Q&A: Christiana Sudano Shows What It Takes To Succeed In New Music Biz

‘Jack of all trades’ Christiana Sudano represents the new music industry, where you have to be able to do all.

Erik Bergamini

When your aunt is the legendary “Queen of Disco,” Donna Summer, and your father, Barry Sudano, an accomplished songwriter in his own right, of course you are drawn to the music business.

Christiana Sudano indeed has music in her blood. But like everyone in the current music industry, the intelligent, hard-working, determined Sudano has found to work in music in 2025, you need to be, as she sums it up, “A jack of all trades.”

A former product manager who worked with the likes of Taylor Swift and countless other artists during her major label days in Nashville, Sudano can be seen as the very impressive face of the new music industry. She went from the major label side to being an indie manager for up-and-coming artists at Do Less; a part of the management team at North Hollywood, California’s One On One; aspiring film producer; podcast host; international relations for several countries and an integral part of maintaining her aunt’s estate and legacy.

You think Shohei Ohtani pitching and hitting for the Dodgers is impressive? Unless he is also making popcorn, stitching together the uniforms and taking tickets, it is nothing compared to the number of jobs the ultra-ambitious Sudano and so many more have to do to make it in the new world of music.

I spoke to Sudano to find out how her journey could help others looking to make it in the music industry.

Steve Baltin: Is there something in your life, like in your childhood, that makes you want to host events and all this?

Christiana Sudano: I feel like my parents were always musical. My dad is a songwriter. And my mom was an agent and ended up working in health care when they moved to Nashville. So, I would say just being in and around the music was always special for me. I was always a super social kid. We lived in a small town just outside of Nashville, so it was a really safe neighborhood. All the little neighborhood kids would play together. I would always come home and there’d be people waiting to hang out. But yeah, I didn’t have siblings or anything like that.

Baltin: You were saying recently of all your different jobs in the music industry, hosting events might be your favorite.

Sudano: Yeah. I love gathering people. If I were going to bring people over to my house, I’m stressed out. But I love having an event at the studio or events bringing camps together and things like that. I think it might be something about just wanting everybody to meet and hang. I love connecting people. That’s really fun.

Baltin: What is your favorite connection you ever created?

Sudano: It’s just in general, bringing songwriters together in rooms with other songwriters, A&Ring people in daily life.

Baltin: If there was a song you wish you could have written, what would it be?
Sudano: A lot of people ask me if I write songs, and the answer—based on who my family is—is of course I do. Songwriting has always been the way I process my feelings and emotions. I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember. But the song I wish I wrote is actually one my dad, Barry Sudano, an incredible songwriter wrote for me, called “From a Father’s Heart.” It’s incredibly personal. The way that song makes me feel…so loved, so seen, so cared for is exactly what I hope art does for people.

Baltin: You say you grew up in a small town in Nashville. How does a smalltown girl in Nashville end up being the person who does relations between all these Nordic countries?

Sudano: I think that’s a huge part of why I do it. I never traveled growing up at all. I would go places outside of Nashville, to Florida or something. But I didn’t really travel. And I didn’t travel when I was in college either. So, it was my first foray into traveling. I was like, “Oh, I get to travel for work.” It was always for work though. I’d go to these countries and find a work reason for it. But I think that’s definitely because I never had an opportunity to travel before that. I loved it though. I thought, “This is so crazy and cool, there’s nothing like it.” Also music from those countries, I just feel is so much cooler than a lot of times what’s happening here just because they have different sounds and different vocal techniques. So, I was just drawn to it, really. I think it’s a different way of looking at the world to look through it from music’s perspective. You get to know a lot about a place based on their music and their musical heritage. That’s why I like traveling through the lens of work.

Baltin: What is your role with your aunt’s estate?

Sudano: I run the social comms for my aunt. Growing up, we were very close. We lived in Nashville. We would celebrate Thanksgivings and Christmases with my cousins at her and my uncle’s house. She always knew how to make a holiday larger than life. Some of my favorite memories are spending four days making Christmas cookies to put them on a Christmas tree. She had a grand vision for a Christmas cookie tree, and we made it come to life.

