Greg Thompson // The Art of Breaking an Artist

As the visionary and ingenious leader who developed numerous global superstars including Katy Perry, Sam Smith, and Madonna, Greg Thompson has revolutionized the music landscape. Starting his career in the music business as a young college student, Greg spent over 30 years acquiring industry knowledge and experience that enabled him to move up the chain of command at various record labels. Looking to progress the industry and make an even bigger impact, Greg decided to transition from record labels to the management side of the business. Through his innovative creativity, keen intelligence, and passion-driven leadership, Greg joined Maverick Music as the company’s first-ever President. Tasked with leading one of the most powerful management conglomerates in the world, Greg continues to positively shape and refashion the music scene through Maverick’s music enterprise of influential managers and impressive artists.

Transcript

Greg Thompson: You know, Katy Perry, I thought from day one, you know, I had worked with Rihanna at Island Def Jam and I just saw her as my next Rihanna. I saw an artist that had ambition, work ethic, and was truly not just a great musician, but a great entertainer.

Owen: Welcome to the Power of 2 where we explore the stories of unique individuals, to understand how they define "success" and use that blueprint to lead an exponential life. I'm your co-host Owen Baim alongside my brother Ethan and today we are joined by the President of Maverick Music, Greg Thompson. 

Growing up in Royal Oak, Michigan, Greg attended Michigan State University where his career in the music industry began after landing a job as a college rep for CBS records. Upon graduating, Greg accepted a position at Chrysalis Records and eventually became their 'Vice President of Top 40 Promotion'. 

Over the course of the next many years, Greg held numerous upper level leadership positions at various record labels including SBK Records, EMI Records, and East West Records. During his first year at East West Records, the label consolidated into Elektra Records where he spent 11 years and served as the company's Executive Vice President, as well as General Manager.

At Elektra Records, Greg had the opportunity to work alongside well-known artists such as AC/DC, Busta Rhymes, and Metallica, to name a few. In 2005, Greg joined Island Def Jam, eventually becoming the company's Executive Vice President of Promotion, New Media, and Tour Marketing. During his time at Island Def Jam. Greg had the luxury of learning under music gurus such as Jay-Z, L.A. Reid, and Steve Bartels. In 2008, Thompson was recruited  back to EMI Records where he took on the role as the label's Executive Vice President of Promotion and Marketing for North America. There, Greg played a crucial role in the development of prominent musicians such as Katy Perry, Coldplay, and David Guetta.

Eventually, EMI Music Group was acquired to form Capitol Music Group. In 2013, Thompson was promoted to Executive Vice President of Capitol Music Group, where he helped advance the careers of artists such as Sam Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and Five Seconds of Summer, alongside others. In 2016, after 30 years of experience at record labels, Greg decided to join Maverick Music as President, switching over to the management side of the music industry.

Maverick Music is a progressive and innovative music enterprise that includes some of the most powerful management companies in the world. As the first ever President of this established management conglomerate, Greg's main responsibility is to optimize and identify opportunities for talent across Maverick's portfolio of stellar artists.

In this episode, we discuss the game-changing impact that streaming and TikTok have had on the global music landscape, the future of albums as playlisting rises in popularity, and how new technologies like Community are changing artist accessibility forever, alongside much more. This week on the Power of 2 podcast, Greg Thompson.

Ethan: Hey, what's going on everybody. I'm Ethan Baim here with my brother Owen and welcome to the Power of 2. Today, we are joined by the incredible Greg Thompson. Greg, welcome to the show. 

Greg Thompson: Thanks for having me. 

Owen: Yeah. Thank you for coming on where we're both really excited to hear about some of your insight and what you have to say.

So, let's get going. So Greg, coming out of college you immediately took a job in the music industry working for Chrysalis Records. You're still in the music business over 30 years later. How did you know this industry aligned with your passions and that it would be the right fit for you at such a young age?

Greg Thompson: Well, I'm not sure that I had a crystal ball and knew all that was ahead of me or that I would actually be able to turn this into a career for 30 years, but I kinda got the bug for music in high school when I worked in a record store in the Detroit area back when there was such a thing as record stores.

