Lou Plaia

Lou Plaia is a seasoned music industry professional, starting his career at Atlantic Records where he spent 12 years rising through the ranks to ultimately become the VP of Marketing & Strategic Planning. He then became the Head of Marketing & Artist Development for Atlantic imprint, Lava Records. In these roles, he worked in some capacity with Kid Rock, Matchbox Twenty, Simple Plan,Trans-Siberian Orchestra, O.A.R., Skindred, Nonpoint, Stone Temple Pilots, Jewel, Hootie & the Blowfish, Lil Kim, Collective Soul, Tori Amos, George Carlin, Kid Rock, Matchbox Twenty, and many others.

After leaving Lava Records in 2006, Plaia “disrupted” the industry and founded ReverbNation, a platform offering all artists the promotional tools, distribution, publishing and thousands of performance and media opportunities that were previously only available to artists signed to record labels. ReverbNation became the largest DIY Artist Services Platform in the world, with more than 5 million artists. In 2021, Plaia sold the company to BandLab.

In 2022, Plaia became the A&R Director for the award-winning global independent music publisher, Sentric, and signed artists like Ace Hood, the critically acclaimed songwriter/producer Vincent Gallo, and FiXT Records to name a few. He exited the company in early 2025.

While at Sentric, Plaia launched Hot Rats Entertainment, a boutique artist services company that ensures artists receive support so they can focus on making music and performing. Hot Rats provides expertise across business setup, distribution, publishing, release planning, tour planning, and more. At Hot Rats, Plaia also manages the Spinefarm/Universal recording artist, Deadlands.

Plaia also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Five Towns College teaching an Artist Management class and a Concert Production & Promotion class.

Throughout his career, Plaia has been a guest speaker at more than 100 music industry events.