Vector Management President Jason Murray on the Company’s 360-Degree Approach, Americana Successes: ‘The Counter Culture Has Become the Culture’

“Our approach to managing artists is ‘Let’s create the world that the music becomes connected to,’” says Jason Murray, president of full-service boutique talent management firm Vector Management, who has helmed the long-running company since January 2023.

Vector was founded in Nashville by music biz powerhouse Ken Levitan 1998, with Jack Rovner joining as co-founder in 2003. Over the years, Vector has grown to approximately 40 staffers guiding the careers of nearly three dozen artists across its roster, including Charley Crockett, John Hiatt, Allison Russell, Peter Frampton and Hank Williams, Jr.

Following a stint at BMG Canada as head of Canadian operations, Murray joined Vector in 2022, before officially becoming president in January 2023, charged with overseeing new business and operations. At that time, the Canadian indie label/management company Murray co-founded, Black Box Music, merged with Vector. Levitan and Rovner remain at Vector as founding partners.

Vector also guides the careers of such established artists such as Brian Kelley, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and newcomers including Chase McDaniel and Americana artist Bella White, whose song “Burn Me Once” was featured on the soundtrack for Hunger Games: The Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes.

In recent weeks, the artist management company, which has offices in Nashville, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, has also added Yung Gravy, The Aces, Jack Harris and 3OH!3 to the roster.

Vector has found particular success within the Americana and roots genres, thanks to clientele that includes musical troubadour Crockett and blues-rocker Marcus King, as well as Grammy winners Russell and Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. This year, Russell’s “Eve Was Black” won best American roots performance, while Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway earned best bluegrass album for City of Gold. Tuttle & Golden Highway are among the leading nominees for this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association Awards.

“If you look at the just the Americana and roots space — artists including Molly, Charley, Allison, Nitty Gritty [Dirt Band] — it is, without question, 85% of our revenue,” Murray says. Still, upon joining the company, he immediately identified ways to further heighten awareness for his stable of performers.

“There was a very strong footprint in circles like Americana, but it hadn’t hit that Renaissance yet,” Murray says. “I was like, ‘Okay, this is a company with three decades of quality control, and that goes to the people within the company, how we treat our partners, and the type of artists, whether that’s a John Hiatt, an Emmylou [Harris], a Hank Jr. How do I add value to this?’ It’s in the mechanics of releasing music and marketing. It’s the same ethos, but different tools in the toolbox.”

In terms of newer artists, Murray calls the art of breaking an act “the hardest thing to do,” especially given today’s streaming and content-centered music landscape.

“I look at that and think, ‘What feels intuitive to a manager?’ We need advocacy and awareness at DSPs for starters. We’re not putting out 100 records a week — we’re not in a spreadsheet at a major label — so how do we go tell the story and create true connectivity to our artists? We live in the era of content, and content creation is very different now than it was four years ago; it’s all short-form. So we built out our marketing team, looked at merch and e-commerce to make sure it feels focused and that we have the tactical tools we need.

“The marketing and all those other things are done on the back of creating something we are really passionate about,” Murray continues. “For us, it’s a full end-to-end ecosystem. We get involved on the creative level at whatever capacity the artist needs, but we’re there early enough that it allows us to immerse ourselves in the world that the record is becoming the soundtrack to. The more we understand the fibers and little idiosyncrasies that make the album special to the artist, it allows us to go into this amazing marketing team we have built here over the past two years and elevate that project.”

Crockett’s social media, leaning into his reputation as an observant musical troubadour, is filled with videos chronicling his day-to-day life on the road, from jamming with fellow Texas singer/songwriter Vincent Neil Emerson to numerous concert photos tracing his travels. The company’s marketing approach also offers space for artists to focus on issues they feel passionate about, whether that is King’s recent music (which addresses his struggles with drugs and alcohol) or Russell’s advocacy for human rights. Over the past year, Russell not only released her second album, The Returner, and embarked on her headlining tour of the same name this year — but in 2023, Russell organized the All-Star benefit concert Love Rising at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, in response to a slate of Tennessee anti-LGBT+ legislation.

