Troy Carter, ex-manager for major artists like Lady Gaga, John Legend, Charlie Puth, and others, is moving to Spotify to head up their relationships with artists.

As the world’s leading music streaming service you would think that Spotify would be tight with artists, but compare the seemingly endless artist exclusives of competitors like Apple Music and Tidal with very little exclusivity on Spotify and you can see how Spotify might not be the favourites.

Troy Carter will be joining Spotify next week as Global Head of Creator Services to head up amending this issue through three different areas: artist relations, songwriter relations, label relations. Using Carter’s existing personal relationships, connections, and insider knowledge he will be able to truly bolster Spotify’s position with artists, describing his main role as to “protect the voice of artists”.

Though it’s not yet clear what they will be working towards with artists Spotify will no doubt want to get onto exclusive artist releases, something that has been pushing Tidal’s numbers up throughout 2016 with exclusives from Kanye West, Rihanna, Beyonce, and others.

Troy Carter spoke on his new position on his Facebook page, saying:

I started my career as a kid who loved hip hop. I would read the back of liner notes and knew every studio, engineer, and producer you could think of. I had a crazy “rain man” like recall on all things music. I loved music so much that I dropped out of high school and dedicated my life to it. It was never about making money; it just spoke to my soul and gave a skinny, shy kid the words he didn’t know how to say and the confidence he didn’t know he had. Music gave me life and fueled the culture around me.

When Eve asked me to be her manager, I had no clue what that meant. All I knew was that my job was to protect my friend. And that role of protector is one that I would find myself taking on for many artists over the years. So after 15 years of talent management, I’ve decided that it’s time to explore new roads. I’d like to thank all of the artists that gave me such an incredible opportunity by entrusting me and the Atom Factory team with their careers: Eve, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Meghan Trainor, Charlie Puth, and many many others. THANK YOU!

There’s a famous quote from JFK that says, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” With that said, I’m a firm believer that Spotify is the future for music. In my new role as Global Head of Creator Services, my job is just a natural continuation of what I’ve always done – protect the voice of artists. Always have and always will.

Through Atom Factory, my team will stay in place to run our tech, culture and hustle outlet SMASHD.co as well as launch a brand innovation agency. And through Smashd Labs and Cross Culture VC, I’ll still continue investing in great founders that have the ability to deliver next wave disruption to culture.

Looking forward to the road ahead!
Troy