Todd C. Roberts

Todd C. Roberts has always drawn inspiration from connecting deeply to emerging creative communities. Over nearly three decades working at the intersection of creative instinct and industry infrastructure, he has occupied nearly every room that matters: editorial, A&R, management, publishing, and independent label. The through-line across all of it is the same: find the artist before the market does, and build something durable around them.

Roberts began as a storyteller. As Executive Editor of URB Magazine — one of the most influential culture and music publications of its era — he shaped a national editorial voice around the emerging sounds that would define the next decade of popular music. That instinct for what was next translated naturally into A&R. He moved into a role at Virgin Records working alongside artists including Massive Attack, Daft Punk, and N.E.R.D., before relocating to New York to build the US roster strategy for Astralwerks. There, he led signings and partnerships that helped define the label as a premier force in electronic music — championing Primal Scream, Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Phoenix, and Innerzone Orchestra, and coordinating the early discovery and worldwide signing of Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You.” He oversaw recorded soundtracks for films including The Virgin Suicides and Being John Malkovich, and served as Executive Producer on the Grammy-nominated Verve Remixed series, overseeing collaborations with Diplo, Danger Mouse, Bassnectar, and The Postal Service that reframed jazz catalog for a new audience.

When the first wave of major label consolidation hit, Roberts didn’t follow the industry inward. He went back to the margins. Embedding himself in Los Angeles’ Low End Theory scene — the underground gathering point for a generation of artists and producers who would reshape independent music — he founded Truant Media and began working with artists who had no industry attention yet but whose trajectories he could already read. Nosaj Thing developed into a critically acclaimed artist whose orbit eventually included Chance the Rapper, Toro y Moi, Kid Cudi, and Kendrick Lamar. Oliver Tree, through that same period, became one of the more genuinely singular artists of the decade. Roberts also managed Sister Crayon (Warner), Gonja Sufi (Warp), Bassnectar, and GRiZ, while simultaneously developing artist and brand partnerships for Levi’s — with Alicia Keys, Vince Staples, and SZA — and advising at Windish Agency, where he launched its music, brands, and visual arts division. He also taught Music Supervision for Film and Television at UCLA Extension.

The next chapter brought Roberts into music publishing in a formal executive capacity. As Vice President of Music Publishing A&R at MNRK Music Group, he launched and ran the company’s US publishing division from the ground up — building the deal pipeline, leading creative sessions and songwriter camps, and developing writers and producers from demo through final master. His signings during that period include Delilah Montagu, whose work appeared alongside Black Coffee and Fred again..; PARISI, who worked closely with Fred again.. on his Grammy-winning album; Seth Reger, with placements alongside The Rose, Ava Max, and charlieonnafriday; Will Clarke, integral to the song “Escape” by KX5; Niko Mansikka-aho, whose work threads through Empire of the Sun; and Kiefer, highly influential amid the new jazz and hip-hop circles. Those years produced charting records across US Top 40, UK Radio, and US Dance, RIAA Gold certifications, and Grammy nominations and wins.

Today, through Amour Fou Music, Roberts works as a creative executive — assembling the producers, songwriters, and collaborators that define an artist at the moment that matters most, before the release strategy, before the market has a verdict, before the sound is decided by data. He works with artist managers, A&Rs, and label heads who understand that the early creative work is the most consequential investment in a career. He continues to develop songwriters and producers whose recent placements include projects alongside Bodhi Bleu, Duncan Laurence, Shaboozey, and Grace VanderWaal, and to develop emerging artists under the Amour Fou imprint — including Elk Darling, Paul Maxwell, and Sienna Melgoza.

He is also co-founder of Good Egg Music, a multi-rights artist development company building integrated publishing, management, and label structures for early and mid-stage artists.