Innholdsfortegnelse for February 4, 2023 i Billboard Magazine

AND... WE’RE BACK. Masks are off, Grammy parties are on, and the definitive list of the most powerful players in the music industry returns, in all of its ultracompetitive glory. This year, once again, we’re celebrating only the top 100 most influential leaders and teams in the business (and yes, we know, infuriating everyone else). Given the music industry’s mind-boggling growth since Billboard launched the Power 100 list over a decade ago, the fight to get on 2023’s lineup was by far the fiercest ever. Scores of powerful music executives weren’t included, even though they are forces to be reckoned with. This year, we decided to focus on sheer power wielded over the past 12 months rather than also celebrating leaders, as we did for the past few years,…

3 Trippie Redd Mansion Musik The hip-hop artist notches his seventh top 10 entry as his latest release debuts with 56,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Jan. 26, according to Luminate. 18 Måneskin Rush! The project starts at No. 1 on Top Alternative Albums (18,000 units), marking the group’s first chart-topper on that list, and becomes the rock band’s first entry to reach the top 100 of the Billboard 200. 190 Wilco Cruel Country After its release on CD and vinyl on Jan. 20, the set debuts with 7,000 units earned, nearly all from album sales. Cruel Country initially arrived on streaming platforms and at digital retail last May. 4 HARDY The Mockingbird & The Crow HARDY hits the…

FROM London AGE 25 LABEL N/A FOUNDATION RAYE only ever aspired to be a musician: “Make it work, figure it out” has been her mantra from age 7. Influenced by her musically inclined family — including her Ghanaian-Swiss mother, who sang in church as a child, and her grandfather, a songwriter — she enrolled at South London’s BRIT School, home to alumni such as Amy Winehouse, Adele and FKA twigs. But she dropped out after two years, eager to forge her own path. “I felt like it was important not to be taught how to do ‘that thing,’ ” she says. “It’s something you’ve got to learn with your own voice and own way.” DISCOVERY As a teenager, RAYE would take the train after class to songwriting sessions, often…

IN 2018, THE RECORDING ACADEMY increased the number of nominees in the Big Four Grammy categories — album, song and record of the year and best new artist — from five to eight. Then, three years later, it boosted the pool from eight to 10. These expansions were made to recognize more music creators and to represent more genres, according to the academy — yet for country artists, the benefits have thus far been nonexistent. For the five Grammy Award nomination cycles (for ceremonies taking place in 2019-2023) since the first increase, there have been 196 total Big Four nominations, yet only six have gone to mainstream country artists or projects, with only one victory: Kacey Musgraves’ album of the year trophy for Golden Hour in 2019. In the…

Rob Stringer CHAIRMANSONY MUSIC GROUP In Stringer’s sixth year as Sony Music’s chief executive, the label group’s current market share rose from 24.19% in 2021 to 26.99% in 2022, closing the gap between it and industry leader Universal Music Group by half compared with 2021. The gains were due in large part to massive releases by Adele, Harry Styles, Rimas Entertainment artist Bad Bunny and Beyoncé, all four of whom are up for album of the year at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 5. Despite that, Stringer says he’s not satisfied. “I would like to have Rosalía in there as well, and Steve Lacy should be in the album of the year [category], too,” he says. “I’m never happy.” When you look back on 2022, what do you see…

The ratio of female-to-male executives in the ranking remains fairly steady — women are down one point this year, possibly because there are fewer executives on the list. That said, the power in the music industry remains largely in the hands of men. Male Female 2018 2019 2020 2022 2023 Note: The Billboard Power List was not published in 2021 due to the pandemic.…

Steve Boom VP OF AUDIO, TWITCH AND GAMESAMAZON With assets including a 55 million-subscriber music streaming platform, rights to Thursday Night Football and the world’s biggest online store, veteran Amazon executive Boom and his music team wanted to expand “beyond an on-demand music streaming service,” he says. “We thought, ‘What happens on Thursday night? Oh, that’s when all the music comes out.’ ” Thus, Amazon Music Live launched in October, a post-NFL-game concert series airing on the company’s Prime Video service and Amazon Music’s Twitch channel that has already starred 21 Savage, Anitta, A$AP Rocky, Kane Brown, Megan Thee Stallion and others. Amazon won’t disclose viewer numbers, but Boom says the idea is to evolve from on-demand streaming to a destination “where music and sports and live entertainment all…