And I just sort of started to fall in love with the music business. And so as I started college, I got involved with college radio but I really realized it was always the music that was the centerpiece for me. When I was in college, I did everything I could to work for independent labels, intern at major label distribution offices, run the college radio station, and eventually end up in Lansing at that other school, Michigan State, as the— 

Ethan: Go blue!

Greg Thompson: —as the college rep for what was CBS, now Sony music and that started to really connect me to a lot of people in the music business and really opened my eyes up to a record company and what they did. 

Ethan: Great and I know you have a long career kind of focusing on the record label side, but recently you switched over more so to the management side at Maverick. What was that transition like for you and why did you switch over? 

Greg Thompson: The transition was actually good but eye opening. You know everything always looks easier from the other side of the fence. But for me, I felt like I'd been in the label business my whole life and I had worked so closely with so many artists and so many managers, that sometimes I felt like I was managing the act from the record company.

And I think that what I was interested in was the fact that the management side, you sit in the middle of everything. So it's not just recorded masters, it's not just publishing, it's not— a manager is touching touring, touching brand deals, touching merge deals, really right next to the artists at the epicenter of the entire ecosystem.

Ethan: Gotcha. And can you explain what Maverick does and how Maverick's set up? 

Greg Thompson: Maverick is— some people, you know, argue the world's biggest management company. It's a collection of top line managers, backed by Live Nation, that came together to sort of form a collective, if you will, or a brotherhood of great men and women that manage great acts with likeminded philosophies where when they all came together, they had much more scale, much more information, much more power.

And as things came into Maverick, they could be moved around inside the different teams, depending on what the best fit was. So, It's a collection of really great managers with their own teams coming together under one roof. 

Owen: Yeah, that's very cool and interesting. So as the first President of Maverick Music, you're responsible for optimizing and identifying opportunities for talent. Your roster sports artists such as Lil Nas X, Doja Cat, and Loren Gray, who are all— gained major popularity through TikTok.

How are you using this relatively new platform for your current artists as well as to sign new talent to Maverick? 

Greg Thompson: Well, Tik— TikTok is an amazing platform. It's given so many artists this huge boost because it's sort of a natural, organic playground for young consumers who happen to also have strong love for music.

And obviously music plays very well on the platform. So, in the case of someone like Doja Cat, it took a— what was a hit song and just made it a worldwide smash because people became familiar through the great work that many users did on the platform. So it's a very, very powerful platform right now for music.

Ethan: Yeah and I know like the music industry is always evolving and changing and on top of all these new channels that are emerging to push and promote music, we've also seen a large rise of playlists and the effect that it's having on album plays— traditional album plays. Are albums as important for new artists in this time period of music?

Greg Thompson: I think albums are important to a lot of artists. The question really is: does the consumer still want to get, you know, 10, 13 tracks at one time? And I think it varies greatly by genre, by artist... I think, you know, Indie Rock type artists that have passionate followings probably have a better opportunity to get people to consume a full album.

But I just think that the evolution of the world we're in, album has a big question mark on it. Is it an album? Is it a series of EPs? What is the best way for artists to bring their music to market? And, you know, clearly in a playlist world where a lot of people use that as their primary source of consumption off of their favorite DSP, you start to wonder, you know, how are you going to even get people to go that deep into a body of work. So it's a big question mark for the future. 

Ethan: Definitely and I know that another potential trend is a fragmented fandom and sort of niche becoming more of the mainstream and there's predictions that over the course of time, a larger number of artists are gonna emerge and the listening experience is going to become more personalized. Do you agree with that sentiment? 

Greg Thompson: Well, I think we're in a very interesting evolution and consumption. So I think that what's interesting is that there's a lot more opportunity for artists with smaller fan bases to have really intimate relationships with that audience through social media, through many of the various channels that allow you to really reach out and touch people.

You know, there's a new technology, if you will, that came out that tons of people are using now called "Community," which is actually creating one-on-one text relationships on top of what people are doing with social media. So, I do think that, in one way, the smaller niche stuff is going to get bigger.

The other side of that, or the opposite side of that is, how big an audience can you amass these days on any one song or artist? 

Ethan: Right. And I know— that was actually something we were going to touch on a little bit later was Community cause I know Guy played a large role in kind of starting that up and bringing it to the forefront.

