Julie Greenwald, COO & Chairman of Atlantic Records, talks about her unique career path, helping to change inequality, and how she runs a powerful record label.
On a summer evening in 2012 in the Lower East Side of New York City, there was a line of teenage girls filling up a sidewalk that stretched down one block and around the corner. You could hear nervous giggles, see tired faces from the heat of the sun, and feel the shared excitement filling the air. They were waiting to enter the Bowery Ballroom, one of the smaller venues in the city, to see an up and coming singer songwriter from the UK perform one of his first US headlining dates. His album had not been released stateside, a single had not made a dent in the charts, and people would answer with a “who?” when you said his name – but the show was sold out. A buzz was starting.
The Brit performing was none other than the ginger Ed Sheeran. Less than one and a half years after that Bowery Ballroom show, he would go on to sell out three dates at Madison Square Garden. A year after that he would sell 210K in his first week of sales in the states for his second album, earning him the top spot on the Billboard 200 and later that year a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. This month his song “Thinking Out Loud” was number one on pop radio in the US.
All of that to say, Ed Sheeran has been one of the best success stories in music over the past few years, but it was no easy ride to the top. As a fan since I saw him play at Bowery (not to be included in the group of “teenage fangirls” that I saw plenty of that night), I have somewhat impatiently watched his career grow, fascinated to learn of sales numbers, nominations, and single choices.
I was lucky enough to talk with one of the people behind that – and many other successes and strategies – Julie Greenwald, COO and Chairman of Atlantic Records. To say Atlantic has a great roster is an understatement. Their range is basically unbeatable, from Sheeran to Death Cab for Cutie, Flo Rida to Icona Pop, they have all bases covered. “That’s the nice thing about Atlantic is that we’re not one category,” Greenwald says. “We’re pop, we’re rock, we’re hip hop, we’re R&B, we’re alternative, we’re heavy metal, we’re active rock. It’s great. It never gets boring or the same because we get to work on so many different types of artists and get to hear and be a part of so much different music.” Greenwald is passionate about all of her artists. Though she may not decide the typeface for every liner note, she has her hands in almost everything.
“I’m in the weeds in the sense that I’m involved in the actual marketing plans of the artists and their strategy” – a statement that is uncommon coming from someone in an executive position like hers, as most would delegate those tasks to other employees. “[I ask] ‘How are we going to achieve greatness for them?’ So [I do] a lot of talking to staff, talking to artists, talking to managers, reading charts, seeing where our records are all at on radio, streams on streaming services, video plays on YouTube, understanding the radio picture or the touring picture if we’re not at radio, seeing where our artists sit in the marketplace and analyzing it and helping to drive the company to move them forward.” With that kind of list for every day activities, it’s easy to see paying attention to the details seems to be very important to Greenwald. I’ve met a lot of people that work in the music industry throughout my time at Belmont, but it is surprising – in the best possible way – to hear that someone cares enough to check on these kinds of details and statistics. I’m sure that many people do, but most don’t mention it as an important part of the process.
Greenwald’s day doesn’t stop with stats however, as she is also occupied with questions like “... how many singles are we going to roll out? What singles are we going to roll? When are we going to put an album in? How much are we going to spend against it? What are the right things to do to separate this artist from that artist?” Each of these questions can help build an artist’s career, so it is key to their success that someone is paying attention to that bigger picture.
What’s great about Greenwald is her story is as unique as that of any of the artists on her roster. She took a job with Teach for America right after college graduation, working with third graders in New Orleans. She knew she would be challenging herself, since she says “I wasn’t a trained teacher. I was a liberal arts major – [political science] and English. I wanted to do some really good community service, and I thought that was a really good way to start my life as a graduate.”
“It was tougher than I ever imagined... That year I went back to Tulane, [where] I was from, and I went to law school and I asked all the law school students from the African American [Law] Society if they would come to my class and help me – volunteer – so we could work on my students’ reading [and] go into small groups,” she says. “It taught me how to be resourceful, and it taught me to be not afraid to ask people to help. It taught me a lot about [how if you] get thrown into a challenging situation, you come to deal with it. It was a really good, important life lesson for me.”
That year was tough on her, so she went home hoping for a break over the summer. “That’s when chance happened,” she says. “I took a summer job working for Lyor Cohen at Rush Management. That’s how I started in the music business ... If I didn’t need a break [from teaching], I probably wouldn’t have come home and would have never gotten into the music business” – evidence that everything happens for a reason, as that job with Lyor Cohen would be the beginning of a long career in the industry.
After Rush Management, the two both went to work at Def Jam, an experience that Greenwald looks back on as a wonderful time. “It was definitely us against the world believing that rap music was going to be this gigantic, new mainstream music,” she says about Def Jam’s philosophy. “I was lucky enough I got to work on artists like Public Enemy, Redman, ... then Jay Z, ... Ludacris, and Ashanti. We had a really small company, but every artist was unbelievable.” The importance of the label at the time was felt by everyone who worked there. “We were ... busting rap music into the mainstream, so we had this great mission statement and a sense of pride that we were helping to change popular culture. It was the most incredible experience.”