In 2023, Billboard introduces the Power Players’ Choice Award, a peer-voted honor chosen by Billboard Pro members to honor the executive they believe has had the most impact across the music business in the past year. After more than 1,500 votes cast across three rounds of voting, Pro members selected Brandon Silverstein, founder/CEO of S10 Entertainment, for this year’s award. As a manager, Silverstein has helped build Anitta’s and Normani’s breakout careers, while moving S10 into publishing, recorded music and film/TV. Since expanding S10’s publishing venture with Avex USA last year, the company now represents songwriters-producers-composers HARV (Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”) and Grammy winner Jasper Harris (Jack Harlow’s “First Class”), among others. “Being recognized by the music industry as one of the most powerful and impactful executives is an absolute…

01 Daniel Ek FOUNDER/CEO Dawn Ostroff FORMER CHIEF CONTENT AND ADVERTISING BUSINESS OFFICER Jeremy Erlich VP/GLOBAL HEAD OF MUSIC See story, page 76. 02 Oliver Schusser VP, APPLE MUSIC AND INTERNATIONAL Amanda Marks GLOBAL HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MUSIC PARTNERSHIPS, APPLE INTERNET AND SOFTWARE SERVICES Apple Music See story, page 77. 03 Lyor Cohen GLOBAL HEAD OF MUSIC Google/YouTube Christophe Muller VP OF MUSIC LICENSING Vivien Lewit GLOBAL HEAD OF ARTISTS Stephen Bryan GLOBAL HEAD OF LABEL RELATIONS Tuma Basa DIRECTOR OF BLACK MUSIC AND CULTURE YouTube See story, page 82. 04 Steve Boom VP OF AUDIO, TWITCH AND GAMES Amazon Ryan Redington VP OF MUSIC INDUSTRY Rishi Mirchandani VP OF LICENSING AND STRATEGY Amazon Music See story, page 84. 05 Ole Obermann GLOBAL HEAD OF MUSIC Paul…

Wassim “Sal” Slaiby FOUNDER/CEOSALXCO/XO Slaiby worked hard for The Weeknd in 2022, and the returns were well worth it. His management client’s North American stadium tour grossed $131.1 million and sold almost 905,000 tickets — the No. 10 tour of last year. (The tour is currently wending its way through Europe and South America.) The Weeknd and another SALXCO client, Swedish House Mafia, headlined Coachella, then teamed up on “Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” for the hit film Avatar: The Way of Water. Client Doja Cat’s album Planet Her, released in mid-2021, landed its second No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart in February with “Need To Know.” She topped the list again with the Post Malone collaboration “I Like You (A Happier Song)” and even without…

01 Qasim Abbas SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR David Kestnbaum SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, PRIVATE EQUITY GROUP Blackstone See story, page 112. 02 Martha Henderson EXECUTIVE VP/HEAD OF ENTERTAINMENT DIVISION Denise Colletta SENIOR VP/TEAM LEADER, ENTERTAINMENT DIVISION City National Bank In October 2021, City National Bank, which provides debt in music asset transactions among other financial services for the music industry, was the lead arranger and sole bookrunner for Hipgnosis’ new revolving credit facility, which makes available $700 million with commitments from a consortium of banks. In other accomplishments, Henderson and Colletta note that their CEO, Kelly Coffey, won the diversity, inclusion and equity CEO of the year award from the Los Angeles Business Journal and Forbes has twice cited the bank as one of “America’s Best Employers for Women.” 03 Sherrese…

01 Kenny Meiselas NAMED PARTNER/HEAD OF THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT Joe Brenner PARTNER Grubman Shire Meiselas Over the past two years, Meiselas and Brenner have played leading roles in some of the industry’s biggest deals. In 2021, Brenner served as the self-described “point guard” for the legal team that brokered the David Bowie estate’s sale of the iconic artist’s publishing for $250 million, Bruce Springsteen’s $500 million sale of his publishing and master recordings to Sony Music and Sting’s sale of his song catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group for $360 million — deals that were all announced in 2022. And last year, Meiselas and the firm’s music department negotiated deals for some of 2022’s biggest tours, including The Weeknd and Lady Gaga’s stadium outings, arena tours for Lizzo (with…

SZA’S SOS ADDS a seventh week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated Feb. 4), all dating to its debut. With its continued command, the set is the first R&B album to spend its first seven weeks at the summit in over 35 years. The last to do so was Whitney Houston’s Whitney, which soared in at No. 1 on the June 27, 1987-dated list and ran up 11 weeks on top, all from its debut. SOS earned 111,000 equivalent album units Jan. 20-26, according to Luminate, and has tallied 1.8 million units to date. SOS is SZA’s second studio album, released over five years after the June 2017 arrival of Ctrl, which debuted and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. It has since earned 4…