Baltin: When did you realize how important she was in music?
Sudano: I don’t know if I completely did until I was in college. I would see her rehearsals going on in Nashville for a 2008 tour, and I was always just kind of around the music, so I don’t know if I ever realized it fully. But after she passed away, I really discovered her legacy, and then being able to work with for/with my family has been amazing, and learning all about her catalog and researching the deep cuts has been a really great honor.

Baltin: What are the countries that you have the strongest relations with now?

Sudano: I’d say the Nordics are probably what I have the strongest relation to. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Faroe Islands. I was doing the trade missions for them for Los Angeles. So, for Nomex it’s called, which are the Nordic territories coming over for music. So basically, what we’d do is we’d take this group of B2B meetings. I’d take business executives from these different countries and introduce them to business executives here in Los Angeles. I would set up those meetings with them, and we’d go over to Paramount, talk to them, go over to Netflix, talk to them. And hopefully from those connections actual work could happen, songs get placed, things like that. That’s probably my closest tie um but I’m getting my Italian citizenship, so I need to start going to these Italian events too. I work a lot with Ireland sometimes as well. I want to do a couple of camps with Ireland.

Baltin: What are your goals on where you hope to live?

Sudano: My goal, in general, is to live three months in L.A,. or six months in L.A., three months in Nashville and three months abroad.

Baltin: How do you achieve that?

Sudano: I think I’m on my way. I think through the working relationships that I have. It’s easy to work remotely from here. We’ve been working remotely since the pandemic. So, I think keeping up with time changes and things like that, which are just natural to me at this point. I feel like I wake up and I think. “Okay, I have to wake up super early or I’m talking with somebody in Korea. I have to stay up super late.” It doesn’t affect me as much at this point, I feel like. I feel like that’s just our world. Our world is used to working online at this point.

Baltin: What are your keys to being able to stay focused to work on your own?

Sudano: I don’t mind working alone or through a screen or through a phone because then you could be anywhere. You could be working from Palm Springs; you could be working from Norway. I think with my work ethic, I have really good skills for keeping myself on track. I could get everything done that I need to do for the day in like four hours and then I have four hours out of my day to be creative or come up with different marketing ideas or different ways to further my business, and I think that’s where the podcast idea got started. It was like, “Oh, I have time, let’s do a podcast,” which I thought was fun.

Baltin: What is coming up for you?
Sudano: One thing I’m really excited for people to know is that I’m producing my very first feature film. My company, Do Less, is making its feature debut with a film were shooting in Iceland in 2026. It’s my first real foray into producing, and what makes it even more special is that I’m also helping shape the musical world around the film. We’re planning writing camps and creating custom songs specifically for the story. I’m also launching a podcast that I’m incredibly passionate about. We interview people over 65 with really interesting lives. the kind of stories you don’t hear often but absolutely should. There’s so much wisdom, humor and perspective there, and it’s become one of my favorite things I’m creating. All of this feels like a natural extension of who I am: storytelling, music, collaboration and building experiences that make people feel something real.

Baltin: Do you feel that to work in music in 2025, you have to be able to do 168 different things?

Sudano: I was a product manager at Concord. And I would say when I was a product manager, I did more of the stuff I do now as a manager. Those responsibilities have kind of been taken from the label side and are now put on management. That’s probably been a shift in the last five years since the pandemic. So, I do feel like you have to be a jack of all trades, but I’m always shocked by these baby managers coming up who really don’t have that experience, but who are able to make so much happen. I think, in general, having a larger skill set and being good at a lot of different things allows me personally to be flexible with my traveling. I don’t have to be in one place all the time. I like going back and forth. I have so many people who don’t even know where I live. People in Nashville think I live in Nashville. People in L A. think I live in L .A. It’s fun to be a little bit of a nomad. But yeah, having roots in lots of different things, I think, keeps me creative.

Baltin: What’s the favorite to do at this point?

Sudano: I enjoy public speaking. I love doing podcasts. I love anything educational. I love working with developing artists who are really just getting off the ground and don’t know where to start, that’s really exciting. I think being able to build a brand for somebody and being able to help articulate their vision because I can sing. But I’m not an artist; I don’t have that creative vision. So, my favorite thing I think is a lot of the public speaking, a lot of the educational things. That’s another reason why I wanted to start the podcast is because I just love hearing people’s stories too and being able to listen and learn and create from it.