What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Troy Carter, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Troy Carter

Troy Carter91 posts

Troy Carter is an American businessman, born in Philadelphia in 1972. Originally a member of the short-lived rap group 2 Too Many, he worked for Puff Daddy before setting up his own artist management company. In 2007 he became Lady Gaga’s manager, helping her sell over 24 million albums and 90 million singles. He split with Gaga in 2013. He is an active investor in over 50 technology startups. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and five children.

Latest News view > Click for Biography view
26 Jan, 2018

Carter: Unreleased Prince music ‘coming soon’

Makes Statement0 Comments

Carter, in his role as Prince’s estate advisor, says unreleased material will be released ‘soon,’ but does not give details as to when, or which label might release the songs.

He was a guy who practically lived in a recording studio, and once we started going through [the unreleased material] we really started finding some gems. I heard some music the other night that was pretty mind-blowing and we’re getting some stuff mixed right now. We’ve got great projects in the works that I’m excited to talk about. So the answer is yes, there will be unreleased Prince music coming soon.

16 Dec, 2016

Talks about Drake’s streaming success

Makes Statement0 Comments

Carter comments on Drake’s One Dance feat. WizKid and Kyla passing one billion streams on Spotify, during the eight months since it was released.

It’s a phenomenal record, that’s where it starts. It’s just one of those rare records that translates throughout the world. Drake’s always been great at really capturing hip-hop and pop sensibilities, but to be able to do that globally with a record like this is just amazing…Hit records make us look really smart. [Laughs] I think Drake made a monster of a record and people responded, and I think our guys within Spotify are just getting better and better at how to put music out in front of more and more people and when it all comes together it works.

3 Oct, 2016

Fortune profile

Interview0 Comments

In a profile in Fortune, Carter talks about Spotify’s relationship with its customers.

The music industry did a terrible job of building a relationship with consumers. Spotify was one of the first services that actually focuses on the consumer because they don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars a year on music.

And on his skillset:

The only two things that ever came naturally to me are music and investing.

21 Jun, 2016

Launches Smashd Group

Founding0 Comments

Carter and Havas launch Smashd Group, an extension of his online news vertical and business accelerator, at Cannes Lions. Carter’s team of 20 Smashd employees at Atom Factory will assist Havas’ global network of corporate clients on brand consultancy, technology strategy and other innovations. Carter, on the difference between large brands and artists social media presences.

We don’t touch our artists’ Twitter or Instagram accounts. [But] when you have multiple people running a digital department, it’s very difficult for that voice to translate throughout the organization into the community…If you’re Coca-Cola, General Mills, one of these big companies, they’re a big inspiration to most of these startups. So when you can marry that thirst for innovation within the biggest companies and the thirst for business development from these young entrepreneurs, we think it’s a perfect match, The idea of being able to do [Smashd] Labs on the tech side, and brand innovation, we can bring these two worlds together.

Carter also talks about the next area he sees that is set for disruption:

Banks are dead. I met with the founder two weeks ago who’s building a platform for music artists, from STEM, and basically they were gonna handle collections for music artists to collect royalties from YouTube and all these other platforms. After the founder showed me an artist’s PayPal account, which contained $250,000, she said, ‘None of the creators are gonna have bank accounts. For these kids, everything is happening on mobile.’ This group aren’t buying cars, so they’re not paying loans. They’re renting and not buying houses, they’re waiting to get married til their mid-to-late 30s. These kids aren’t going to college soon because they don’t want the student debt. So I think banks are ripe for disruption.

6 Jun, 2016

Joins Spotify

Hired0 Comments

Carter is hired by Spotify to be the Global Head of Creative Services. As part of the transition, Carter will also step away from managing Meghan Trainor,

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.

8 Feb, 2016

Tech should train minority talent

Interview0 Comments

In a panel on diversity at the Upfront Summit, Carter asks: What if we started treating computer science in the same way we treat athletics? Carter compares basketball’s feeder system to the hodge-podge landscape of tech recruiting. Despite the number of jobs available to skilled and talented programmers, there’s not a nationwide program to identify young talent, develop it, sponsor it with big names and scholarships, and lift kids out of unfortunate situations along the way.

In the NBA, there’s only room for 450 jobs. In tech, it’s exponential.

23 Nov, 2015

Re/code interview

Interview0 Comments

In an interview with Re/code, Carter talks about SMASHDLabs.

On the artist side, we made a significant investment in very young artists from the very beginning of their careers and helped them become global superstars. So, on the entrepreneurs’ side, the idea of the labs was to be able to create this ecosystem to help them from the very beginning, to see them through from development and hopefully until they become large companies.

He also says that the accelerator companies had access to entrepreneurial advice from Marc Cuban, who gave the welcoming address, Sophia Amoruso of retail site Nasty Gal, Jason Calacanis, Def Jam Records co-founder Russell Simmons, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, Upfront Ventures’ Mark Suster and MediaREDEF Chief Executive Jason Hirschhorn.

