Four Nashville music industry veterans have joined forces with the launch of a multi-faceted company built around the belief of putting artists, unbridled creativity and faith-based perspectives at its core.
Executives Josh Bailey, Jeremy Holley, Rod Riley and Josh Thompson have teamed for the Franklin, Tenn.-based label By Design, which falls under a larger ecosystem which blends label, publishing and a nonprofit initiative under one roof. That ecosystem also includes By Design music publishing, as well as Archetype Music, a music rights holding company acquiring faith-based music rights, including masters and publishing. The artist-first ecosystem also includes Blueprint, a nonprofit aimed at helping creators build healthy, sustainable careers.
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The label’s initial artist roster reflects that mission, led by country artist Frankie Ballard, pop-folk artist Zoe Levert and singer-songwriter Alex Jude. Ballard, who notched three No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart before stepping back to recalibrate his artistic mission, is preparing to release new music and embark on the next phase of his career. Levert, who reached the Top 12 on NBC’s The Voice, has since relocated to Nashville to continue refining her sound.
“For us, it’s finding artists that aren’t afraid to talk about their faith, but also have a real desire to create art that goes beyond maybe the traditional realms of genres or sub-genres,” Holley says. “I think all three of the artists that we’ve partnered with so far have that ability. They are creating music and art that doesn’t fit into a mold.”
All four execs’ careers include time in various label roles, converging with time at Word Entertainment. Bailey spent more than two decades at Word Entertainment and Capitol CMG, working in A&R and with artists including For King & Country and Anne Wilson. Following work at Word and Warner Music Group, Holley launched pop culture agency FlyteVu. Riley co-founded Fervent Records with his wife Susan and then sold the label to Word and led Word as CEO, before moving into rights acquisitions. Thompson worked in various label roles at Word before leading Futureshirts through a time of acquisitions, client/team growth, and expanded services.
That combined industry experience and perspective from Bailey, Holley, Riley, and Thompson informs By Design’s creator-first approach.
“Our priority is to find the right listeners for the right songs,” Bailey says. “So if that means radio, go to radio. If that means a really deep social strategy, go to socials.”
The company emerges as faith-based music has surged in consumption over the past few years, spearheaded by music from artists such as Forrest Frank, Brandon Lake, Elevation Worship, Jon Reddick, Lauren Daigle and Josiah Queen.
“In the last four or five years with streaming taking over and how the business has changed, it’s opened the door for a lot more freedom for artists to create great art that lives in a lot of different spaces,” Thompson adds. “You see some of the breakout things that are coming from the Christian space, that they are making music that doesn’t sound anything like Christian music sounded before and they are having success with that. There’s less rules in what we’re doing.”
The company’s nonprofit arm Blueprint, aims to address artist well-being from the outset.
“I think that there’s a lot of places for artists to go when something goes wrong, and there are certainly amazing organizations that care for artists in Nashville and beyond,” Riley says. “But for us, it’s like, ‘What are we doing for the artist that’s 20 years old that we are signing?’ How are we educating them on what’s to come and how are we getting ahead of those things from the get-go? With Blueprint, there will essentially be a cohort of talent that gets into the program, and it will be around a six-to-12-month long program that is about learning who you are and why. And there will be partnerships with people like Porter’s Call or Onsite, where there may be bigger needs, but our goal is to just shepherd artists through that program and teach them.”
Ahead, By Design’s leaders are focused on more ways of helping to shift the paradigm when it comes to business deals impacting artists, songwriters and other creators.
“This is about all those that are part of making great music, and we want to do what we can to help and nurture that,” Riley says. “We’ve signed a few writers and are in the middle of a few deals. There’s some other things down the road as we get into this, that we’ve already started dreaming on, of how do we throw a few grenades in how this whole thing works and do things a little bit differently, that maybe other labels and publishing companies aren’t doing.”