“I give [Vector’s West Coast leader] Nicki Loranger a lot of credit. She had a vision that aligned with Allison and has supported Allison’s goals as a spokesperson, an artist, an advocate, a storyteller, a performer and helped put that in motion, and all these things to surround Allison’s mission,” Murray says.

King is among the artists who joined Vector under Murray’s tenure. In August 2023, Murray began an eight-month lead-up to what would become King’s 2024 album Mood Swings. What started with King sending Murray a Dropbox folder of 12 songs he had worked on with Rick Rubin, including “F—k Up My Life” and “Delilah,” soon became a quest to take the songs’ emotional arcs and translate them to visuals. Murray recalls creating a Pinterest board of color palettes, fonts and fashion colors that would represent the album. The ideas kept flowing, evolving into the idea of an album trailer visual to give fans an entry point into the record. They also set up an album listening event at the planetarium in Nashville, offering a space for King to play the music and discuss the songs.

The neon red, cursive scrawl of “Mood,” and a collection of face emojis bearing cowboy hats and various facial expressions, became signifiers for the album — a throughline from album art to merchandising. “When he’s out touring the world for a year, it all ties back together,” Murray says.

In recent years, artists such as Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan have seen meteoric rises, selling out arenas and stadiums and dominating not only Billboard’s Americana chart, but the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. Last year, Bryan’s self-titled album spent two weeks atop the Billboard 200, while Kahan’s song “Stick Season” rose to No. 9 on the Hot 100 this year. Murray has seen the growth fuel the entire Americana genre.

“I feel like the ceiling just raised about 13 floors in terms of what the genre means,” Murray says. “We’ve built a rich history here in Americana and it’s about great songs, great stories, and great live shows. I think those pieces mean more now to a listening audience than ever before, so it’s a bit of a perfect storm. The counterculture has become the culture. You look at the history of all music genres — rock in the ‘70s, hip-hop, punk rock… you don’t know it’s coming until you’re in it.”

Upon joining Vector, Murray (along with Levitan) signed singer-songwriter Crockett, who Murray calls “a phenomenal artist, great songwriter.” His music draws on a deep knowledge and respect for music history in a variety of styles, melding them with vivid lyrics and a commanding vocal.

Though the genre does have radio stations and shows dedicated to its artists, as well as playlists such as Spotify’s Indigo and Amazon Music’s Fresh Folk & Americana, touring remains the bedrock for building an enduring career within Americana and roots music. Crockett has assembled a reputation as a rollicking live performer and Levitan and Murray capitalized on that by issuing his first live album, last September’s Live From the Ryman, and a concert film of his Ryman concert, which aired in February on PBS.

Crockett also released his $10 Cowboy album in April (via Son of Davy/Thirty Tigers) and has embarked on a tour that includes some of his biggest venues to date including Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre, Colorado’s Red Rocks, and two nights at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. He also paid homage to some of Texas’ most iconic venues, performing a slate of shows at places like Austin’s Broken Spoke and Houston’s Armadillo Palace.

The prolific Crockett recently announced $10 Cowboy Chapter II: Visions of Dallas (coming Monday, July 22), which follows April’s original $10 Cowboy. For Murray, the goal is marketing his artists year-round, regardless of how often projects are released.

Murray isn’t concerned about flooding the market. “When it comes to off-cycle or on-cycle, that was a system put in place by the labels, and it’s not how people consume,” he explains. “I use the analogy of Starbucks — they market all year long, and they still have their tentpoles, like the pumpkin spice latte or the peppermint latte. But what you do throughout the year is important. When we think about oversaturating the market — I don’t think that exists. I think it’s more quality control. Charley’s one of the best out there, and everything he puts out is so refined and thought out.”

The 360-degree approach to management has allowed the company to craft customized strategies for realizing each artist’s career vision.

“That’s part of what gets me excited about what we do here at Vector,” Murray says. “We’re not a volume business — we look at it more as a powerful boutique with attention to detail.”

This post was originally published on this site

Written by Mr. Nimbus