We had a wide array of incredible entrepreneurs and investors that came in to speak to the group. The head of growth for Snapchat, he probably spent five days with our companies. That’s significant.

18 Nov, 2015

THR Uber editorial

Writes Article0 Comments

Carter writes a guest editorial for The Hollywood Reporter, about his investment in Uber.

I don’t think anyone could have predicted that Uber would now be worth close to $100 billion, but I believe it could become one of the most important companies in the world. As an investor, I initially had questions about Uber’s long-term potential given the pushback the company was getting from the San Francisco taxi industry, but CEO Travis Kalanick explained that someday Uber wouldn’t just move people, it would become a global log­is­tics platform with the ability to move things.

29 Oct, 2015

Fast Company interview

Interview0 Comments

Carter is interviewed by Fast Company. He talks about how to get investor approval:

Do the work. That’s as basic as you can possibly get. You can’t dream your way out of a problem. You can’t just dream your way into the business. You’ve got to actually put rubber on the road and do the work. If your job is to sweep floors, the only way those floors are going to get swept is if you put the broom on the ground. If your job is to code, you need fingers on the keys. So whatever it is you do, you actually have to do the work. You can’t just talk about it. You can’t be philosophical about it. You have to get the physical work in.

12 Oct, 2015

Ebony interview

Interview0 Comments

Ebony interviews Carter on the status of Blacks in tech.

You know the Jay-Z saying, “men lie, women lie, numbers don’t (laughs)?” This is a key point of that. Numbers show that there are not that many brothers and sisters in this field, and it takes the brothers and sister that are in already to help open those doors. We need to have that real, honest conversation on why the numbers are so low…I can say I’ve never felt overtly discriminated against in tech, or that I’ve walked from a meeting saying that someone was undeniably racist. But when you have companies like Twitter where 25% or more of your users are African American, but your employee base is in the very low single digits, that speaks volumes of your hiring practices and your thoughts on our community. I don’t think it’s said that ‘we aren’t hiring Blacks,’ but people are known to hire in their networks. So if you didn’t go to Harvard, or weren’t in this social club, or aren’t a member of this fraternity or sorority, you won’t have the same access as someone who shares the same exact resume as you do. We just have to get plugged into the networks.

10 Oct, 2015

Business Insider interview

Interview0 Comments

In an interview with Business Insider, Carter explained that his investing style is largely based around “feel.”

I’m a simple guy. I know a lot of investors use a lot of analytics in their diligence process, and for me it’s about feel. It’s how do I feel about the idea, how do I feel about the entrepreneur. It’s the same thing that gave me an advantage to being an artist manager. Because it’s all feel. You’re not operating with a lot of data, so you get to feel out people…I want to know your background; I want to know your dynamic; I want to know how long you guys have known each other. If you’re partners on the show, I want to know how long you guys have known each other. I want to know how you guys make decisions together — that tells me a lot about how the business is going to be run.

9 Oct, 2015

Shark Tank appearance

Fundraising0 Comments

Foot Cardigan accepts an offer on Shark Tank from Cuban and Carter, who is appearing as a guest shark, to co-invest $250,000 for a 20% ownership stake in their $9-a-month sock subscription service. The company says it earned $1.36 million in the past three years ($900,000 in the past 12 months) and projects $1.5 million for 2015. It currently services 6,000 monthly customers with seasonal increases to approximately 12,000 subscribers.

Foot Cardigan - Shark Tank First Pitch

2 Oct, 2015

Leaves Atom Factory, launches Friends At Work

Founding0 Comments

Stiklorius leaves Atom Factory to start Friends At Work, her own own management company, where she will work with Lindsey Stirling and John Legend. Carter:

The only thing that I love as much as artists are entrepreneurs, and Ty has the makings of a great one. Although I’m sad to see her leave, I’m grateful for our time together and extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished over the last three years. She and John are going to build a great company that will help other artists and have an impact on the community. They’ll always be a part of our family here at Atom Factory.

23 Sep, 2015

TechCrunch Disrupt interview

Interview0 Comments

Carter is interviewed by Lane at TechCrunch Disrupt. He says that artists’ complaints about streaming revenues are flawed, because the only alternative to streaming services is piracy or having someone listen to the song on YouTube for free. He says artists to be patient, and said that streaming is a numbers game.

Once everyone is converted to services like Spotify, the economics will make a lot more sense.

However, he says that labels are not paying artists Spotify royalties.

Spotify came in and did a presentation for us, maybe about a couple of months ago, and our clients made a significant amount of income from Spotify. Well, let’s rephrase that: the labels made a significant amount of money off of Spotify that didn’t match up to the artist royalty statements that the artists received. So, Spotify is paying out a lot of money, it’s just not finding its way into the hands of the artists.

He also says that while Silicon Valley’s ecosystem eventually needs to open up:

If you don’t open up the opportunities to the people who understand the industry, and understand the space, Silicon Valley is going to miss out.

