Troy Carter, Founder, Q&A: 'The music industry has to change the business model; it's as simple as that.'

<p>Troy Carter has seen the music business from all sides. <br/><br/>He was the manager of superstar artists like Lady Gaga and Eve at Los Angeles-based Atom Factory; he was also an early investor in Spotify, Uber and Lyft. Now, he&apos;s the latest guest on the <a href='https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/podcast/troy-carter-the-music-industry-has-to-change-the-business-model-its-as-simple-as-that/'>Music Business Worldwide podcast</a>.<br/><br/>In 2016, he joined Spotify full-time as the platform&apos;s global head of Creator Services, with a direct line into Spotify CEO &amp; founder, Daniel Ek.  There, Carter helped transform the record industry into a streaming-led future, while bringing Spotify closer than ever to artists.<br/><br/>In 2018, Carter left Spotify before launching his distribution, services and tech company, Q&amp;A, the following year. Q&amp;A services major-league independent artists such as Pink Sweat$.<br/><br/>In April 2019, Carter announced that Q&amp;A had merged with J.Erving&apos;s Human Re-Sources, a fellow independent artist services and distribution company with particular success in hip-hop. In December 2020, Q&amp;A and Sony announced that Sony Music / The Orchard had acquired Human Re-Sources from Q&amp;A, bringing in J.Erving as an EVP of the major record company.</p>