Talent Plus Tenacity Leads Lu Cárdenas to Management Job at TikTok

As a global music program manager at TikTok, Lysa "Lu" Cárdenas B.M. '17 elevates artists and their work on one of the world’s most popular and most controversial social media platforms. It’s the perfect setting to pair her passions for music and technology, as the app and its more than 1 billion active monthly users are a major driver of music streaming and charting within the music industry. 

Though the Arizona native grew up writing, singing, and recording music, she decided to pursue a music business/management major(Opens in a new window) in college. “I realized I had always been the best at the business side of music,” she recalls. “It came really naturally to me.” 

Through an elective international music licensing course, she traveled to the Netherlands as part of a student exchange program. Intrigued by the music industry she discovered in Amsterdam, after returning home she booked a return trip to try to meet with industry leaders and scout for job leads. 

Cárdenas and the global music team carefully watch music trends and artist release calendars to map out their next strategies, constantly searching for new and inventive ways to support artists on the app.

At music production agency MassiveMusic, Cárdenas happened to step into an elevator with founder and CEO Hans Brouwer. After a brief conversation, Brouwer told her he was impressed with her tenacity. They stepped off the elevator to attend separate meetings, but he soon interrupted hers, telling her he was on the line with the New York office and they needed someone exactly like her. 

After graduation, Cárdenas joined MassiveMusic as a business development associate. It was a great place to get her foot in the door, but less than a year later another happenstance offered a new opportunity. She reconnected with Lauren Wirtzer Seawood, then-president of UnitedMasters, when they both returned to Berklee to speak on panels during Career Jam(Opens in a new window), where they had met a few years prior. Cárdenas became Wirtzer Seawood’s executive assistant and later moved into strategic partnerships. An early project was with American Eagle Outfitters, a brand that aligned well with pop and country music but was an unusual fit for UnitedMasters’ concentration on hip-hop. “I had the opportunity to prove myself by finding and signing new artists to bring to that brand deal,” recalls Cárdenas, who went on to manage partnerships with ESPN, the NBA, Cash App, and more. 

This work segued into her current job at TikTok, where she has been at the forefront of new creative endeavors. Cárdenas and her colleagues launched #Rompiendo—a program that highlights Latin music and artists. It started as a feature on the app’s Sounds page and grew into a mainstay, with in-person programming and a show on SiriusXM. Last year, she was project manager for TikTok’s In the Mix live music event, which celebrates artists from many genres and has attracted more than 33 million viewers. She was involved in decisionmaking at every level, including scouting the venue, helping to develop the show’s format, selecting artists, and making choices about ticketing, marketing, and budgeting. 

Cárdenas and the global music team carefully watch music trends and artist release calendars to map out their next strategies, constantly searching for new and inventive ways to support artists on the app. Recently, the team partnered with Grammy Award–winning artist Shakira to promote her latest album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran. 

Cárdenas’ work is fast-paced and ever-changing. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’ve been fortunate that these career experiences have all come about through relation-shipbuilding, and have grown organically,” she says. “I can move with the current and see where things take me.”