By Rebecca Heath
Features Editor
Jason Lipshutz ‘10, executive director of music at Billboard, had always known he would pursue a writing career. But while a student at the College, the music fanatic never anticipated that he would one day interview the world’s biggest pop stars, attend award shows and be at the helm of Billboard’s music coverage.
“I couldn't have dreamt of this when I was at TCNJ, being able to meet some of my heroes and write cover stories,” Lipshutz said. “It's been beyond my wildest dreams.”
Lipshutz, who majored in English at the College, developed a passion for music early in his college career, which piqued his interest in the music journalism field.
“I also got really into music criticism. I was just reading a ton of album reviews and features on artists and stuff like that,” he recalled. “[I] realized, hey, maybe I can try to do this.”
Lipshutz landed an internship at Billboard while he was a junior at the College, which led to a freelance writing gig his senior year. Soon after graduating, Lipshutz relocated to New York City to pursue a full-time job as an editorial assistant at the media organization.
“Because I had interned with that team for so long, and had been contributing stories and profiles and features, they knew my work and trusted me,” he said.
Since joining Billboard full-time over a decade ago, Lipshutz has moved up the ranks, starting as a news blogger and features contributor, and working his way up to leadership positions. In his current role, Lipshutz describes himself as “something of an air traffic controller in terms of our greater music coverage.”
In addition to writing and editing for Billboard’s magazine and website, Lipshutz works closely with the live events, video, audio and social media teams.
“It's my job to keep an eye on pop music and trends and artists that are bubbling up and songs that we need to cover and…just making sure everything is tied together in a cohesive way,” he said. “I love all the different facets of music journalism, and writing and editing and managing and coverage and interviewing, and I love that no two days are really the same for me.”
Lipshutz credits his experiences in WTSR, the College’s radio station, with preparing him for his public speaking tasks at Billboard, which comprise a large part of his job.
“I do a lot of different moderating and live interviews…and obviously being on air for hours every week and for multiple years really, really helped me out a ton,” Lipshutz said.
As an avid music fan, Lipshutz said he has always been drawn to sharing the stories behind music.
“I'm always really interested in the stories behind a song and the context behind an artist,” he said. “I really like being able to kind of zoom out and tell the story of why was this album so successful? Why did this song hit the top 10? Why was this tour so successful?”
To keep pace with the evolving music industry, Lipshutz said Billboard has “leaned in” to presenting these stories in new and innovative ways, including through social media, to supplement their print and online coverage.
“I think it's just changing and adapting in a way where younger audiences can find it a little bit more accessible than the magazine model of days past,” he said.
While Lipshutz’s career journey at Billboard has presented him with many exciting opportunities, including attending the Grammys, his most memorable experience was interviewing Taylor Swift for a cover story in 2019.
“She was big in 2019, she was a superstar,” Lipshutz said, “but even now as the years have passed and she's only gotten bigger, it makes me just grateful…It's like covering the Beatles, it's unbelievable.”
Though Lipshutz admits he has “bucket list celebrities” he would be anxious to meet, after a decade of interviewing stars, he has become “numb” to the nerves. He said keeping calm helps celebrities open up, and often leads to his best stories.
“After doing this for so long, you kind of realize that artists just want to be talked to as people and they want to be treated as a person, so I always try to make them kind of feel at ease and feel respected and just have conversations with them.”
Piecing together archived quotes from interviews he conducted with rock band Linkin Park, biographical research and critical analysis of the group’s music, Lipshutz released his debut novel, “It Starts with One: The Legend and Legacy of Linkin Park,” in October 2024.
“It was a process of a ton of research to be able to help tell their story in a way that really reflected their impact and importance in rock music history,” he said. “I had a blast. It was like climbing a mountain, and I loved it. I can't wait to do it again with another book.”
As Lipshutz continues to navigate his multifaceted career, he encourages current students looking to enter the journalism field to “be open to different opportunities and be flexible with those opportunities because you never know what you're going to fall in love with professionally.”
“Back when I was interning, Billboard was a very different organization. It wasn't very cool. It was just kind of the charts and that's it. And, I was open to it,” Lipshutz said. “I wanted to try it out and however many years later, here I am still…It's been a wild ride. I've always loved it and I love it still.”