Troy Carter discusses the state of entertainment and technology at Disrupt SF

10 Sep, 2015

Business Insider interview

Interview0 Comments

Carter is interviewed by Business Insider. On why he originally turned down Shark Tank:

Originally I passed on doing it and I went home and I talked to my wife about it, and I ended up coming back around…What we thought about is that you can’t be it if you can’t see it. There’s not a lot of black entrepreneurs and I can’t sit there and bitch about diversity in tech and all of those things about access and pipeline if I’m not out there doing something about that…I’m watching the riots in Baltimore, I’m watching Ferguson, I’m watching Blacklivesmatter, I’m watching Jesse Jackson berate Silicon Valley. There’s just all these conversations around race, diversity, and tech. That’s what kind of gave me this shift where I said “It’s time that I do something and lend my voice.”

On working on the show:

You know what, I’ve gained a tremendous amount of respect for the sharks. I don’t know how they do their day jobs and do what they do on Shark Tank. It was definitely competitive for sure, and you get into some really deep negotiations. Luckily once I realized, “Ok, this is what I do every day” I got into my comfort zone. The biggest surprise for me was the length of the negotiations. The producers and editors do a really good job of what can sometimes be an hour and a half-negotiation and edit it down to a seven-minute segment.

9 Sep, 2015

SMASHD Labs inductees announced

Announcement0 Comments

Carter announces the first inductees into the SMASHD Labs accelerator program.

We want to be able to open the door to companies to come into our network where we can actually invest money, put a network of investors around them, and put mentors in the room that can help them build a great company.

Inductees include WeTransfer, a file transfer service:

All of our clients on the music side use WeTransfer, so here we have this opportunity to reach 70 million people per month through advertising.

Trakfire, a Product Hunt for music:

Without giving too much away about what they’re working on, it’s the most well-thought out and efficient way of discovering new music I’ve seen so far.

Sidestep, which lets fans order fan gear directly to their concert seats or their house.

You go into the venues and there’s a huge drop-off rate in the merch lines. People don’t want to miss parts of the concert.

Throne, an Ebay for streetwear, which he had seen at a demo day:

The problem with when you look at eBay is that you can put a pair of Jordans next to a frying pan. It’s an altogether different experience compared to having some editorial around it and well-curated experience

Podium, which gives tablets to Uber and Lyft riders:

Having a captive audience in the back of Lyft or an Uber is a pretty great place.

Enrou, a marketplace where buyers can support both the individuals and communities that they buy from. Carter saw the founders on Forbes 30 under 30 list and wanted the company to apply for SMASHD.

This was a company that really checked a box that we were looking for in how can we combine social impact around global culture.

22 Jul, 2015

Billboard interview

Interview0 Comments

Carter talks about why he started SMASHD Labs to Billboard.

There’s definitely a huge amount of accelerators out there, but there was a void for one that focused on brand, and that’s a space we have a lot of experience at and that makes this unique. Selfishly, it works for the Atom Factory — by being able to put 25 of the smartest entrepreneurs from around the world in your office. We get a lot of value out of that as well…[I want] A diverse team — the crux of my personal mission is to open up entrepreneurship to everybody, so Silicon Valley doesn’t have a patent on innovation. We want to open up the process to people outside of that network — the team would be diverse, hard-working entrepreneurs with technical expertise that are looking to gain traction on their product.

On the importance of data:

There’s always going to be a place for artists — but when you look at what humans have actually done to devalue music, from a pure monetary valuation standpoint, this is the part where our industry needs a lot of help. SoundCloud is worth its $1.5 billion valuation, but there’s no way in the world that SoundCloud should be worth more than The Beatles’ catalog. From a value proposition, we have a huge opportunity to re-value our business… I think the music is undervalued. I think up to this point we’ve done a poor job of valuing our content.

Announces SMASHD Labs tech accelerator

Founding0 Comments

Carter announces SMASHD Labs, an LA-based accelerator. SMASHD Labs will take between five and seven young tech companies whose focus is entertainment and culture and house them for 10 weeks in Atom Factory’s office, providing them with $50,000 in funding for 3% of the company, as well as providing a weekly “curriculum” in order to focus and define their idea.

Atom Factory Presents: Smashd Labs Season 1

20 Jul, 2015

To appear as Guest Shark

Casting0 Comments

Carter will appear as a Guest Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank, taking the place of Kevin O’Leary on one show. The season, which premieres on September 25, will also have Chris Sacca and Ashton Kutcher as Guest Sharks. Carter says he is excited to join because of the show’s ability to reach Americans outside the Bay Area and New York hubs, “specifically kids that look like me” from less privileged or minority backgrounds.

I love Silicon Valley, but it doesn’t have a patent on innovation and entrepreneurship. These are legitimate business negotiations with entrepreneurs who are spending their own money.

As for dealing with the other sharks:

The daggers were out along with the checkbooks.