Steve Stoute on staying one step ahead of the music industry

In this week's episode of The Limits, Jay talks to Steve Stoute, a music executive responsible for shaping the careers of the biggest stars in recent memory. Nas, Mariah Carey, Will Smith...Steve Stoute's resume rivals any of the biggest players in the industry. He spent the '90s molding talent at Interscope Records alongside Jimmy Iovine. But in 2004, when he felt his vision for marketing wasn't being realized, he left Interscope and founded his own firm, Translation. The company now has a net worth of over 30 million dollars with clients like HBO, Nike and Beats by Dre, and it sits directly at the intersection of advertising and music.Now, Steve's attempting to shake up the music industry once again with his company UnitedMasters, which gives artists the ability to distribute their music across platforms without signing to a label.Steve talked to Jay about his journey from the trenches of the music industry to mogul status, his relationship with Nas, the current state of hip-hop, and how he thinks advertising and marketing models in the streaming era need to be totally reimagined.And because Steve's a guy who prefers to stay out of the limelight, he asked not to be on video. But we'll be back with full video content on NPR YouTube channels next week. For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits.Follow Jay on Instagram and Twitter. Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy