My Music Row Story: EMPIRE’s Heather Vassar

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Heather Vassar. Photo: Sam Frawley

The “My Music Row Story” weekly column features notable members of the Nashville music industry selected by the MusicRow editorial team. These individuals serve in key roles that help advance and promote the success of our industry. This column spotlights the invaluable people that keep the wheels rolling and the music playing.

Heather Vassar serves as Senior Vice President of EMPIRE and brings over a decade of experience in the music industry to her role. With a Master’s degree in business specializing in marketing, Vassar’s career commenced at UMG Nashville, where she initially excelled in digital marketing. Over six years, she advanced to spearheading strategic initiatives and research, focusing on optimizing release workflows and leveraging competitive advantages. Her contributions led to pioneering analyses and innovations that shaped the industry. Notably, Vassar contributed to digital strategy for renowned artists such as George Strait, Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton and Keith Urban.

In 2019, she was tapped by EMPIRE to establish and elevate their Nashville division. Here, Vassar plays a pivotal role in operations, marketing and promoting EMPIRE’s presence in Music City, steering strategies for a diverse roster, including record-breaking artist Shaboozey, Wyatt Flores, Niko Moon, Sophia Scott, Don Louis, Reyna Roberts, Tenille Arts and Randy Houser. She oversees all facets of label operations, artist signings, marketing plans, release strategies and development in addition to driving digital marketing initiatives, pioneering efforts in Web3 and managing key partnerships with sales and streaming platforms.

MusicRow: Where did you grow up?

I grew up in west Texas. I was born and raised in a really small town, my parents and grandparents are still there. I got my undergraduate degree at Texas Tech in Lubbock, which is about two hours from home.

Photo: Courtesy of Vassar

What did you study?

Marketing. I was big into sports growing up, and I went to Tech to play softball. I come from an accounting family, so they advised me to go to the business school. I thought, “I won’t do accounting, that sounds miserable, but I could do marketing and management. That’s way better than accounting.”

How did music come into play?

I’ve always been a big music fan. When I was young, I could hear a commercial and could sing the jingle back. My parents noticed that early on, but I was really into sports so I focused on that. I participated in music at church and I took piano lessons, but I didn’t know that music could be a career.

When I quit playing softball at Tech, I picked up guitar and started playing in a band. All of my electives were music courses and songwriting classes. I knew it was a gift, I just didn’t know what to do with it. My parents ended up flying me to Nashville for a songwriting contest and I loved it. I graduated from undergrad that May and by August I was living in Nashville.

Photo: Courtesy of Vassar

What did you do when you got here?

I just started writing and was working on a Christian album. I was still working online for my family’s CPA firm to pay the bills and quickly realized that music wasn’t going to make me much money in the beginning. There was no revenue coming in for as much effort as I was putting in. But I met some great people who started to teach me the business, like Brandon Ray and Don Koch.

I was a fine songwriter and I have a great ear, but I wasn’t cut out for the Nashville world yet. I decided it wasn’t for me, but that I was going to work in music in some capacity. I ended up going to grad school at Belmont. That’s when I got my first job at Universal.

Photo: Courtesy of Vassar

Tell me about that.

I just cold applied. I didn’t have a connection. I ended up getting a call from Tony Grotticelli in UMG’s Digital department. He ended up hiring me. I was taking night classes, so I’d work all day and then go to school from 6–10 p.m. It was an exciting time.

I did digital marketing for the first three or so years at UMG. Keith Urban was the first record that I worked and we went No. 1. It was a dream come true. Because of my numbers background, I ended up finding a little niche within the digital space. That’s when YouTube covers were really taking off and streaming was starting to ramp up. I started looking at the numbers of what we were running in digital advertising and social metrics. I remember starting George Strait‘s Instagram. I ran Universal socials for a couple of years and was just in the mix of it all. I was like a sponge trying to soak it all in.

I ended up being the numbers person because I can look at an Excel sheet and pull a story out of it, and I realized how valuable that is. I ended up moving over to report to Mike Harris and we launched a new Strategy & Research department, where we worked with all the departments. The radio team would come to me and say, “I need a reason why a station should play Jordan Davis over another artist.” I was able to look at all the numbers and say, “This is why.” I ended up being what I now call a “strategic storyteller.” That’s where I under started to understand the full scope of the business. I was so fortunate to learn under Mike Dungan and Mike Harris.

