Many music industry executives migrate to Nashville, Tennessee to start their careers, but Wayne Martin, a veteran of the American music industry, launched his music career in Nashville as a local. Since that time, Martin as been awarded multiple gold and platinum awards as a key player inside the development of iconic careers, working with some of the biggest names in music and entertainment throughout North America and western Europe.

While still an undergraduate in the Music Business program at Nashville’s Belmont University and after a stint at Warner Bros on Nashville’s Music Row, Martin was recruited by the monolithic CBS Records as a burgeoning marketing representative for their roster of artists at Columbia Records, Epic Records, and nearly a dozen other corporate partners and imprints. He developed an eight year relationship with other executives and recording artists at the label where, rather than climb the corporate ladder, he consistently and unconventionally left one area of discipline to move laterally in order learn another. In a similar fashion, he segued from one genre to another, working with the biggest names in pop, rock, country, jazz and more as CBS Records became what is now known as Sony BMG.

Martin spent the next decade in the executive management of smaller, independent record companies such as the world music and jazz label Shanachie Entertainment and the avant garde Knitting Factory family of labels. Shanachie, in particular, saw tremendous growth during his tenure, and for the first time in its twenty-year history, began to win new industry awards and achieve unprecedented music trade magazine chart numbers, including the labels first number one airplay record.

During this same time period, and just following an interview for the Wall Street Journal Europe, Martin was recruited by New York University to create and teach two courses relating to the global marketing of artists, songs, and recordings. Wildly popular and most often attended by students who already were active inside the music industry, Martin would go on to receive a ten-year service award from the university.

Following nearly twenty years of successful label operations under his belt during what most refer to as the “golden age” of the music industry, Martin was recruited by The Harry Fox Agency where he, for the first time, was hands-on inside the worlds of music licensing and music publishing. Years inside Fox during a challenging time of restructuring and transition proved to be especially rich with insight into the new music business models that the industry knows so well today.

Following Harry Fox, Martin was working independently as a consultant for artists, their representatives, and music industry start-ups when he first shared his idea of moving into artist management with close friends and colleagues. His boutique management firm, Martin Artist Management, began to first take shape in 2013, but officially launched in the Fall of 2014 with his first two artist signings.

After establishing his artist management business, Martin was also asked to consult labels, publishers, artists whom he had not signed, and yes, he was recruited to provide development strategies for other artist managers. This diverse and substantial addition of corporate clients became the conduit for Martin Artist Management to transform into mthree: martin music management, a music industry service company launched in January 2019 that not only advances his roster of signed recording artists and music producers, but produces the five-star rated Small Plates podcast for an audience of aspiring musicians worldwide. Martin speaks as an industry expert in trade publications such as Billboard magazine, consumer publications such as the Chicago Tribune, music industry conferences such as The Association of Independent Music Publishers, and on college campuses. In 2022, in addition to addressing students regarding the mental health challenges that face recording artists at the Steinhardt School inside New York University, he will hold the distinction of being the first music manager to speak on music industry contracts to Recording Artist Project students inside Harvard Law School.