Executive Producer, Songwriter, Publishing - Justin Bieber, Keke Palmer, CEO ICON Studios, Atlanta

After graduating from high school in 1989, Stone Stafford attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA by way of a music scholarship. While at Morehouse, Stone and four other classmates formed a singing group and were discovered by MC Lyte and signed to FirstPriority/Atlantic Records. While the recording career of the group was short lived,Stone went on to write with such producers as Tony Rich, Dallas Austin, Shek’spere and former Bad Boy hitmen, Anthony Dent and J-Dub.

In January 2000, Stone was selected to open and co-spearhead Sony/ATV MusicPublishing’s new Atlanta office which became, relatively, the #1 office in productivity of all the Sony U.S. offices (Santa Monica, Nashville, Miami and NY) with songs on such artists as B2K, Monica, 702, Whitney Houston, Mandy Moore, and others both foreign and domestic, including TV and Film.

In September 2004 Stone was hired as Sr. Creative Director for Jermaine Dupri’s So SoDef Productions and Dieniahmar/EMI Music Publishing where he was responsible for overseeing Mr. Dupri’s roster of writers and producers. While at Dieniahmar, he signed hit songwriter, Cristyle (Mariah Carey’s - “Touch My Body”, Rihanna’s – “Only Girl InThe World”, Janet Jackson, Beyonce, etc.)In 2008, Stone moved on to explore other ventures including A&R consultant for such labels as Atlantic Records and Justin Timberlake’s Tennman/Interscope Records.

Currently, Stone is co-owner of Atlanta’s premiere recording studio, ICON Studios which opened in June 2008. Icon is a 10,000 s.f. facility that has quickly become a favorite for several of the entertainment industry’s biggest names such as Akon, JustinBieber, Usher, Queen Latifah, Atlantic Records, Universal Records, Lionsgate and many others.

As a music publisher and songwriter, Stone owns copyrights on such artists as JustinBieber, Keke Palmer, Tiffany Evans and others.

As if all of that isn’t enough, Stone is a national empowerment speaker, founder of theNext Exec Music Business Program, an educational program for high school and college students who aspire to pursue careers in the music business.He also founded The Lock-In, a 12 hour flash music conference intensive where participants learn everything from music publishing, management, recording agreements, marketing as well as crafting a song from scratch, all in the span of 12 powerful hours.

Lastly, Stone founded and co-hosts the L.I.F.E. Podcast (Listening and Inspiring Friends in Entertainment which currently streams on all major platforms.(www.lifeonpodcast.com)