MILEY CYRUS’ “Flowers” holds atop the Billboard Global 200 with 217.1 million streams (up 21%) and 107,000 sold (up 12%) worldwide in its second full tracking week (Jan. 20-26; it was released Jan. 12), according to Luminate. One week after the song logged the third-biggest streaming week worldwide (179.1 million) since the Global 200 launched in September 2020, it now boasts the second-biggest as it surpasses Blackpink’s “Pink Venom” (212.1 million, Sept. 3, 2022). It trails only BTS’ “Butter” (289.2 million, June 5, 2021). Cyrus first announced during her Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party NBC special that “Flowers” would arrive Jan. 13, which fans noticed doubles as her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s birthday. That juicy narrative and fervent interaction on TikTok helped swell the profile of the song, which also…

JANGWON LEE’S life in music began in typical Korean fashion. “All the kids in my generation grew up with the piano at some point in their lives,” Lee says over the phone from Seoul. His love of the instrument continued beyond childhood with a piano duo, The Serendipity, but has taken a back seat to serial entrepreneurism. While studying business administration at Seoul National University, Lee co-founded Campusdal, a food delivery app. Then, after two years in the Korean air force, he founded Mapiacompany, a technology firm that operates three online platforms for independent musicians to sell digital sheet music. The experience set the stage for Lee’s remaking of Korea’s music intellectual property (IP) business. “It gave me the legal knowledge that was necessary to start my new business…

Growing up in South Florida, the closest Christian Breslauer got to Hollywood was a nearby beach named after it. The cinephile, 31, looked up to renowned film director David Fincher — who helmed music videos for Madonna and Billy Idol early in his career — and after high school, he started directing clips for local artists. He moved to California in 2016 with his sights set on working with London Alley Entertainment, a full-service production company behind award-winning videos for artists including Kendrick Lamar (“Alright”) and Logic (“1-800-273-8255”). Breslauer jokingly recalls that he reached out to founder/executive producer Luga Podesta dozens of times before first working with the company on a 2019 Cîroc commercial. However, London Alley didn’t start representing him until the following year, after Podesta saw the…

AS THE DISRUPTION of the pandemic began to ease last year — with artists returning to the road in force and much needed revenue beginning to flow again — music executives began to talk about the new normal in a business that exceeded $60 billion in 2022, according to Billboard’s estimate of total revenue generated by recorded music, publishing and concert grosses. That’s a condition most of us in the industry understand well: the push and pull of business as usual alongside the challenges of transformation. Change was afoot. Established players left CEO positions — Motown’s Ethiopia Habtemariam; Universal Nashville and Warner Nashville chieftains Mike Dungan and John Esposito, respectively; Warner Music Group’s Stephen Cooper was succeeded by former YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl, whose global perspective and…

01 Lucian Grainge CHAIRMAN/CEO Boyd Muir EXECUTIVE VP/CFO/PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Will Tanous EXECUTIVE VP/ CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER Michele Anthony EXECUTIVE VP Jeffrey Harleston GENERAL COUNSEL/EXECUTIVE VP OF BUSINESS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS Michael Nash EXECUTIVE VP/CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER Universal Music Group See story, page 68. 02 Rob Stringer CHAIRMAN Sony Music Group Kevin Kelleher COO Carmine Coppola EXECUTIVE VP/CFO Dennis Kooker PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL DIGITAL BUSINESS AND U.S. SALES Julie Swidler EXECUTIVE VP OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS/ GENERAL COUNSEL Sony Music Entertainment See story, page 70. 03 Robert Kyncl CEO Max Lousada CEO, RECORDED MUSIC Eric Levin EXECUTIVE VP/CFO Paul Robinson EXECUTIVE VP/GENERAL COUNSEL Oana Ruxandra CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER/ EXECUTIVE VP OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Warner Music Group See stories, pages 74 and 88. “There’s a mythology that labels are just about…

Michael Rapino PRESIDENT/CEOLIVE NATION Rapino enters the new year having exceeded the high bar he set for himself in the pivotal post-pandemic period, but still facing the reputational headwinds he has dealt with since Live Nation’s 2010 merger with Ticketmaster. When 2022 earnings post in February, Live Nation is expected to report record revenue and profits thanks to a busy third quarter (historically the company’s best), with revenue up 63% compared with 2021, generating $6.2 billion in gross revenue with operating income of $506 million for the quarter and nearly $1 billion in adjusted free cash flow. The robust rebound of the concert business, which Rapino had forecast since the beginning of the pandemic and stuck by in the face of concerns over inflation and COVID-19 wariness, was made…

