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Celeb News: Troy Carter speaks about being fired by Gaga
Member Since: 1/6/2012
Posts: 15,374
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Troy Carter speaks about being fired by Gaga
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From behind, Troy Carter looks like a middle schooler. He has the wispy frame of a pretzel stick, wrapped in skinny jeans that bottom out at black Yves Saint Laurent high-tops. It is late November, exactly two weeks after he was fired by Lady Gaga, but by appearances he and his calendar show no signs of vulnerability.
He is a man without breaks: He spent the morning fueled on the fumes of a banana, meeting with execs at his new soda company and then with tech founders he's investing with; after that it was off to a lunch meeting with CAA, and now he's at the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood. It's the schedule of anyone of his caliber, though it's also--and he won't admit this--the habit of a recently dumped man who's probably afraid to have time alone with himself.
As Carter walks by a sprawling glass-encased office on the top floor, Capitol's chairman waves him in and embraces him. Carter has been getting a lot of hugs lately, from musicians, managers, lawyers, VCs, entrepreneurs, CMOs, and even his old pals from Philly. It's always the same: an energetic wrap of arms, neither bro-ish nor sensitive. In Carter's line of work, confidants and colleagues tend to be one and the same.
Carter is supposed to head into another meeting at Capitol after that, but instead he spots an abandoned conference room. It seems he's finally willing to stop moving, to talk about what's at his core now that Gaga no longer is. "It's like you wake up and you work with somebody every day, and then all of a sudden they're not there anymore," he says, his eyes wandering down a white marble table that's as long as a runway. When he first learned the news, he kept it inside. He needed to process it. Being an artist's manager is like being their CEO, but it's more personal than that. The job is about believing when no one else does. It's living on the road together more days than you're home with your kids. It's fighting for a person's art. He did this with Gaga for nearly seven years. "I don't think you're ever prepared to sever that deep of a relationship," he concedes.
He won't divulge details. The split was rumored to have been brewing for months, and ended with that least illuminating of phrases--creative differences. Carter isn't one to look back. He says he's never "hoarded memories." While he traveled the world with Gaga, he rarely took a photograph. This is the very thing that made him a great manager: his ability to stay present, to make rational decisions just as things are going off the rails. To handle moments like this.
That's a skill he learned early. He watched his father pick up the pieces of his own life after getting out of prison for murdering his brother-in-law after a fight. And Carter's seen other lows himself: When he was in his early thirties, his first big client--the rapper Eve, whom he had spent eight years building--walked into his office one day and cut him loose. He had nothing to fall back on. The loss put him close to bankruptcy. His house was foreclosed upon, cars were repossessed, and he barely had enough cash to fill his one remaining ride with gas. The global phenomenon that became Lady Gaga? That was actually just Troy Carter standing back up.
That same year, he met Stefani Germanotta. An old friend of Carter's brought her by his *office. "She walked in with these huge sunglasses on, fishnet stockings, and basically told me how she was going to change the game," says Carter. She was a performance artist calling herself Lady Gaga, who had a European dance-club sound and pop-star aspirations--elements that historically haven't mixed. Def Jam Records had just dropped her. Carter had never heard of her. Yet, he says, "I believed her."
Carter couldn't get Gaga's first single "Just Dance" on pop radio, so in 2008 he put his new act on a rigorous schedule--sometimes four shows a night, playing to gay clubs or arty fashion crowds. Gaga and Carter began experimenting with Twitter and Facebook, engaging fans and pumping out homespun content on YouTube. At the time, these channels were seen as enemies to the music business, but Carter saw them as inexpensive ways to reach the masses.
As he did this, he became fascinated with how tech companies approach industries outside of their core--whether it was Amazon with data storage or Google with YouTube. "These are businesses that you can't quite define and mean something different to different people," he says. "I said, 'We're doing it totally wrong down here [in Hollywood].'" It also got him thinking of what was best for his business. He didn't want another repeat of Eve. And he realized that his company, Atom Factory, could be much more than a simple artist-management firm. "It was more about building a platform on top of music--because music, we realized, sells everything but music."
The story of the Gaga machine has been the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies: They built a social network for Gaga fans called LittleMonsters.com, connected her with the right companies at the right times, and turned a pop star into a global brand.
And just as all that was starting, in 2009, while waiting to board a ferry to Martha's Vineyard, Carter gained the entry into insular Silicon Valley that he was hoping for. A friend called to ask if Carter wanted to invest in a music label. "He had one of his investors on the phone, and I told them that they were crazy," says Carter. "I said, 'If you help me get into tech, I'll help you get out of the music business.'" A few weeks later, Carter hit Palo Alto for a whirlwind tour that began in a coffee shop with David Siminoff, the investor who helped fund Amazon and eBay, and ended at a barbecue at the home of data-tracking company Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale. (Lonsdale would eventually cofound Backplane, the social platform Carter and Gaga conceived, and which *Little*Monsters*.*com would be built on.) Carter made his first tech investment in 2010, thanks to a lead from Madonna's manager Guy Oseary. (It was TinyChat, a video service that lives on quietly.)
Gaga is busy making her debut at the Louvre, where an artist is replicating a series of famous paintings with the pop star as the subject. But Carter seems content to be here at this joint instead. He could easily take shortcuts--a call or two could probably get the Ceremonies on Top 40 radio or MTV. But like Pop Water, he'd rather this band grow at its own pace. He's working on getting them a regular bar gig until they've earned the scars worthy of a bigger crowd.