And I know it's still getting off the ground but I think that that's really— I think like artist accessibility, that's something that we always— that that's always kind of there and something that we're going to see more and more of and it's like, how do you engage with your fans? And I think community is awesome.

I started to use it to connect with some people as a consumer, but is that something that we're going to see more of also, like more of these kind of new evolving ways that artists can interact with their fans? 

Greg Thompson: Well, you know, Guy is a visionary. He's a— he's clearly one of— a very, very smart person and what he saw immediately was a huge void in the relationship of artists with their followers through, you know, social media platforms that you had a message that went out to the kid in Seattle that was the same as the kid that was following you on— in Singapore or London or whatever. And so, the beauty of Community is you can segment your followers, your audience, and talk specifically to women under the age of 25 or people in the New York area when you're coming to play a gig and you want to like, you know, intimately touch base with those people that are going to show up for that show.

It's a really cool platform and the other thing that's great about it is the artist owns all their data as opposed to, you know, I want to go on Katy Perry's Instagram account tomorrow and act and—  and advertise to all those people, I can do that. 

And she— 

Ethan: Right.

Greg Thompson: —doesn't even own that data. So it was a really obvious hole and I think when Guy saw the technology and he had always in his head thought there was a missing link here and it's exploded. The technology— the platform is really great for what it is. 

Owen: Yeah and as you mentioned, the music industry is becoming even more and more global every year. You know, reaching just the United States isn't enough. You need to reach the person in Singapore or the person in India.

So, how much time and resources are dedicated to developing music markets compared to more emerging music markets? 

Greg Thompson: Well, you know, it used to be that you had to conquer by territory and there was gatekeepers in every country so if the guy that ran your label in France didn't want to prioritize your artists, it was really hard.

If the promoter in Germany didn't really believe or want to book it, you know, and you had, you know, the traditional access points of the press and radio and maybe video channels and they were controlled by people, et cetera. Well, you know, what's obviously evolved is that artists have the ability to talk direct to fans.

Streaming has created a platform where you don't have to worry about getting your record distributed inside France. It's inside France if you have Spotify or Deezer or, you know, you're on YouTube. If it's there in the United States, it's there in France, it's there in South Africa. So suddenly, the ability to talk to kids or music lovers all over the world, there is no borders and the cost of entry is a lot less and it's okay if you only have a thousand followers in South Africa, you can still enjoy having those thousand fans there. And so what's happened is, you know, the world has really stepped back and realized that it's a global world. So, in a lot of ways, the world's gotten a lot smaller because of technology.

That's a good thing. Streaming services have made— they've leveled the playing field for distribution, so there's no cost of entry. And then, you know, companies like Live Nation and AEG are very sophisticated in starting to bring a much more global touring market. So instead of a band going, well I can play Australia and I can play United States. I can play the UK and Europe and maybe Japan or something. There was a very healthy— up until recently at least, a very healthy global touring business where artists could literally, you know, spend two years going around the world playing for fans. 

Owen: Yeah. And what about like genres that are not as common in the United States? So like, let's say K-pop or Indian music is Maverick focusing on those different genres or other genres? 

Greg Thompson: Yeah, I— actually we brought in a K-pop act called Monsta X last year, it's doing great. That had a whole vision for their English speaking music and that's gone really well at top five record with Epic and Sony in the U.S. And a couple charted pop singles.

We just signed an artist that had a big base in India, relocated to the United States named Ananya Birla. And we feel very much that everything should be viewed globally. So— and to answer your question I think, you know, we live in a world where the reason K-pop has sort of blown up and people are like, "oh, look at this thing" is there was all these kids that were discovering this and they felt that was their music, right?

And they connected with Monsta X or BTS or, you know, whatever K-pop band. So, it was a lot easier for K-pop to go around the world. And it turned out that there was a bunch of fans, a lot of young girls, that loved it and saw it as another version of boy band—

Ethan: Right.

Greg Thompson: —music, you know?

Ethan: And I know a lot of times music executives have external goals in the music industry out of just, I guess, protecting the bottom line.

When you took over as President of Maverick, what are some of your big kind of goals outside of just, you know, helping Maverick get to where you want it to be? 