Photo: Courtesy of Vassar

Then you were approached about helping to start EMPIRE’s Nashville division.

EMPIRE was starting a Nashville division. Eric Hurt [our VP of Publishing now] had started and signed Willie Jones. EMPIRE’s CEO, Ghazi, flew me out to San Francisco and I had a great meeting and a lot of questions. I wanted to know why an independent, hip-hop distribution company wanted to be in Nashville. I just didn’t know how successful it’d be, but I knew I wouldn’t let it fail. By the end of our first meeting together, I knew it was the next right step for me.

I told Ghazi before I left the meeting, “Give me five years to be profitable. It won’t be before that, but I need to know you’re committed to at least five years in this town and in this process. Otherwise, I can’t make the jump from UMG.” I left UMG in December of 2019.

What were those first few years like?

COVID hit three months later and at first I was like, “Oh my word. What have I done?” But I had never been busier. We were signing artists, and since we’re so focused on digital, [we didn’t have to slow down much]. I remember we shot a music video in a house with the director on FaceTime on a phone we suction cupped to the window. [Laughs] It was an interesting time.

Photo: Courtesy of Vassar

Tenille Arts had been on my A&R list when I left UMG, so I hit her team up. She was already at radio and it was dwindling, so I helped put a plan together to revitalize the song and upcoming releases. Through that year, we got a country radio No. 1 and a Platinum record. That was our first win that showed me this could work. We also signed Shaboozey in 2020.

Tell me about your journey with him.

Shaboozey is one of the first artists that I’ve worked this closely with that holds so true to his convictions of who he is and the brand that he is. He’s incredibly intelligent and understands the world that he’s building. I’ve never met an another artist that moves that way and holds so tight to it. He’s a natural storyteller by film, music and movements.

It’s been so fun to have such a big hit with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” I was at the Grammys at the beginning of the year when I first heard it as we were driving through L.A. A few weeks later, I went to New Orleans and met up with some friends, I had a work call and my friends were curious what I was working on, so I played them the song. I remember telling them it was going to be big but I had no idea it was going to be this big!

I just feel so grateful. I know it doesn’t come often and I also know that it may never come again in my career, so you just take it in stride and soak in as much as you can. At the same time, I’m also the one saying, “Keep your foot on the gas!”

Photo: Courtesy of Vassar

What have you learned about leadership in the last five years?

I have an older sister, so when I was young, I would always play up on my sister’s teams. What I learned from that experience is you always play to the stage that you want to be on. That’s how you show up. I didn’t know how to spearhead an independent label division, I just knew how I would run a major if I was at a major. When I was figuring out what processes we needed in place at EMPIRE Nashville and how we should go from signing an artist to hiring team members… I just started operating at the level I wanted to be at. I tell artists and our team all the time: “work at the level that you want to be at, whatever title you want or whatever stage you want to play, show up and prove you deserve to be there.”

Ghazi met me in Dallas for the ACM Awards, and it had almost been four and a half years exactly to when I told him it would take me five. We had such a sweet moment reminiscing on that and being so proud we had done it.

What are you excited about now?

Of course I’m excited about what’s next with Shaboozey. We’re hoping for CMA Awards and Grammys leading into even the next wave of his music. There are also some other artists that I have that I think are next. CeCe is a new artist to EMPIRE that I’ve signed and the music is incredible. We have Don Louis‘ album that just came out and is doing so well, which is great. Jake & Shelby, a pop duo that we’re working with, have some of the best music coming out of Nashville in a long time. We’ve also got Jordy out in L.A. making incredible music too. I’m excited about all the music coming out and the team that we’re building. We’re getting to move in town in a way that hopefully feels refreshing.

Photo: Courtesy of Vassar

Who have been some of your mentors?

Mike Dungan for sure. Tina Davis here at EMPIRE has been so great. I’ve had a great executive coach, Shelley Till. I also have mentors and best friends outside of the business, like Adam Sansiveri, who runs Alliance Bernstein here in Nashville who has been an amazing advocate and support.

I’ve learned throughout my career that it’s really healthy to have networking groups, friends and mentors that are outside of this business. We can lose sight of what makes life meaningful and special in tunnels of work. For me, that was finding my core people. They don’t know much of what goes on in the music industry and I love that. They’re all incredible badasses in the worlds that they are in. It’s really fun to be a part of that, cheering one another on.

LB Cantrell
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