Matthew K. Watts

Making the transition from the tour bus to the office isn’t the traditional route for most marketing executives; but with a passion for storytelling, culture marketing and the consumer journey, it’s proving to be a winning formula.

After spending a decade playing sold out concerts for fans around the world with his band The Starting Line, Matthew K. Watts took his expertise in building a global following and turned his attention to deepening the connection between the brand and the consumer leading global teams at iconic companies like Fender, Amazon, and Hard Rock International. 

In his role at Fender as the Vice President of Marketing, Watts is focused on driving growth through elevated brand and product marketing, artist marketing, and best-in-class social media and digital strategies to expand Fender’s core community of players and artists. 

With a 75-year-old legacy, Watts takes a great deal of pride in developing and executing global strategies to pave the way for the next 75 years. During his tenure, the brand has seen explosive growth across all areas of the business while focusing on artist and audience expansion through collaborations with artists like Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Shawn Mendes, Chris Stapleton and more.  

Leveraging his music-industry expertise, Watts made the jump from the tour bus to Artist Management in 2008 and worked for Red Light Management where he represented emerging and established music talent to grow their global brands. 

Having built a unique skill set centered around marketing, music and data; Watts would then go to help lead the corporate strategy across marketing and entertainment for Hard Rock International, where he supported 22 hotels in 11 countries, opened hotel across EMEA and the Americas, and expanded upon the brands’ biggest differentiator, music, through amenity programs, artist partnerships, music festivals, and events. 

In 2017, Watts was recruited by Amazon to be the Head of Entertainment, Music and Media for a new ticket and live events venture. He partnered with Amazon category teams to identify, develop, and launch new entertainment properties with talent relevant to category verticals (music, books, tech, etc.) while delivering a seamless customer experience aimed to increase Prime Member LTV. 

Watts currently resides in Los Angeles, California where he enjoys fostering the musical journey of young musicians through the Fender Play Foundation and still continues to play a few concerts every year with The Starting Line.