Greg Thompson: Well, I think it's about really creating opportunities for synergy. You know, the guy sitting in the middle of all these different teams, you want to be able to create connective tissue, you want to help the organization realize its potential of people working together and, you know, a lot of great things have come out of that. Lil Nas X is actually managed by two of our senior partners that have separate teams, but came together to manage Lil Nas X.

So Adam Leber and Gee Roberson, you know, they came together and just said, "let's do this one together". That happens a lot, now, and I think that my goal was to create a platform where we could nurture and grow baby artists, you know, establish global superstars and really have a healthy flow of sharing information.

So when U2 plays Nashville, they get to have the resources of one of the best guys ever in Nashville, Clarence Spalding, who has an incredible roster of country artists and knows everything and anything you want to know about Nashville and the people there and the music and musicians and et cetera.

So, for me that was a goal; was to really make the synergy and make the opportunity of everybody sharing resources, healthy and really connected. 

Owen: Right and obviously your goals over the years have changed as your positions have changed. When you were at EMI Music, one thing that we saw is that you played a critical role in the development of artists such as Katy Perry and Sam Smith and David Guetta.

Can you expand a little bit on some of the promotional work you did to help accelerate some of these artists' careers? 

Greg Thompson: Yeah. The EMI chapter is just such an interesting chapter because I actually joined a company that had been purchased by a private equity firm. It was a very difficult business scenario for any experienced person in the business to succeed in.

And one of the cool things is I had the freedom to really drive the building based on data and instincts and things I was seeing, so a French company had this incredible artist named David Guetta. You know, only people that were hardcore EDM people in the United States or hung out at Pasha in New York City, knew who David probably was.

Owen: Right. 

Greg Thompson: But he was an unbelievably visionary, gifted guy and he was really on the forefront of mass appeal, dance music by DJs. And, so, you know, I just clicked with David. I thought he had great potential. He had, you know, a solid first record that I thought we could do some great things with. And then he walked in with his next record and it was just loaded with superstar features.

You know, Katy Perry, I thought from day one, you know, I had worked with Rihanna at Island Def Jam and I just saw her as my next Rihanna. And, I saw an artist that had ambition, work ethic, and tons of talent and was truly not just a great musician, but a great entertainer. 

Ethan: Yeah, absolutely. And throughout all your time in the music industry, how have you come to define success for yourself?

Greg Thompson: That's a tough one to really answer quickly but I think it's, for me, if I've helped an artist realize their potential. If I've helped an artist grow  and build a fan base and connect their art with consumers and find an audience for that, that's a win. 

Ethan: Right, that's great. 

Owen: And would you say over the years from, you know, your role at EMI or Island Def Jam all the way to your role now at Maverick, has your definition of success changed?

Greg Thompson: Yes and no. I think you always have to redefine what you consider successful in your short term accomplishments but, you know, I think, ultimately, I like to break artists always have and that's always been the thing that gets me excited when I get out of bed in the morning. 

Owen: Is there a specific artist or two that you would say most excited you or you enjoyed working with the most?

Greg Thompson: I've been blessed to work with unbelievable artists for many years, whether it was, you know, Metallica or Mariah Carey, Coldplay. Katy Perry though, for me, was definitely up there at the top of the list just because of the relationship that I had with her and her management team and how closely we all worked, on every aspect of: A&Ring the records, marketing the records, the strategy to promote them. It was a really fulfilling experience and, you know, when I met her, I think they were trying to repossess her car and kick her out of her apartment. 

Ethan: Wow. 

Greg Thompson: And to see where she is today is just, you know, a statement of, also perseverance by her because when I had met her, she had been dropped by two other record labels before she was signed to EMI.

Ethan: It's incredible. All right well, Greg, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast and thank you so much for lending us a little bit of your time today. 

Greg Thompson: Sure. Good luck guys and thanks for having me on. 

Owen: Thank you very much, Greg. We both really, really appreciate you giving us this time.

Thank you for tuning into the Power of 2 podcast. Ethan and I are two college students looking to inspire our generation and the ones to follow by sharing the stories of unique individuals. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you're subscribed to get notified when a new episode is released and follow us on Instagram @Baimbrothers for exclusive content.

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