Richard Smith — Founder, Substantial Music Group
Founder of Substantial Music Group, Richard Smith is a multi-award-winning composer, songwriter, producer, musician, and entertainment professional. Throughout his career, he has earned three Emmy Awards, a National Addy Award, four Telly Awards, a Pinnacle Award, a Cindy Award from the Association of Visual Communications, a Silver Medal from the New York Cinema and Advertising Festival, and a National Clio Award.
Smith served two terms as a NARAS Governor for the Atlanta chapter. As a composer for advertising agencies and television, his commercial clients have included Coca-Cola, CNN, Budweiser, Nissan, Pizza Hut, IBM, Superstation TBS, and BellSouth.
Before moving into production, promotion, and entertainment agency work, Smith toured extensively as a guitarist and "hired gun" with major artists and groups including Earth, Wind & Fire, Kenny Loggins, Air Supply, and Donny Osmond, as well as international stars Michel Polnareff and Emmanuel.
As a session guitarist, Smith has recorded on numerous projects, including recordings associated with Aretha Franklin and Lynyrd Skynyrd, as well as projects involving legendary record producer Jerry Wexler of the famed Muscle Shoals recording community.
Smith also appeared as an actor in the Academy Award-winning film Ray, portraying the character Til in the Ray Charles biopic. He also provided guitar work for the film's musical sequences. The film was directed by Taylor Hackford and starred Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles.
"Over the years I made the migration from musician and sideman with some of the biggest artists in the business over to the promoter and agency-owner side—or, as I jokingly like to say, the dark side," Smith laughs.
That experience provides a unique perspective at Substantial Music Group. Having worked on both sides of the entertainment industry—as an artist and musician, as well as a promoter, producer, and agency owner—Smith understands the needs and expectations of both artists and clients.
"Our advantage as a boutique, personal-service agency is that I've been on all sides of the industry. That gives us a unique perspective on both the business side and the artist side. Many agencies tend to focus primarily on their client relationships. We serve both the artist and the client, creating a true win-win."
