Each week, a CAMD student, faculty, staff member, or alum curates a playlist around the theme of their choice. Enjoy more CAMD Playlists and learn how to submit your own on the CAMD website.

NU by Emily White

Emily White, AS’05, is the co­-founder of Whitesmith Entertainment, a highly respected management and consulting firm based in New York and Los Angeles, as well as the tech start­up Dreamfuel, a crowdfunding platform for athletes and teams. White has worked with a wide variety of well-known artists, including Fox Stevenson, the Zac Brown Band, and Imogen Heap. She was recently profiled for the CAMD website.

If you’d like to hear the story behind each song in the playlist read on below, Emily speaks about what makes each song meaningful, how she met the band, or how managing the artist has been a rewarding experience.

“Girl A” – I once had an artist tell me that this song defies genres. It’s from The Dresden Dolls’ debut album, an album that changed my life and career. The video is also amazing and all was done by the community surrounding the band. Truly amazing and DIY to the core.

“Sweets” – On the other end of the spectrum, “Sweets” is by burgeoning EDM star Fox Stevenson. EDM and Fox could not define the modern music industry more from creation to distribution to fan engagement. This track was a hit in Holland and has generated solid revenue for Fox via streaming. An area of the industry people like to complain “doesn’t pay….”

“Chicken Fried” – When I was working for legendary producer Bob Ezrin, he told me go home, listen to this record and come into work the next day with what we should do with it. I had never worked on Country before but it was clear that Zac could really play and had passionate fans from Day 1, even if his ticket counts in Nashville were 40 at the time. For those who are aware, Zac now sells out stadiums! Success could not have happened to a more deserving or nicer artist.

Matthew Friedberger is a large creative force behind The Fiery Furnaces. I am honored to manage him solo and this is a track from his 2006 double album on Thrill Jockey that I absolutely adore.

I’ve been consulting on Urge Overkill for the past 6 years or so and teenage me never would have believed that! It is truly an honor to work with these guys and help to bring a band who was on tour with Nirvana when Nevermind hit #1 to embrace tech and the modern era.

Brendan and I started a label for both him and his production work called Readymade that landed my name on the cover of Billboard. He is an incredible artist and I hope he continues to make solo music beyond The Raconteurs and his amazing production work.

Eric Burdon is an artist I’ve worked with that meant that I’d truly “made it” in my parents’ eyes :). I love tripping my Dad out by telling him that I explained to Eric what Twitter is. Obviously it’s a complete honor as well to have worked with such a legend and even I can’t believe it some time.