Dr. Jeff Cornwall will interview music industry veteran, Doug Howard.
Doug is a 1979 graduate of Belmont where he earned a double major in music business and business management. He served as the student manager for the campus recording studio and as president of Alpha Chi honor society, and received the Wall Street Journal Award at graduation for being the “most outstanding business student”.
In addition to working at the campus studio during his years at Belmont, Doug worked at various entry level positions including engineering for numerous “live” events, working at a record store (remember those!), and working in the mail room at Triune Music Publishing with fellow Belmont classmates, Mark Wright, producer/writer and now president of Show Dog/Universal South Records, and with Paige Rowden Levy, who later served as SR VP of A&R at Warner Brothers Records. Upon graduation, Doug worked for Gary S. Paxton Music Publishing.
In 1981, Doug was hired by publishing legends Bill Hall and Roger Sovine at the Welk Music Group, started in the tape copy room and soon became a senior professional manager/song plugger and studio manager. During the Welk years he worked with many future Hall of Fame writers and artists including Bob McDill, Dickey Lee, Wayland Holyfield, Don Williams, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs and the Skagg’s writers, Jim Rushing, Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson, and Peter Rowan. (Welk was later acquired by PolyGram.)
In 1992, Doug was named VP/GM of PolyGram Music Publishing/Nashville. In addition to many of the Welk writers listed above, Howard was responsible for overseeing a staff of 45 to 90 writers and artists including Billy Ray Cyrus, Radney Foster, Toby Keith, Gordon Kennedy (Grammy winner for “Change the World”), Randy Thomas (multiple award winner for “Butterfly Kisses”), Kostas (Winner of Most Performed BMI song “Blame It On Your Heart”), and Angelo (who developed and now produces Kings of Leon), as well as many, many others. (In 1998, PolyGram was acquired by Universal Music.)
In 1997, Doug left PolyGram to take the position of SR VP of A&R for Walt Disney owned Lyric Street records. Howard served in this position from the label’s inception until its closing in 2010. Over the years, Howard enjoyed working with a roster that included Rascal Flatts, Aaron Tippin, SHeDAISY, Love & Theft, Bucky Covington, Josh Gracin, Trent Tomlinson, Sonya Isaacs, and Sarah Buxton. Doug was also named the SR VP and GM of Disney Music Publishing/Nashville. He hired both Lisa Ramsey-Perkins and Kos Weaver to the executive staff, and steered a small but mighty writer roster. A special highlight for the Nashville publishing office was the international hit “The Climb” co-written by Disney’s Jessi Alexander and performed by Miley Cyrus.
Post Disney, Doug started his own company, The Vandermont Music Group, with a focus on both music publishing and artist development. Rob Blackledge (another Belmont graduate) and Noll Billings have signed exclusive co-publishing agreements with VMG and have formed the duo BLACKJACK BILLY. They are currently touring and working in the studio with producer Jeff Coplan. Also, indie rock writer/producer Kyle Frederick has joined the Vandermont team and Kyle is currently mixing his new project with engineer Rob Feaster. Additionally, Doug has a “pitch only” relationship with Kristyn Osborn, and Lisa Shaffer, and has recently started a second production company with Jeff Balding, Gordon Kennedy, and Jimmie Lee Sloas.
Howard is the current Chair of the advisory board of the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business, he is on the Nashville board of governors of the Recording Academy, and the board of the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival. In the past he has been elected president and vice-president of the Nashville board of the Recording Academy and elected as a national trustee. He has served on the boards of the Academy of Country Music, the Nashville Vanderbilt Club, and Historic Carnton Plantation. He attended Leadership Music and the Center for Creative Leadership.
In January 1996, Howard was named to the “Forty under Forty” list of the Nashville Business Journal, and in 2002 was honored with the “Alumni Achievement Award” from Belmont University. In addition to Belmont, Howard attended the Owen School at Vanderbilt (MBA), and The George Washington University School of Law (JD).
Doug is married to the respected intellectual property attorney, Linda Edell Howard. They live on a farm on the outskirts of Bell Buckle, Tennessee, with their daughter, Gracelyn Ariel.