When Greg Howard first came to Nashville from his native South Carolina, he had one goal in mind: to have a successful career in the music business. Some 14 years later, he has indeed succeeded in that, and in spades. As Founder and CEO of Howard Music Group, Inc., he has put to good use all of the experience he gained during his journey in the music industry. Undeniably a force in specialty music marketing and development, Howard has successfully penetrated the non-traditional music retail market over and over with his unique blend of product and market knowledge.
"I think it's very interesting that my career in the music industry took this direction," says Howard. "Most of the music that I create every day is instrumental. Thanks to my dad, I grew up listening to Floyd Cramer, Henry Mancini, and Charlie McCoy – all great instrumentalists. It obviously had some effect on me. I've always loved instrumental music, and now it's practically my life."
Inheriting a passion for music from his parents, Howard took up piano and began writing songs at a young age. While attending Montreat-Anderson College near Asheville, North Carolina, he first acknowledged his ambition to make music his career. While promoting concerts at the college, Howard established acquaintances with numerous "name" acts in the Christian music field. Among the casual advisors that crossed his path were Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Steven Curtis Chapman.
The day he graduated from Montreat-Anderson, he packed up his car and moved to Nashville. Working in a video store that first summer, he got a lead on a job with a record company - back in South Carolina. He spent a year Greenville, SC as label manager for Mark Five Records, made more contacts and, again feeling the pull of Nashville, moved once more. This time, he landed a job in the music industry.
"I got a job in sales in the 'gift market music" area at Brentwood Music," he explains. "That was my introduction to selling instrumental music to the gift market. I just loved it."
After a two-year stint in gift music sales at Brentwood Music, he helped Benson Music start their gift division, once again demonstrating his prowess in sales. "I never really enjoyed sales, but I was good at it," he now says. "I really wanted to do more, be more involved in the creative process. And, I felt that I was learning first hand the product needs of the market."
Enter a new company called Chapel Music (later to become Spring Hill Music Group), formed by gospel music legend Bill Gaither and Indiana business executive Leland Boren. "The company president was Mary Kraker, with whom I’d worked at Benson. She knew what I was doing in the gift market there, and knew that I had creative sensibilities but that I was stuck in sales. So she called me up one day and said, 'Hey, we're starting this label. We want to have a gift division. Would you be interested in running it?'"
The launch of that gift division, which became Green Hill Productions, brought precisely the opportunity Howard had been waiting for. "I got to do everything - create the product, hire the producers, sign the artists, executive produce all the projects, work with the designers on the packaging. I did all the marketing myself, and then I went to the gift shows and sold the product myself. It was really a one-man show in the beginning. Nine years later, Green Hill became the leader in the gift market for this kind of music. I'm very proud of what I accomplished there."
As Vice President/General Manager of Green Hill Productions, a division of Spring Hill Music Group, Howard oversaw all aspects of the label’s product development, marketing, and sales and established Green Hill as the leading provider of conceptual music for the gift and specialty market.
So what lured him away from such a lucrative position? "Equity," he says, "of which I had none." With 40 on the horizon, Howard wanted to build something that was his and that he could direct and grow to its fullest potential. "I work with some amazing artists and musicians. Also, my staff is a group of incredibly talented people. If we focus on creating great product, take good care of our customers, employees and artists; the rest will take care of itself. It’s hard not to be successful when everyone involved has a passion for what they are doing and feels like they play an important role in the company."
greg@villagesquare.com