Vector Management’s Jason Murray Talks Cultivating A ‘Holistic Caretaker’ & Shares Visions [Interview]

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Jason Murray

Due to its comprehensive and collaborative approach, Vector Management has become embedded in the global music scene with offices in Nashville, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. Founded by industry veterans Ken Levitan and Jack Rovner, the Live Nation artist and brand development company represents an array of talent, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Brian Kelley, Allison Russell, Marcus King, Emmylou Harris, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Hank Williams Jr., Madeline Edwards, Kimberly Perry, Molly Tuttle, Peter Frampton, Chase McDaniel and more.

After carving out a path with Levitan and Rovner, Vector’s current President & Owner/Operator Jason Murray came over from BMG Canada and jumped in at the top of 2022 to further cement Vector as a management powerhouse. He merged his independent record label and artist management business, Black Box Music, with the company and fully immersed himself in Vector’s various components. Murray soon signed his first artist alongside Levitan, country-blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Charley Crockett, and his appointment as President & Owner/Operator was officially announced in January 2023.

Since then, the company has experienced immense growth in both the country and Americana space and continued to celebrate numerous accolades, including recent Grammy wins for Best American Roots Performance (Russell’s “Eve Was Black”), Best Bluegrass Album (Tuttle’s City of Gold) and Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella (The String Revolution Featuring Tommy Emamanuel’s “Folsom Prison Blues”). In April, Vector added RECORDS Nashville artist Alli Walker to its roster and her manager Brad Turcotte to its team.

Murray took some time to detail the company’s values and functions as well as share his visions for the future with MusicRow.

He notes that his first year with Vector was all about determining where the business was, how to move forward and how to build a globally competitive team. That plan was then put into action in 2023 and now, Murray feels the company has really hit its stride. He explains that the team they’ve built is based on what he realized managers needed while at the helm of BMG Canada in addition to what Murray himself as a manager needed when he was working within the larger label system.

“I believe you need hit five things to be a success manager: vision, strategy, organization, execution and client service,” he says. “One person can’t do all of that [on their own], it’s not possible. It doesn’t matter how amazing a single person is,” adding,”there were massive lay-offs that took place at Universal two weeks before Marcus King’s record was released, and TikTok banned all the music in the throws on the roll-out. But I was so proud of our team because we did not miss a beat—I mean not a single beat, and I couldn’t have done that on my own.”

Alongside Murray and its managers, Vector’s team consists of its General Manager, who has been with the company for over a decade, and Director of Marketing, who leads the creative content sector, as well as staff in DSP Relations and Label Relations, and its Director of Operations, among many others. Within its Touring division, which is a large portion of the business, Vector has a Director of Touring in addition to Tour Marketers and Coordinators. As a whole, the company seeks to promote and provide infinite opportunities for growth for all of its team members.

“I don’t want people to have to go elsewhere to feel valued or find a growth opportunity on the company side,” he says. “On the manager side, we’re a truly collaborative company and nobody is territorial. So what you end up getting when you come to Vector is a creative brain trust of managers that will see things that, inevitably, you won’t see and show up for you when you need them.”

With experience across multiple industry facets and music genres, Murray brings a specific perspective when it comes to signing new acts.

“I have a deep, deep love of music, and I love people,” he expresses. “I’ve produced records, I’ve A&Red records and I’ve written records. So for me, it’s about the artist having an insatiable appetite for art and the pursuit of it [as well as] a drive that’s not rational to anyone else in their world.”

Murray recalls signing rising Americana creator Bella White, who has appeared on several large festival lineups and was featured on the latest Hunger Games soundtrack. “This somebody who is living through their art,” he states when referring to the 22-year-old.

“Whether its developing artist who is not going to make us money for long time or an artist that’s going to help us fund those newcomers, we have to serve them with the same amount of commitment, moral obligation, creativity and hustle. You owe it to these new artists because they’re entrusting you with their dreams.”

From a client standpoint, Vector aims to offer a 360-degree strategy and execute the wildest ideas while being a fierce advocate. “We’re the holistic caretaker, cheerleader and problem-solver more,” says Murray. This coming year, he’s excited to see their core marketing and services team create their own identity and value in the music community, and watch the Americana crop they’ve planted begin to sprout in addition to breaking new ground with developing managers and artists. “I feel like we’ve been building a race car in a barn and now we’re going to put it out on the track, and people are starting to see it run with the likes of Marcus, Charley, Molly, Allison and more.”

For the future, he envisions an ecosystem where everyone continues to show up for one another. “Vector is not going to be attached to me or anyone else, it’s going to be how we treat our people, our artists and the good work we leave behind.”

Liza Anderson
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