New Nashville label Echo House Collective names Emma Kiefer its A&R lead

Echo House Collective, a new Nashville company built around developing country songwriters, has launched with Emma Kiefer as its Senior Director of A&R. Co-founders Jet Harvey and Krysten Harvey are backing Kiefer to lead the company's A&R, publishing, signing and roster management from the ground up. "What an honor it is to be entrusted with the launch of Echo House Collective," Kiefer said of the role.

Kiefer moved to Nashville in 2020 and has since worked with producer Dave Cobb and publishers Twelve6, Boom Music Group and Group Projects Publishing, landing song placements for her writers with a wide swath of country artists, including Morgan Wallen, Bailey Zimmerman, Megan Moroney, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan. Jet Harvey brings his own hit-making track record to the new venture: he co-wrote Bailey Zimmerman's "Rock And A Hard Place," a six-week No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart that was later certified Diamond and reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The founders describe Echo House as a reaction against the standard publishing-company model. "We don't believe the industry needs another publishing company," Jet and Krysten Harvey said in a joint statement. "However, we believe it needs a new kind of partner."

Kiefer said the company's foundation rests on protecting the ownership of writers' work through what she called integrity-driven practices, summing up the arrangement as: "We bet on you, as long as you bet on you, too." Jet Harvey, for his part, called Kiefer the right person to carry that vision forward, saying the Harveys have "experienced firsthand how a great song can change lives" and "seen how a great champion can change a career."

With the launch complete and Kiefer now in place, Echo House's next test will be which songwriters it signs first, and whether its writer-first pitch translates into the kind of placements that built Kiefer's reputation over the past several years in Nashville.