Def Jam was sold and merged with Island and Mercury, which Greenwald took as a great learning opportunity. She had been so immersed in the world of urban and hip-hop music, but this gave her a way to expand her knowledge to other genres like rock and pop. “...it was nice to be challenged again and have to learn a whole new way of marketing and promoting artists.” Some major acts that were signed during her time there included “Sum 41 and Hoobastank, ... and then from there we got The Killers and Fall Out Boy.”
After all of that success, Greenwald surprisingly had a career change. “I left to come over here to Atlantic when we were sitting up top. We were the number one label in the country and I never thought I’d ever leave that place,” she notes.
Her motivations were clear: “I wanted to work for Lyor who came to run the Warner Music Group. I’m a big believer in life is too short, it’s all about the quality of people you work with. So I followed Lyor and started a whole new challenge again, which was putting Electra and Atlantic together and rebuilding this company.”
Greenwald has been incredibly successful in her eleven years at Atlantic. Facing challenges head on and helping to build artists’ careers is just part of the job. She has been named number one on Billboard’s Women in Music list four times, just one indicator of the power and reach she has in the music industry.
In this video interview from 2011, she talks to Bill Werde about the importance of events like the Billboard Women in Music luncheon. When I spoke to her about other ways to change the inequality in the industry, she made sure to point out you have to use whatever power you have yourself to make things more equal. “I know I employ a lot of women, and I know the women that are my direct reports underneath me employ great women,” she says. “I think as long as we keep paying it forward and making sure that if you’re hiring a candidate and the woman is just as qualified, you hire [them]. If the woman deserves the raise, you give it to them. If a woman is deciding to get married and have a baby, you don’t penalize them and make them feel bad, you figure out a way to get the best working schedule out of someone even if they have kids or if they’re a single mother. ... It all starts with us making our own difference and moving it forward. People like me that are in power [that can] move it forward, need to move it forward. It’s not something that you want to do, it’s something that you have to do.”
Even though Greenwald may be one of the most powerful people in all of the industry today, she’s quick to respond about the challenges she faces on a daily basis. “I face challenges all the time! You go to meetings, you go to conferences, you go to a lot of things where there aren’t that many women in the room. You walk tall and proud and know that you belong there just as much as the next guy belongs there. No matter how outnumbered you are, it’s okay. You’re still just as good as them and continue to out hustle and out work them, and show everybody why you’re there. Even though you’re a woman who’s balancing a family and motherhood and everything else, you still produce fantastic results. At the end of the day that’s what matters, is that you’re business is yielding great results. “
The great results that she produces are likely partially due to her ability to adapt and always be aware of changes happening in the industry. “I’m eleven years into this new company, [Atlantic], and [into] all the challenges and the fact that the industry keeps changing every day. We went from physical to digital and now we’re going to streaming, and content creation and 360. Every day you’re learning what works and what doesn’t work to be better at helping your artists forge a new career.”
Despite all the changes that keep occurring with changing models of revenue and different types of deals, she still maintains her plans for the future. “As much as everything has changed, ... it’s still the same mission, right? Which is to sign and develop magnificent artists and help them build their careers in whatever platforms we’re distributing [and] monetizing your music or your content. The fundamental of finding great artists and helping deliver great music and putting it out there in a way that is meaningful [doesn’t change] – how you distribute it changes, but it’s still the same fundamental mission. Great artists are what you want to sign. Great performers are what you want to build. Helping them have a long career is the dream.”
A common thread between many interviews I’ve done is that people cite others in the industry as mentors that have helped them get to where they are today. It’s an important aspect to note, as it is great to be able to look to someone for advice and guidance. For Greenwald, that person was always Lyor Cohen. From being his assistant to going to different labels years after, they worked well together. When asked what he has taught her over the years, she said “He taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes. You just have to learn from it, and that’s the only way you’re going to feel comfortable taking risks, is to be fearless. The greatest people in the world have all made mistakes, so if you don’t take risks and you don’t try different things, you’re never going to learn and be better.”
In addition, Greenwald gained a lot of insight about how to run a label from Cohen. “He taught me that great artists are hard to come by and that when you find one you should put everything into it and don’t lose your belief and your conviction no matter how long the road is or how challenging the road is, keep plowing forward because the artist deserves it. ...Ultimately, however long that road is, you’ll get there. Sometimes great music doesn’t happen over night.” And a good example of that is? “Ed Sheeran didn’t happen overnight. Ed Sheeran took us a long time to break, and now the guy’s one of the best artists out there.”
I can certainly say I’m happy she didn’t lose her conviction in Sheeran, and I have no doubt that she was influential in getting him to where he is today. That is just one example of what can be learned from Greenwald’s expansive career – she adapts, welcomes opportunities to learn, focuses on the quality of people she works with, and helps promote equality for women in the music business – so we have much more to thank her for than just promoting Ed Sheeran.
This article first appeared in the fourth issue of Songbird.