Veteran music and entertainment publicist Lydia Kanuga has launched When There Are Nine, her own public-relations firm. The company’s name draws from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s well-known answer to a question about when there would be enough women on the U.S. Supreme Court: when there are nine.
For Kanuga, the new venture arrives after roles across major labels, independent PR companies and an agency setting. Her credits encompass music campaigns, television work, fashion publicity and high-visibility live-event promotion, a spread that gives the firm a broad base even though specific services, clients and launch plans have not yet been detailed.
The stated philosophy is equally central to the launch. Kanuga says she wants to build a workplace and client environment in which people do not leave feeling their work or recognition has been diminished. In practical terms, that frames the firm around the human side of publicity: the relationship between representatives, talent, teams and the media ecosystem in which their stories travel.
A career built across labels, agencies and culture
Kanuga began at Columbia Records as an intern in A&R, shorthand for artists and repertoire. An A&R department is involved in the artist side of a record label’s business, including identifying and developing talent and helping oversee recorded-music projects. She subsequently moved into publicity at Columbia.
Her work there included Brandi Carlile as well as the television series Victorious and iCarly. That combination is notable because publicity does not operate in a single lane just because an executive is based at a music company. Artists, television properties and their surrounding campaigns can all require distinct messages, audiences and press strategies.
She later worked at independent firms the Musebox, Effective Immediately and Big Machine, with extensive fashion work during that period. Kanuga then returned to the music-label world at Def Jam, where her roster included Teyana Taylor and Alessia Cara. Cara was a Grammy winner for best new artist.
Kanuga next joined 12Tone alongside former Def Jam chief executive Steve Bartels. She remained with the company until Warner Music acquired it in 2021. Her 12Tone-related work included Dolly Parton, Anderson .Paak and 88rising, among others.
Most recently, Kanuga spent multiple years at Chamber Group. Her work there included campaigns connected with Toni Braxton, Erykah Badu and Usher. The latter included Usher’s 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, one of the largest mainstream stages available to a recording artist.
Related coverage includes Lydia Kanuga Launches When There Are Nine PR Firm.
What a publicity firm actually does
Public relations is often reduced to headlines, red carpets or a celebrity’s social-media visibility. But a publicity operation’s core role is to shape and coordinate communication around an artist, project, company or event. That can involve identifying the right story at the right moment, organizing interviews, handling media requests and keeping different participants aligned as a campaign develops.
Kanuga’s prior work suggests experience across several campaign conditions: individual artists, catalog-level cultural figures, television properties, fashion clients and major live moments. The source material does not say which of those areas When There Are Nine will prioritize. Still, that range matters because the timing and needs of a campaign vary considerably.
- Recorded-music releases may center on an album, single, visual, collaboration or a sustained artist narrative.
- Live performances can demand a tighter, time-sensitive approach tied to an event window.
- Television and fashion work often requires a different vocabulary, set of publications and cultural calendar than a conventional music rollout.
- Established artists may have longstanding public identities that require continuity, while newer talent can need foundational introduction to new audiences.
That is why a publicist’s background can be meaningful beyond a list of names. It can indicate familiarity with the differing demands attached to a campaign, though it does not itself reveal the creative or commercial direction of a new firm.
The name is a mission statement, not merely branding
When There Are Nine takes its name from Ginsburg’s response to the question of when enough women would serve on the Supreme Court. The reference places representation and equal standing at the center of the company identity.
Kanuga connected that framing to a direct standard for how people should be treated. “I’m striving to create an environment where no one — from employee to client — walks away feeling unworthy or undeserving of their accolades,” she said. “I am a firm believer in people always remembering how you made them feel.”
The wording reaches beyond public-facing press coverage. It includes both employees and clients, making the company’s internal culture part of its declared ambition. For a PR firm, that is particularly relevant: its job is to help others communicate value and receive attention, while its own working relationships determine whether that effort is sustainable.
Why the independent launch matters
A move from established organizations to an independent firm changes the structure of the work as much as the title on a business card. An owner has the opportunity to set the company’s client approach and workplace expectations from the outset. It also means responsibility for building that operation, rather than joining one with a pre-existing framework.
Kanuga arrives at that task with experience at both large music companies and smaller independent settings. Columbia Records and Def Jam are label environments; the Musebox and Effective Immediately are independent-firm stops; and Chamber Group represents her most recent agency chapter. Her time at 12Tone also ended amid a corporate acquisition, providing another perspective on how music businesses can shift around the people doing the day-to-day campaign work.
There is no announced client roster for When There Are Nine in the provided information, and no specific services have been publicly outlined. That makes it too early to project its scope. What is clear is that the launch packages Kanuga’s background in publicity under a new banner with an explicitly people-centered message.
It also arrives in a music and entertainment landscape where artists frequently operate across several formats at once: recordings, television appearances, fashion relationships, live shows and brand-facing cultural moments. Kanuga’s career has touched several of those worlds. How that experience shapes the firm’s first campaigns will be the substantive next question.
For more on another recent music-business development, see OBB Studios’ London hub expansion.
