Meet the CEO Behind the Fastest Growing Agency for Independent Artists: James Landry

As more independent artists surface up each day, they are left with an even more confusing understanding of which route to take with their music. Meet the man trying to disrupt that cycle within the music industry, James Landry, the CEO and Co-Founder of De Novo Agency. De Novo was founded as a full-service entertainment agency that specializes in helping up and coming musicians and producers navigate the music industry without taking any royalties from clients. Here’s how James Landry has skyrocketed his agency inside one of the harshest industries.

James Landry at a Glance

James has always been interested in business, graduating Florida State University with a J.D. in business law, in addition to his undergraduate degrees, a B.S. in Entrepreneurship, as well as B.A. in Economics from the University of New Hampshire. Building up his impressive resume over the past few years has helped the young entrepreneur facilitate his ventures into real-life businesses such as his newest upcoming venture ‘Songflowr,’ which aims at providing artists an all in one easy to use music distribution software.

Before James could build a successful agency like De Novo, he had to start at the bottom and face obstacles just like everybody else. Some of the most prominent obstacles being the amount of backlash he has received from attorneys and competitors who charge for the information James and De Novo share for free. By being an honest figure in the music industry, De Novo has experienced friction amongst other industry insiders for ruining their chance to make money off of musicians who didn’t know any better. By continuing to provide value and being a source of insight for a lot of new artists, James has built an excellent reputation and made it possible for De Novo Agency to grow as fast as it has.

The Music Industry Edge

One thing that James has in common with most artists, happens to be his age, but James has a legal background. He’s able to connect with them on a personal level and understand what they are going through and how much music has changed as they have grown up.

This is different from the majority of entertainment attorneys and professionals who capitalize off of hiding information from artists. The very reason De Novo Agency has seen dramatic success for their clients stems from the amount of help they offer independent artists for free.

The most important advice James brings to all clients is to remind them that the record labels and other professionals are businesses if they are taking 50% of your royalties for $200,000 that means they think they can make money off of you. If you believe you can do it yourself, why would you give up so much potential revenue?

Continuing to Grow into the Industry

James has clarified that his goal with De Novo Agency is to offer independent artists with the same tools a record label would provide, without having them give up any royalties or charge ridiculous amounts of money. As DNA continues to grow every year, they will eventually tap into every area of the music industry alongside his other business ‘Songflowr.’ Ultimately, DNA was the reason James went to law school, not so he could work a 9–5 behind a desk every day, James is one of the few inside the industry who cares about making a difference. James believes he will make the complex industry a level playing field for artists of all kinds with De Novo Agency, a feat that will disrupt the music industry for the better.