Music executive and investor Troy Carter tells Joe Lonsdale about his parenting philosophy on personal accountability and race.
Opinion
Carter: Managing software engineers is identical to managing recording artists
“Dude, me, like working with engineers now, you know, with our new startup, I'm like, You know what? They are so close, it's as close as you can get to managing the artists by the way.”
Disclosure
Carter invested blindly in ContextLogic and missed the Wish pivot
“And you said you were gonna invest, and you said Troy, you should put some money in. And, you know, I honestly, I had no idea what Peter was talking about. Like, I had, you know, a little inkling, but you trusted him so much, and I trusted you so much, I'm lik…”
Assertion Contradicted
Carter: Philadelphia has not approved a single charter school in eight years
“Philadelphia hasn't approved one charter school in eight years since, since this mayor's been in office.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carter: Independent artists are music's fastest-growing but most underserved sector
“Independent artists, it's one of the fastest growing sectors in the music industry, but at the same time, it's a very underserved market in terms of technology, in terms of services”
Insight
Carter: Talent Picking Is Key in Both Music Management and Early-Stage Investing
“I think my personal superpower is being able to pick people, and you know, because as an artist manager, it's like, I can't sign a million artists, you know, so it's like, if you pick, and because you don't make money right away, so it's like, you got to be go…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carter: Record labels still lack direct customer relationships due to streaming platforms
“All of the technology that's been introduced to the music industry is still one of the only businesses that doesn't have a direct relationship with its customer. So like, if you're a record label Spotify or Apple music or YouTube, they have the direct relation…”