Ashley Calhoun has been promoted to president of PULSE Music Group, adding to her role of head of creative.
PULSE Music Group currently has credits on the top three songs in the U.S. — Harry Styles’ “As It Was” (via Tyler Johnson), Jack Harlow’s “First Class” (via Angel Lopez) and Future’s “Wait For U Ft. Drake & Tems” (via FNZ and SPRINGBRK).These accolades add to the 18 No. 1s across various charts over the past year.
In her new position, Calhoun will lead all A&R, signing and developing writers and producers, as well as supervising the PULSE publishing roster. based in Los Angeles, Calhoun continues to report jointly to Scott Cutler (pictured at left) and Josh Abraham (right), co-CEOs of the company.
One of the most successful independent publishers of the last decade, Pulse was founded in 2008 and has grown to account for a client roster credited with well over 10 billion music streams.
Calhoun has been featured in PvNew as one of 2018’s New Leaders and she and her clients have consistently placed on PvNew‘s annual Hitmakers list for such songs as Camila Cabello’s “Havana,” Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B’s “Girls Like You,” Halsey’s “Now or Never,” and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage Remix” featuring Beyoncé which won PULSE client Starrah a Grammy for best rap song in 2021. Among Calhoun’s most successful signings is OZ, a frequent collaborator of Drake’s.
The Virginia Beach, Va., native grew up around local talents like Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and Missy Elliot. After moving to L.A. to study at The Recording School, Calhoun worked a series of internships, later landing at Rondor Music Publishing (a division of Universal Music Publishing Group) and serving as a consultant for RCA Records. She joined PULSE in 2015 as A&R Director, signing Starrah during her first week with the company.
At PULSE, Calhoun also works with notable joint ventures with the likes of Rick Rubin (American Songs), Luke and Beth Laird (Creative Nation) and Beka Tischker (and Wide Eyed Entertainment).
Recent signings to PULSE include an extension with OG Parker (Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa’s “Sweetest Pie”); G Koop (Drake featuring 21 Savage’s “Knife Talk”); and EL-P. New signings include the production duo FNZ (The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay”); Liana Banks (“Best Friend” by Saweetie feat. Doja Cat); and Flo Milli, among others.
“Ashley has a consistent history of being at the forefront of signing talent early and then creating career-defining moments for them,” said Scott Cutler and Josh Abraham in announcing Calhoun’s promotion. “She’s a one-of-a-kind A&R executive — she’s got such authentic connections to our writers, amazing taste, a razor-sharp focus, and our writers and team love her. Her creative vision is perfectly aligned with our company’s ethos of being a world class incubator for culturally relevant songs and a creative sanctuary for our roster. PULSE Music Group is uniquely positioned as an indie to help great talent reach the next level in their careers and Ashley has been invaluable in taking that creative strategy in exciting directions. We are beyond happy to congratulate Ashley on this richly deserved new post and look forward to many more wins together.”
Adds Calhoun: “PULSE is synonymous with creative culture. When a writer walks on to our campus, they get right away that PULSE Music Group has built this creative sanctuary for our roster and a real community of great songwriters/producers to surround themselves with. Our company was founded by songwriters/producers so, from the top down, there’s a lot of relatability. We know exactly how to support our writers and how to help them to build their business. PULSE has a diverse, empowered A&R team that signs people who are a ‘one of one’ and stand out for doing something different and then we just go really hard for them—that’s why we have a lot of clients that stay with PULSE. We’ve been really successful at landing big opportunities for our clients. We have the best A&R team I think of any indie out there. I want to thank Scott and Josh for giving me the opportunity to lead the PULSE A&R team in the years ahead. It’s an incredible honor to work with the best of the best.”
