Cadillac Music hires Dane Schmidt as A&R lead in Nashville

A Nashville publishing house founded by an artist-songwriter just hired a veteran A&R exec and two assistants to expand its roster operations.

Dane Schmidt joins ERN's Cadillac Music as Senior Director of A&R

• ERNEST founded the publishing venture in 2023 with Big Loud Publishing backing.
• Schmidt will oversee the company's roster of GRAMMY and CMA-recognized songwriters.
• Writers on the roster include Chandler Walters, Cody Lohden, and Jacob Durrett.
• Schmidt ran his own creative management company, Daschent, since 2022.

Jordan Marcus and Jude Warren were hired for creative and A&R roles

• Marcus worked in live event production at Amazon before joining Cadillac.
• She previously ran a private chef business outside the music industry.
• Warren started as an intern for ERNEST before getting hired full-time.
• His prior internships included King Pen Music and Republic Records.

ERNEST has known Schmidt for almost 12 years in the business

• Their journeys in the industry started around the same time, ERNEST said.
• Schmidt brings strong relationships and song evaluation skills to the team.
• The company contributed to Post Malone's country debut, F-1 Trillion, last year.
• I Had Some Help featuring Morgan Wallen hit all-genre No. 1 from that album.

Schmidt previously held positions at Sony Music Publishing and Tree Vibez

• He co-founded WeVolve Music earlier in his career trajectory.
• Daschent notched over 25 No. 1s since launching three years ago.
• Schmidt called ERNEST's talent-finding and mentoring ability inspiring to watch.
• The exec is pushing boundaries of what a modern publishing company can be.