Alumni Q&A with Brittany Schaffer

Catch us up! Where have you been since Loeb?

I left Loeb & Loeb almost 3½ years ago to join Spotify as the Nashville office’s Head of Artist & Label Partnerships. Today, I co-lead Spotify’s Nashville office and the execution of Spotify’s strategy for growing the country, Christian/gospel and Americana genres. I also run a team that oversees Spotify’s partnerships with the Nashville music industry. In other words, I now consider myself a “recovering” lawyer.

Is there anything you learned at Loeb that you’ve taken with you to your current role or any of the other roles you’ve had?

I was hired at Loeb during my third year of law school, after clerking there for two summers, so Loeb taught me the majority of what I’ve learned in my professional life. That said, two things stand out.

The first is that Loeb gave me a 360-degree view of the music industry. I touched every aspect of the industry—from record and publishing deals, management relationships, live events and touring corporations to M&A transactions, copyright litigation, music licensing, endorsement deals and everything in between. I learned more about the music business during my seven-plus years at Loeb than most people do in a lifetime of work, and I am forever grateful to my former colleagues for that.

The second lesson I learned at Loeb is how much more effective you can be when you are willing to be collaborative with colleagues who are deeply experienced in areas outside your wheelhouse. Some of the most exciting deals I worked on at Loeb involved lawyers outside the music practice, and each time I learned so much about the nuances of different parts of the law or different industries. I’ve found the same to be true at Spotify. I work with an incredibly diverse group of colleagues with their own areas of knowledge—music programming, marketing, public relations, audio production, legal, data science, etc.—and knowing how to collaborate with and trust each of them has been key to my success.

Can you share a specific Loeb memory that you are fond of? It can be a person, a place, an occurrence, etc.

There are so many fond memories of my time at Loeb. Running around SXSW each year with John Frankenheimer, Debbie White, Barry Slotnick and Tiffany Dunn stands out. We pushed our way to the front to see Loretta Lynn perform at Stubbs and saw Andra Day perform for 10 people in a classroom. We always had an annual Loeb dinner at Manuel’s and once took an excursion to The Salt Lick. I probably formed my closest relationships during that annual trip.

Organizing and hosting our Nashville CMA Awards brunch also stands out as a highlight. It was fun to get our clients and industry partners together in one place each year to simply enjoy each other’s company with no agenda. I love that it has now become a staple of CMA Awards week and something that I still plan to attend each year.

What did you like most about working at Loeb?

I loved the work I did at Loeb and the clients I worked for. We represented superstar artists and standout companies, but we also represented emerging creators and startups that we believed in—some long-held Loeb clients and other new companies and individuals that I originated myself. Also, no day ever looked the same. The work pushed me to expand the scope of my knowledge, to stay up to date with industry trends and to otherwise be a better lawyer each day. That balance of work and clients always kept my time at Loeb interesting.

What does being a part of Loeb Reconnected, Loeb’s alumni community, mean to you?

I have fond memories of working at Loeb. Being a part of Loeb Reconnected is a way for me to stay connected with my former colleagues and with the practice of law. I love seeing the new issues that are popping up and how my perspectives on those issues have evolved in this new phase of my career.