Michele Smith
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Michele Smith is a 2023 Grammy® Award-winning compilation producer who serves as Vice President of Legacy and Estate Brand Management at Craft Recordings, the catalog label of Concord, the largest independent global leader in the development and acquisition of recorded music, music publishing and theatrical performance rights. Named as a 2024 “Hero Behind The Culture” by the Living Legends Foundation, Michele procures licensing and preserves the legacies of Stax Records, The Estate of Billie Holiday and The Estate of Tammy Wynette. She proactively works with Concord Originals, Concord’s Film & TV team, to develop viable productions pertaining to each of those important legacies. She is an Executive Producer on the four-part HBO docuseries, "Stax: Soulsville USA," and she was an Executive producer on the 2019 documentary, "Billie," about the legendary musical and social icon, Billie Holiday. Michele also pursues the non-musical interests and opportunities around significant anniversaries for all of the entities under her purview, including a Stax theatrical stage play. Named one of Billboard's 2022 Women in Music Executive Honorees as well as a Billboard Indie Power Player, Michele works closely with and serves as Concord’s representative on the Board of Directors for the Soulsville Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Stax Music Academy and The Soulsville Charter School, in Memphis, Tennessee. Michele mentors youth interested in musical careers and is a vocal change agent and member of Concord’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and Impact Investment Committee, which focuses on investing in music and theater industries that serve underrepresented and marginalized communities. She is also in her fourth year as an adjunct instructor in the Entertainment Industry Management program at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to her position at Concord, Michele was a Marketing/Video Executive at Virgin Records, MCA Records, and Hidden Beach Recording. She credits her early years at Perspective Records as setting a strong foundation. Throughout her music and video career, she has worked with some of music’s most notable global entertainers such as James Taylor, Paul Simon, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, D’Angelo, Common, Gang Starr, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Kanye West, Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Scarface, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, Angie Stone, Devin The Dude, Valerie June, Lalah Hathaway, Mint Condition, super producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and many of the legendary Stax artists, just to name a few.