Fletcher Foster

You’d expect a Nashville label executive’s resume to include the likes of Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, and Brooks & Dunn.  You might not expect to see names like Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, Toni Braxton, Patti LaBelle, TLC and Live.

Foster’s stints at labels in Los Angeles and Nashville have given him one of the most varied and eclectic backgrounds on Music Row.

“With technology developing so quickly, and media becoming such a powerful tool in our world, it’s vital that we use every outlet at our disposal to heighten public awareness of our artists, broaden their bases and take them to new career levels,” Foster says.

After Serving as Senior Vice President, Marketing at Capitol/Nashville for over six years and building the careers of artists like Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, and Trace Adkins, Foster was named Senior Vice President/General Manager for Universal Records South working with a roster that included Cross Canadian Ragweed, Eli Young Band, Jennifer Hanson, Randy Houser, Joe Nichols and Phil Vassar.  In 2009, he created and oversaw the CMA Award nominated “Boots On” video by Randy Houser.  That single and video went to #2 on the Billboard single’s chart and lead to Houser’s CMA Award nomination for Best New Artist.

Universal Records South is a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.  Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 75 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry’s largest global music publishing operations.

While at Capitol/Nashville, Foster implemented a multi-pronged approach to marketing the label’s music and artists. Arriving during a key point in Keith Urban’s career, he increased the singer’s profile by facilitating major TV appearances and arranging an intensive industry awareness campaign. Urban won the CMA Horizon Award and the ACM New Top Male Vocalist Award and has gone on to win the CMA’s highest honor, Entertainer of the Year (2005). Foster’s vision and marketing efforts were also important in the renewed standing of Trace Adkins (Foster conceptualized the remixes and video of Adkins’ two-million-selling “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”), to the launching of 2xPlatinum-selling Dierks Bentley. 

As Senior Vice President, Marketing at Capitol/Nashville, he oversaw all areas of marketing at the label including production, creative services, publicity, new media, international, and video production and promotion.

Foster made the move to Capitol Records/Nashville from Arista/Nashville, where he first launched several artists through national major network exposure (Pam Tillis on “The Tonight Show”, Alan Jackson on the “Grammy’s” and “Billboard Awards”, and taking Brooks & Dunn to the “Arsenio Hall Show” early in their career).

“Arsenio was key to Arista at the time,” Foster says, “because we had so many R&B/Urban artists on the roster.  But the show didn’t book that much country, so it was really a coup to be able to showcase Brooks & Dunn to a brand new audience at that point in their career.”

In 1999, Foster was the Executive Producer of Arista/Nashville’s first soundtrack.  The soundtrack to the Miramax film, “Happy, Texas” received rave reviews and earned two Grammy nominations.  The album featured such diverse
artists as Joan Osborne, Alison Krauss, Pam Tillis, Emmylou Harris, Keb Mo’ and Kim Richey.

That kind of creative work stems from a lifetime of love for music.  Foster grew up listening to country and pop as well as gospel music.  At 12, he released his first record and at age 16, he released an album on American Artists Records. 

Following high school, Foster went to Belmont University in Nashville, majoring
in Business with a minor in music, while paying the bills doing jingle work.  After graduation, he worked at Sony Music.  While there, he handled a roster that included Rosanne Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, the late-Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash among others.

In 1990, Foster went to work for Arista in Los Angeles.  His primary responsibility, though, involved lining up media appearances for the label’s artists - Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, TLC, Kenny G., Annie Lennox and more.  He spent nearly two years at MCA as Vice-President, Television and Multimedia Marketing, logging rock/alternative band Live their first appearance on “Saturday Night Live” and helping launch them toward their Triple-Platinum success. 

In 1999, Foster conceived and chaired the 1st Annual Run on the Row benefiting the T.J. Martell Organization and in 2005 he conceived and chaired the 1st Digital Music Summit (benefiting Leadership Music) which brought to Nashville many of the leaders in new media and technology.

Foster is on the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), and the Past-President of the Board of Directors for Make-A-Wish of Middle Tennessee.  He is on the Board of Directors of Gilda’s Club, Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation, Board of Directors of Academy of Country Music, Board of Directors of MusiCares, and Board of Directors of Leadership Music.  In 2001 he was named Belmont Alumnus of the Year.  In 2003, he was named one of The Tennessean’s “Top 40 Under 40” and also was a judge for the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, NJ.  In 2009, he was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Tennessee State Museum’s Costume and Textile Institute.  He was formerly on the Board for the Nashville Film Festival (NaFF).  He is a Leadership Music alumnus and a member of the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, and NARAS.