My Music Row Story: BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville’s Peter Strickland

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Peter Strickland

Peter Strickland oversees the financial and daily operations of BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville, streamlines distribution channels and physical-product sales as well as spearheads the label’s comedy initiatives.

Throughout his tenure, he has served several executive-level roles at Warner Music Nashville such as VP of Sales, VP of Sales & Marketing, Sr. VP of Brand Management & Sales, Executive Vice President/General Manager and Chief Marketing Officer.

In addition to the roles at WMN, he also created two successful comedy imprints and executive produced Jimmy Fallon’s 2013 Grammy Award-winning comedy album, Blow Your Pants Off, before opening his management company, Marathon Talent, in 2018.

MusicRow: Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a town called Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

Photo: Courtesy of Strickland

What were you into as a kid?

As a kid, I always wanted to buy music. I had a paper route, and with whatever money I had, I would go out to the record store and just buy music. By the time I was around 12 years old, I already had a pretty decent record collection. As I got older, I found myself turning my friends on to songs, so I was an early record promoter.

When I was 17, the whole club scene was going on in New England and across the country. The drinking age was 18 at that time, so I was trying to figure out how I could get into the club scene. I just took a handful of records and went up to the doorman and said, “Hey, I’m bringing these up to the DJ.” He said, “Go right ahead,” so every week I’d go up to the DJ in that nightclub and say, “You’ve got to check this out. Have you heard this song?”

Eventually, the club owner came up to me and said, “Hey, do you know how to spin those things?” I didn’t, but I told him I did. He said, “Can you come spin on Thursday nights?” So that was kind of my entry into what I guess was part of the business. Eventually, I took over all those nights and then started my own DJ business doing parties.

Photo: Courtesy of Strickland

Wow! How did you get further along into the business?

At one point, I was spending a lot of money buying music, so I needed to find something to do during the day. I applied to work at a record store called Strawberry Records, which is no longer around, but they were a chain of stores that dominated the New England area. Even though I had a lot of experience in a nightclub, the manager thought I should actually work in the warehouse. I said, “Okay, as long as I can still get my discount on music purchases.”

I got more than a discount. What ended up happening is they put me in a buying role for the whole chain of stores for R&B and dance singles. So I’d have all the distributors coming in and pitching to me. Eventually, I got hired out of there to work for WEA distribution in Boston.

Tell me about that.

That was my intro to the real music industry. I elevated quite quickly through the ranks there. I came in as a junior salesperson and won Sales Rep of the Year by my second year. In my fourth year, I got promoted to sales manager position, leap frogging a number of people who had been there for a long time, so that was a challenge—learning to manage people.

Eventually, the role became a little stagnant for me because it was all about pick, pack and ship. There was nothing creative about it. I heard through the grapevine through distribution that Warner Bros. Records in Nashville was looking for a salesperson. I knew a number of the people down here because part of my job in New England was to promote country music.

Photo: Courtesy of Strickland

I applied for that job. I really wanted to move here and get into a label to absorb everything that happens there. How do they make the decision to sign an artist? How do they make decisions about songs? How does radio work?

I got the job, and I spent a good portion of my first decade here just learning everything I could about the industry at a record label level. During that time, the digital revolution happened, and it started to have a serious effect on Music Row. Half of the labels on Music Row went away overnight. Warner Bros. absorbed Giant, Elektra, and Atlantic, so there was a big cleansing that took place during that time.

A key part of a shift in my career was when Blake Shelton was one of the artists we took on from Giant. When he came over, there was really no one in marketing. I raised my hand to help with sales and marketing on Blake, and that unveiled a talent I didn’t know I had.

Photo: Courtesy of Strickland

Tell me more about that.

As time went on, other artists started getting added to my marketing responsibilities, like Faith Hill, Dwight Yoakam and Big & Rich. Eventually, it was Hunter Hayes, Brett Eldredge and Jana Kramer etc. It was one of the most rewarding time periods of my career because all of a sudden I was doing all the stuff that I really enjoyed. I moved from VP of Sales to SVP, then EVP of Marketing, and eventually CMO at Warner.

I started the comedy division there and brought Jeff Foxworthy back. That led to the whole Blue Collar Comedy Tour coming to Warner Bros. in Nashville. I ended up signing a number of comedians including Larry the Cable Guy, that record ended up debuting higher than the Red Hot Chili Peppers the same week.

Later on, Jimmy Fallon called my office mentioning he had just taken over the late-night show and wanted to do a comedy record. He had gotten my name from people in the industry, so we ended up doing it together. It won a Grammy and was certainly one of the biggest highlights of my career.

What was next for you?

When I left Warner, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do from that point. I took about six months off and decided to start a management company, Marathon Talent. The excitement of that led to me signing artists rather rapidly. I signed some incredibly talented artists, but I felt I was moving too fast, trying to prove that I could build something in a short period of time, which we all know doesn’t happen overnight.

Photo: Courtesy of Strickland

Just as things started to uptick, COVID hit, and it really put a huge damper on the management company. At the time, I felt like the industry was abandoning me as well. That wasn’t the case, but it felt like it. I was at a pivotal point, asking, “What’s next?” My wife was very supportive, so I stayed at it. I struggled, struggled, struggled, and then Jon Loba called and said he wanted me to manage a comedian who was an employee of his who wanted to quit what he was doing to become a comedian.

I said I would help him out and help build that for him. In the meantime, I started consulting for BMG under the radar and was helping out in marketing while they had a couple of people out, and one on maternity leave. Soon, Jon brought me on full-time as GM. I didn’t think I’d ever want to go back into the corporate space, but being able to see what I was getting into through consulting with BMG allowed me to make a better decision about whether that was what I wanted to do.

Photo: Courtesy of Strickland

What have you enjoyed about being back in the label system?

I’ve enjoyed being able to work with a different group of people after spending so many years at one company. A lot of things don’t change. We’re all challenged with the same things we’ve faced for years, but getting to know and work with more people has been very rewarding. I never put myself on a pedestal, but hearing people say they enjoy working with me and learning from me is, at the end of the day, the most rewarding part of what I do. Sharing my experiences and knowledge to help someone else grow and better themselves in the business is incredibly fulfilling.

Do you have any mentors?

There have been so many people who have positively affected my career it’s hard to single out one. When I first moved here, I came down for an interview with Jim Ed Norman, who was the CEO of Warner Bros. Nashville at the time. Neal Spielberg actually ended up hiring me. Jim Ed, Neal and I met and talked about the job. I asked how the interview was going, and he said, “Oh, you’ve got the job. I just wanted to get to know you.” He is such a warm and kind human being. He cared a lot about how my family would feel about moving here.

What’s one of the coolest moments you’ve had in your career?

Winning the Grammy Award for the Jimmy Fallon album. That’s something I never dreamed would happen, and it was never a goal.

LB Cantrell
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