Jason Johnson
Marketing expert. Currently Founder & CEO of Culture Impact LLC. Has worked for Audiomack, and with several labels under the Sony and Universal Music Group systems.
Jason Johnson’s history
Before Jason Johnson ventured out on his own as a marketing expert, he held down a job as the Senior VP of Marketing & Brand Strategy at Audiomack. But, not all that long ago, he was simply a fan of the industry, obsessing over music documentaries like Making The Band, MTV’s Diaries, and VH1’s Driven. The fan in him eventually blossomed into a hungry professional - analyzing the films to see who was who in the business, finding the album packaging for projects he saw in them and taking note of every name he could find so that when the time was right, he’d be able to make the connection.
Providing value makes building relationships easier
He knew from early on that it would be the people he met and befriended, and the community that then grew, that would make his career. It is common to feel stuck in a loop of cold outreach and conversations along your “networking” journey. The key to exiting this loop for Jason was simply to build something that provided value.
It was relatively straightforward; with his cousin who interned at Def Jam, he would produce a live showcase that artists could pay $10 to audition for. The host would be Aaron Reid, who was LA Reid’s son and a MTV My Super Sweet 16 alumni which gave him a sizable following and the added boost Jason and his cousin needed. The more showcases they produced, the more people gravitated to their movement, and before long Jason earned an offer to sign on to Def Jam as an intern. He realized as he interacted with the music community that professionals at all stages, even the quite successful ones, were open to chatting with him about their experience. Increasingly enthusiastic about carving out a role for himself in the industry, he stashed away questions to ask industry pros when he ran into them. He came across as intentional and knowledgeable - because he was - and this helped him to create real rapport with some impactful individuals.
Falling in love with marketing
It was there that he discovered the intricate but poetic beauty of the music marketing world. Jason became comfortable with the technicalities of publicity and communications, essentially, everything that it took to leverage media to bring eyes to an artist, from TV to magazines. A colleague noticed Jason’s idea-guy mentality, and suggested he take a deeper look at marketing. Jason began learning about the names of the best in the music partnerships space which led him to Steve Stoute, and upon diving deeper, he became quite interested with all that the music partnerships route could have to offer.3 Stoute’s campaign with Reebok, Allen Iverson, and Trackmasters enraptured Jason. He connected with the authentic representation of Black culture, and was attracted to the convergence of cultural themes for how it showed the thoughtfulness that went into presenting this product (The Reebok AI Answer shoes) to consumers.
Much-needed sacrifices
Turning his vision into momentum and impact would take the combining of his ever-deepening community with a sharper technical know-how of music marketing. In Jason’s words, what he needed was access and information. For many rising through the industry ranks, like Jason, these two elements are attained through sacrifice. Financial stability was elusive in the early days of Jason’s career. However, it inspired him to double down and look out for others as a matter of principle, and eventually this would pay off in dividends.
Consulting at labels and taking commission off of the brand deals and shows he landed for artists began putting money in his pocket early on, in addition to valuable connections with industry presences overseas. Like many, he also took on a number of “regular” jobs as he carved out his music career, including posts at Ralph Lauren, Bloomingdales, and Paragon Sports. He found himself caught between a rock and a hard place attempting to find balance on many occasions, faced sometimes with choosing between school and engagements as important as the search for promotional opportunities for Rihanna as she toured with Kanye West on the Glow In the Dark Tour.
How Audiomack became real
Later on, while working at a venture fund looking at deal propositions that came across the table, Jason found out about Audiomack’s early-stage efforts. Shortly after coming into contact with the executive team, he doubled back and took the initiative to create an opportunity for himself. Standing on a strong background of qualifications, expertise, and relationships, Jason posed the idea of getting the word out about Audiomack to the broader industry, particularly through live events. Under a trial period setting, Jason executed a sponsorship at Rolling Loud Festival. Before long, opportunities were snowballing into a senior director and then, senior vice president position within the company fold.
At Audiomack, Jason’s involvement is multi-dimensional. It began with PR, the department he had the most major label experience in. He assembled a press team before putting together a comprehensive communication strategy to cover marketing and partnership efforts. The final component was strategy for Audiomack’s brand itself, to increase visibility, brand equity in the marketplace, and ultimately attract more artists. Jason’s communications mind and effort were especially vital in the expansion into Africa, a continent that boasts a thriving interregional music scene that is gaining more and more global traction by the day. He led the project to launch Audiomack Africa, connecting with meaningful markets and communities in Ghana and Nigeria. He attests to the community-building emphasis he’s possessed since day 1 that made such expansions not only possible, but impactful.
What’s next
In a similar vein, the focus now is on bringing together tech, music, and media in a global context. Jason has his eyes set on the African music community as well as the Latin and Caribbean music scenes. He notes that the growing wealth of resources available in the music industry for building an artist’s career and reach, and finding and building new artists, needs to be utilized to amplify the impact of other genres that the new frontier of artists are exploring.
Amidst these grandiose missions, Jason’s personal focus and definition of success has been achieving peace of mind.
“Understanding the value of ownership is just so key - where we are as a people and as a culture ... It's key to understand our worth and the value that we actually contribute, and how we need to take the time to educate ourselves and come together to focus on helping and ushering in a new generation of leaders. To me, that's what I feel like success is: building up other people and providing resources.”
