Al Thrash

Music Industry: Music Management

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Professor Al Thrash has over twenty-five years of experience working in the music and entertainment business. He started his career as a college marketing representative with BMG Distribution. Upon graduating, Professor Thrash landed a full-time position in Atlanta, and later Nashville, TN, handling sales and marketing duties for some of BMG’s biggest artists, including Outkast, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Wu-Tang Clan, Dave Matthews Band and Usher. After working seven years with the company, he left to pursue his dreams of entrepreneurship and partnered with a college friend to launch a music consulting company, Own Music LLC. They successfully curated events and secured endorsements for music artists with brands such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, T Mobile, Essence Music Festival and Miller Coors.

In 2008, Professor Thrash joined Thirty Tigers, one of the premiere music distribution companies in the industry, and is currently employed as a Project Manager. Thirty Tigers has helped foster success stories for several world-class artists, including Carlos Santana, Lupe Fiasco, Cimafunk, Jason Isbell and CeCe Winans. In 2011, he developed a curriculum and began teaching music business courses at Morehouse College, and later taught similar courses at Spelman College and Agnes Scott College in Atlanta. In 2018, he joined the faculty of the School of Music at Georgia State University as a Program Coordinator and Professor of Practice in Music Management. In the fall of 2022, Professor Thrash received a grant through the university’s Research Innovation and Scholarly Excellence challenge and used the funds to launch MTM Standard, GSU’s first-ever student-led record label and sync licensing company. Professor Thrash holds an M.B.A. from Clark Atlanta University and a B.A. in Business Administration from Morehouse College.