Troy Carter

Troy Lemar Carter, Sr. (born November 14, 1972) is an American talent manager and record executive from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He co-founded the music and technology company, Q&A Media in 2019, and is its CEO. Prior, he was chairman and CEO of Atom Factory, a talent management and media production company, and Global Head of Creator Services at Spotify.

Life and career

1972–1998: Early life and career beginnings

Troy Carter was born on November 14, 1972, and was raised in West Philadelphia, attending Huey Elementary and Sayre Middle School. At the age of two, Carter's parents divorced. At the age of seven, his father, who had remarried, shot and killed his new wife's brother after an argument and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Despite this, his father and step-mother stayed together, and after prison his father rebuilt his life, with Carter calling him "one of my real heroes."

In 1990, at the age of 17, Carter dropped out of West Philadelphia High School in pursuit of a career in the music industry with his high school hip hop group 2 Too Many, and was signed by Will Smith and James Lassiter to their label WilJam Records. The year later, he was promoting rap concerts around Philadelphia for artists such as The Notorious B.I.G. It was through this that he met record producer Sean Combs, who hired Carter as an intern for Bad Boy Records in New York City for a year and a half. It was also in 2007 that Carter founded Coalition Media Group, and its management division Atom Factory in 2010. It was also in 2011 that Carter received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special for his work on the HBO special Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden, sharing the nomination with Lady Gaga, Vincent Herbert, Jimmy Iovine, and Mo Morrison.

Since signing Lady Gaga in 2007, Carter has gone on to manage numerous other artists such as John Legend, Greyson Chance, Mindless Behavior, Priyanka Chopra, Lindsey Stirling, Meghan Trainor, The Ceremonies and Pia Mia. Lady Gaga fired him in 2014.

He is a member of the 2012 class of Henry Crown Fellows at The Aspen Institute. He is on the board of advisors of 'opinion-network' start-up State.com. Carter appeared as a guest Shark during the seventh season of reality TV show Shark Tank, which aired on October 9, 2015. Carter was named to Oprah Winfrey's SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders in 2016.

In July 2018, it was announced that Carter would exit Spotify in early September and assumed an advisory role. In 2019, Ithaca Holdings alleged Carter failed to repay a loan, in a lawsuit that settled out of court.

Personal life Carter and his wife Rebecca have five children. In 2012, the two reportedly raised millions of dollars for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.