Rusty Gaston: CEO of Sony Music Publishing

Welcome to Stories Behind the Songs podcast! This week, Chris Blair sat down in "the listening room" at Sony Music Publishing with president and CEO, Rusty Gaston. They have a "listening room" at Sony where they meet daily to listen to every song their writers wrote the previous day - it was very cool!

You’ve probably heard our other guest mention their publishers in previous episodes. With several years of experience working in publishing, Rusty gives us the scoop on what a music publisher does and what his role consists of as the president of Sony Music Publishing. If you are an aspiring songwriter, established artist, or just someone who loves music this episode is for you. You will get to hear exclusive, behind-the-scenes stories from the writers’ rooms, interactions between country stars and icons, how the hits are formed, and everything in between. Rusty believes in championing and encouraging artists. You can feel how much he cares for these artists and songwriters just by sitting in the same room with him. You could even say that without Rusty, we wouldn’t have as many number-one hits out there... And what he's doing it working! He's been the recipient of many awards including 2023 Country Power Players Executive of the Year along with many of his writers/artists scooping up awards year after year like Cole SwindelI, Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney, Ashley Gorley and countless more! Here's a full list of Sony Music Publishers songwriters.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did and like hearing a little spin on what we usually do this week when sitting down with a publisher instead of a songwriter or artist directly!

Let us know what you thought of this episode and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you find your podcasts.

Show Notes:

Sony Music Publishing Instagram: @SonyMusicPub

Sony Music Publishing Spotify: @SonyATVOfficial

Sony Music Publishing Webiste: here

Rusty Gaston's Instagram: @RustyGaston

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