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more at the link
http://www.fastcompany.com/3024171/step-up-troy-carter
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Member Since: 5/14/2011
Posts: 14,089
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The title is misleading . He said that once he heard Gaga fired him, he fell all emotions including sadness. 
Good for him though. Seems nice , but I get a strange vibe from him as of recently.
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Member Since: 8/18/2013
Posts: 3,396
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Misleading title, he just isn't still sad about it and thinks that his career still has a future without Gaga.
By the way, his ideas are ****ing amazing. Hologram concerts? :giveup:
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Member Since: 1/6/2012
Posts: 15,374
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I just copied the title from the article 
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Member Since: 8/10/2012
Posts: 11,988
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Quote:
Carter is supposed to head into another meeting at Capitol after that, but instead he spots an abandoned conference room. It seems he's finally willing to stop moving, to talk about what's at his core now that Gaga no longer is. "It's like you wake up and you work with somebody every day, and then all of a sudden they're not there anymore," he says, his eyes wandering down a white marble table that's as long as a runway. When he first learned the news, he kept it inside. He needed to process it. Being an artist's manager is like being their CEO, but it's more personal than that. The job is about believing when no one else does. It's living on the road together more days than you're home with your kids. It's fighting for a person's art. He did this with Gaga for nearly seven years. "I don't think you're ever prepared to sever that deep of a relationship," he concedes.
He won't divulge details. The split was rumored to have been brewing for months, and ended with that least illuminating of phrases--creative differences. Carter isn't one to look back. He says he's never "hoarded memories." While he traveled the world with Gaga, he rarely took a photograph. This is the very thing that made him a great manager: his ability to stay present, to make rational decisions just as things are going off the rails. To handle moments like this.
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What I found interesting. Wish Gaga stuck with him at least until the end of the ARTPOP era 
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Member Since: 6/25/2010
Posts: 18,931
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Quote:
Carter couldn't get Gaga's first single "Just Dance" on pop radio, so in 2008 he put his new act on a rigorous schedule--sometimes four shows a night, playing to gay clubs or arty fashion crowds. Gaga and Carter began experimenting with Twitter and Facebook, engaging fans and pumping out homespun content on YouTube. At the time, these channels were seen as enemies to the music business, but Carter saw them as inexpensive ways to reach the masses.
As he did this, he became fascinated with how tech companies approach industries outside of their core--whether it was Amazon with data storage or Google with YouTube. "These are businesses that you can't quite define and mean something different to different people," he says. "I said, 'We're doing it totally wrong down here [in Hollywood].'" It also got him thinking of what was best for his business. He didn't want another repeat of Eve. And he realized that his company, Atom Factory, could be much more than a simple artist-management firm. "It was more about building a platform on top of music--because music, we realized, sells everything but music."
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Visionary. And Gaga fired him.
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Member Since: 8/5/2012
Posts: 1,139
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One of the biggest mistakes she's made. Hopefully she finds another great manager soon and doesn't decide to manage herself. 
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 9/3/2012
Posts: 29,405
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Carter made his first tech investment in 2010, thanks to a lead from Madonna's manager Guy Oseary. (It was TinyChat, a video service that lives on quietly.)
So TinyChat is Troy's fault I see 
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 9/3/2012
Posts: 29,405
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Quote:
Originally posted by VIRUS
One of the biggest mistakes she's made. Hopefully she finds another great manager soon and doesn't decide to manage herself. |
Lorde help us. If she tries to manage herself we all might as well just pack up and go home now.
She can barely manage her LittleMonsters.com account on her own, let alone her whole business.
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Member Since: 1/6/2012
Posts: 12,011
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Why did she fire this visionary
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Member Since: 12/1/2010
Posts: 23,572
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Didn't she admit to wanting Marina. Abramovic to manage her? I thought I heard that...
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Banned
Member Since: 8/26/2011
Posts: 27,690
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k
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Member Since: 3/18/2012
Posts: 1,522
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he clearly won in the end after the art pop fiasco
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 23,374
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I wish he spilled just a little bit of tea. It will be interesting to see as the era moves on to what extent Gaga needs Troy to be successful
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Member Since: 8/27/2012
Posts: 5,464
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Wait  so what is he doing with Capitol Records?
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Member Since: 4/5/2012
Posts: 7,953
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I can't believe she fired him.
you know this is your biggest mistake
what a waste what a waste what a waste
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 3,933
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Quote:
Originally posted by darkfantasy
he clearly won in the end after the art pop fiasco
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Boo hoo, poor Gaga.
Her album and singles from ARTPOP are still getting Gold and Plat certs come in every other day.
The album remains in the Top 10 WW and she's going to embark on a successful tour in May while Troy is now signed to John Mayor...
We all know who downgraded.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 23,374
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Quote:
Originally posted by Blade
Boo hoo, poor Gaga.
Her album and singles from ARTPOP are still getting Gold and Plat certs come in every other day.
The album remains in the Top 10 WW and she's going to embark on a successful tour in May while Troy is now signed to John Mayor...
We all know who downgraded.
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Time will tell...
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Member Since: 3/18/2008
Posts: 40,057
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I'm happy for him. 
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 16,407
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Quote:
Originally posted by Save-Me-Oprah
Lorde help us. If she tries to manage herself we all might as well just pack up and go home now.
She can barely manage her LittleMonsters.com account on her own, let alone her whole business.
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? i thought her dad was managing her and getting 50%.
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