So if you already think you're on that level it’s impossible to get to that next level because you think that you're already there and so you don't take in information or move the way you move.

Even watching the Grammys, when Taylor Swift walked into that room, when Jay and Beyonce walked into that room, you saw the separation of levels at that point. You know what I'm saying?

MAURICIO: Oh Yea

TROY: So that's the piece where you've got to strive to get to this next place, but you got to have a level of self awareness that you're not there and that your artist isn't there and even once you get there, you're still trying to figure out what that next level is. 

MAURICIO: Yeah. And it's okay to think that you're a superstar artist or a superstar manager I find, that delusion, as you talk about, but don't act like it. 

TROY: That’s it (laughs).

MAURICIO: (Laughs) Make sure you don’t present yourself that way because it's a different story if you do.

I remember being at Roc Nation brunch in New York City, I want to say 2018 and yeah, bunch of artists, stars. But when Hov would move, like literally take steps, the whole energy in that room moves. I saw the same thing with Beyonce. You saw it with Mariah Carey when she was in there. I was like, wow, they really affect energy in a different way. This is a whole other level than any one in this room. 

TROY: There’s levels to it. 

MAURICIO: Yeah, absolutely. I always find it fascinating… to stay observant and always watching. When we did the Raised in Space dinner (Feb 2020) with Shara (Senderoff) and Zach (Katz). The one thing that Zach actually said at the dinner to me. He said “do you mind if I be very honest and open?” And I was like, “Yeah, hell yeah, of course.” And he's like, “I took you to more dinners than what the advance was worth because you asked so many questions about what a publishing deal is. You are forever curious. You're not afraid to ask any questions whether you think they're stupid or not” And I've always approached it that way.  Like it doesn't matter to me if it's a stupid question or not, I hope that I can get the answer from that person. And if they feel like it's an idiotic question, I'm not supposed to be talking to that person.

TROY: Yeah Yeah

MAURICIO: I do want to talk about Venice Music. I think it's an amazing platform. 

TROY: It’s basically a community for artists to push their careers forward. As I looked at the independent landscape, you've got so many tools out there to distribute your music, yet there's more confusion in the market than ever.

Every artist is trying to figure it out. Like, how do I get fans? How do I get my music on soundtracks? On a TV show? Or how do I find a manager or find collaborators or go on tour? So it's just more questions than answers and so I created Venice as just really a place to get answers.

And so, you know, we sort of have this one side that's about our community with our pro members and basically that's this aspirational tier of artists that are taking their career seriously. They haven't gotten to that point where it's like they really got to the promise land yet, but they're making the time and investments to do it. So we've sort of weeded out the hobbyists and the not so serious artists from the people that are actually wanting to lean in and really invest in their careers from a time and resource perspective.

And then we have our services side, which I'm more closely involved in, which is dealing with independent artists and independent managers that are sort of looking to really take it to another level. So, you know, how are we building our artists globally? How am I building my business and my infrastructure as a manager? So our services side is about really threading that together. 

MAURICIO: That's amazing. I love that.

MAURICIO: Three books, don't have to be anything to do with the music business, or it can, that you would recommend for an artist manager? 

TROY: “The Alchemist” for sure. 

MAURICIO: Yes. Start with that. 

TROY: Yeah, because it's about journeys, which I love.

There’s a book called “The Psychology of Money” that I love. Probably one of the best books I’ve read. It’s about money, but it’s not necessarily about money, it’s really about purpose and focus. I think for a manager it’s a really good tool to have in your kit because it sort of helps you shed away noise and that's a good one. And then David Geffen's book (“The Operator”) has always been a classic to me. I've read it a million times. I think David is one of the best managers in history that's ever done it.

David Geffen is just…and I'm not saying this lightly, he's the most brilliant business strategist that I think we've seen within our lifetime. When Steve Jobs goes to you for, you know, as his mentor and like, you know, people like that go to you for, you know, for advice. You know, when Oprah goes to you for advice, when Jimmy (Iovine) goes to you for advice, you know...Geffen is just a master strategist. 

MAURICIO: What was it like working with Jimmy Iovine (Founder of Interscope Records) in your early days? 

TROY: You know, I miss it. We came up in a time when tough love and not getting your feelings hurt was a real thing, if it was in the greater good of a project.

MAURICIO: Yeah. 

TROY: And so when you look at building superstars, that's a real alignment of partners between the chairman or chairwoman of the label, the manager, the top booking agents. You know, all of these people sort of aligned to say we're committed and then we go to the DSPs, we go to radio, we go to everybody telling this sort of collective story, having a chair of a company like Jimmy, you've got this sort of force of nature where the decades of experience that's poured into this new manager like myself or there's new artists like the artists that I represented you sort of start shortcutting mistakes.

So just as an example, you know, I remember on Gaga's first tour, Jimmy came to the show and when he heard the sound, he was like, “It sounds like she's singing into a can right now.” He was like, “This is how you fix it” and he put me in touch with somebody who could help fix the show. But, you know, because this guy (Iovine engineered for John Legend, Bruce Springsteen and many other superstars) was one of the best engineers, it's like, you know, you can lean into that. But when you don't have that level of mentorship… and the managers have to have the ability and the humility to be vulnerable enough to actually receive that information no matter how hard it comes…

TROY: When I learned that my mentors have mentors, that part made me even more open at that point because I'm like, you never stop learning. Never stop being open. You never stop seeking advice. You got to really be interested in people. 

MAURICIO: I always say that this isn't the music business, this is the people's business. 

TROY: 100% 100%. 

MAURICIO: That's amazing. Last question. What's next? 

TROY: Who knows? (laughs) I like to leave white space, man.  I've lived my life on this idea of flow and I just continue to go with the flow because I never know what opportunities are going to pop up, who is going to pop into my life. You know, when luck decides to sprinkle some fairy dust and sort of go from there. 

*Please note that this conversation has been edited for legibility purposes. Efforts have been made to enhance clarity while preserving the integrity of the content.

Venice Music, co-founded by industry visionaries Troy Carter and Suzy Ryoo, is a music distribution and artist services platform that gives independent musicians the knowledge, network, and tools they need to achieve real growth on their terms.

Venice Music gives musicians the opportunities, strategy, and distribution technology they need to build their fanbase. While keeping 100% ownership, members can submit for sync placements, learn strategy and insights from top industry professionals, and grow alongside a private community of artists, managers & executives. Join now to get an exclusive 25% off our annual Pro Membership.

• Join a vibrant global community, online via private social network + IRL. 

• Best in class on-call support.

• Career growth through Office Hours, Feedback Sessions, and Workshops with industry experts.

• Unlimited music and video distribution to 200+ countries.

• Submit your music for sync consideration in TV, film, and commercials.

• Easily clip your music, and speed it up / slow it down.

• Upload in Dolby Atmos for top-quality sound, and higher royalties from Apple

• 25% Discount Code

• Join our virtual community on Mighty Networks

• Follow Venice on Instagram

Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, an Artist Management company with over 5 billion audio streams worldwide. Our past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, Marley Bleu, Skratch Bastid and more. I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Our client list includes The Weeknd, Eminem, and Celine Dion, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard, Canon, and the NBA.

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