Lance Carpenter, Industry Polymath, Launches Platform for Aspiring Music Professionals

Lance Carpenter is one of the few music industry professionals who values others’ success just as much as he treasures his own—and this musician has quite a few successes to his name.

Videos by American Songwriter

After growing up on an Arkansas farm, Carpenter moved to Nashville in 2011 to turn his scribbled lyrics into a songwriting career. The artist rapidly accrued creditability after penning the No. 1 hit “Love Me Like You Mean It” for Kelsea Ballerini. Carpenter then launched his own music career and continues to release new projects.

This year, the singer/songwriter announced that he would release one song each month of 2021, or simply put, 12 songs in 12 months. This month’s single is a country ballad titled “Sober,” and the song will ultimately end up on an album called Demo Sessions along with the other 11 tracks.

“They’re songs that I’ve loved for a long time. Some of them I wrote six, seven years ago, and they just never felt like they would fit in a project that I was putting out,” Carpenter tells American Songwriter. “But I wanted to put them out, and so it’s an album of misfit songs that don’t really go together. You’ve got songs about where I grew up, you’ve got songs [like] ‘You’re Beautiful,’… It was a song we wrote for someone in Germany to do a dance mix song for.

“It’s not really about me. This project has nothing to do about me other than it’s feeding songs to my fans,” Carpenter continues. “It’s helping me shine a spotlight on some of the people that I’ve worked with that are super talented people, from Grammy-winning artists to future Grammy-winning producers, writers, number one writers. It’s incredible, the people that helped me put this together.”

Carpenter didn’t stop at writing and producing music, however. The singer/songwriter decided it was time to open doors and create doors, for other professionals working to get into the industry. Consequently, Carpenter launched a platform called Music Row Coach earlier this year.

In short, Music Row Coach is an easily accessible mentoring program in which musicians, artists, songwriters, and other industry professionals can get a leg up in the music world.

Carpenter describes Music Row Coach as a two-pronged program. Specifically, the singer/songwriter explains that his platform has both a “Facebook” option and a “Netflix” option. The former includes getting connected with other industry professionals which could mean landing publisher meetings.

“It’s not just me teaching a one-way street, but the community can learn from each other,” Carpenter explains, “because there’s so much knowledge that even someone brand new to the business can give someone [some advice]. Everybody can be a teacher.

“Then the ‘Netflix’ side of things is the video library where I tell [members] I’ll upload a video a week about the music business or about songwriting or publishing. And I’ve actually been averaging about three videos a week,” Carpenter adds.

In a business where connections and knowledge can make or break a career, Music Row Coach is the membership that’ll push you over the edge into success. For either a monthly or annual fee, members are granted access to an exclusive community and knowledge base. Founding member status is also still available and comes with its own perks.

“There are right ways to do it, and there are wrong ways to do it,” Carpenter says about breaking into the music industry. “One thing I did wrong [was] when I first came to town, I was asking everybody to write [with me] whether I was ready to be in that room or not.”

Check out Music Row Coach to get help get started in the industry.

Photo courtesy of Lance Carpenter

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