Daniel Ek CEOSPOTIFY Last year’s gloomy economic outlook didn’t hurt Spotify’s subscription business: Ek’s company added 15 million subscribers in the first three quarters of 2022, beating its own predictions. The streamer now has 456 million monthly active users spread across 183 countries, and it paid out over $7 billion in royalties to rights holders in 2021, up $2 billion from the year before. And this wealth is being distributed to a wider pool of acts from around the world. For the first time in the platform’s history, over 1,000 artists generated $1 million-plus on Spotify in 2021, and 34% of the acts that generated over $10,000 on the platform reside in countries outside IFPI’s top 10 music markets. But Spotify was unable to escape the layoff wave that…

Jon Platt CHAIRMAN/CEOSONY MUSIC PUBLISHING At the close of the third quarter of 2022, Sony Music Publishing had finished first on Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly: Top Radio Airplay ranking for six consecutive quarters, and while radio dominance was a crucial win, Platt also focused on better supporting its songwriting roster. In the past year, he led the company to enhance its Legacy Unrecouped Balance Program, which erases writers’ unrecouped advances and enables them to earn royalties moving forward. Sony Music Publishing also launched Songwriter Assistance, which provides free counseling services and other resources in over 70 languages. Both initiatives “have been extremely well received,” Platt says. Most 2022 wins for the publishing giant were the result of years of building, such as its expansion in Africa, including opening an office…

Lyor Cohen GLOBAL HEAD OF MUSICGOOGLE/YOUTUBE From July 2021 to June 2022, YouTube contributed over $6 billion to the music business, with 30% coming from user-generated content. Along with the revenue it drives for the industry, Cohen says he’s proud of building new avenues for consumption over the last year, like YouTube Shorts — the company’s short-form video component, which often features songs — and Creator Music, a library that helps video makers easily pay for and license music for their work. To spread the word, Cohen enlisted the help of superstar talent Taylor Swift, BTS, SZA, Blackpink and Camilo, and achieved significant growth for YouTube Shorts over the year. Ultimately, YouTube hopes to bridge the gap between short-form video (like TikTok, Triller and Shorts) and the content it…

01 Irving Azoff CHAIRMAN/CEO The Azoff Company Jeffrey Azoff COO The Azoff Company CEO Full Stop Management Elizabeth Collins Susan Genco CO-PRESIDENTS The Azoff Company See story, page 78. 02 Hartwig Masuch CEO Thomas Coesfeld CFO Dominique Casimir CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, BMG Thomas Scherer PRESIDENT OF REPERTOIRE AND MARKETING, NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES BMG Music Publishing Jon Loba PRESIDENT BMG Nashville See story, page 90. 03 Coran Capshaw FOUNDER Red Light Management See story, page 94. 04 Bang Si-Hyuk CHAIRMAN HYBE Scooter Braun CEO HYBE America See story, page 98. 05 Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter OWNER Jay Brown VICE CHAIRMAN Desiree Perez CEO Roc Nation See story, page 100. 06 Wassim “Sal” Slaiby FOUNDER/CEO SALXCO/XO See story, page 108. 07 Noah Assad FOUNDER/CEO Rimas Entertainment See story, page 66.…

After more than two weeks of voting in our inaugural Billboard.com bracket for the 2022 Power Artist: Fan Choice, Nicki Minaj emerged victorious, knocking out Beyoncé in the final round. The rap superstar had a banner 2022, scoring her first solo No. 1 on the Hot 100 with the NSFW Rick James flip “Super Freaky Girl” and teaming up with Lil Baby, Coi Leray, Fivio Foreign and BLEU for five more entries on the chart. A decade-plus since her 2009 Billboard chart debut, the Queen of Rap still wears the crown.…

Guy Moot CO-CHAIR/CEO Carianne Marshall CO-CHAIR/COOWARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC In January 2022, Warner Chappell Music “hit the ground running,” as Moot puts it, by announcing the acquisition of David Bowie’s song catalog for a reported $250 million. “We’re so proud that his estate has chosen us to be the caretakers,” she says. Bowie’s iconic music enhances the company’s already bountiful catalog, but Moot and Marshall say they put just as much effort into their frontline business. They added Belgian hip-hop artist Stromae and singer-songwriters Amy Allen and Lauren Spencer Smith to its roster last year, plus renewed deals with Chris Stapleton, Nicolle Galyon and the estate of George Michael. The publisher also continued to hold songwriter camps internationally, including its first gathering of all-female rappers. In addition, Moot and Marshall…

Desiree Perez CEOROC NATION As Roc Nation has grown over the past 15 years, it has found ways to flex its muscles in almost every area of entertainment, including the biggest stage of them all: the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Roc’s partnership with the NFL for its marquee performance space is entering its fourth year, and in 2022 put on the first-ever hip-hop-helmed halftime show, with Dr. Dre leading the way in his native Los Angeles in a showcase that also included Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak. The event won an Emmy for outstanding variety special (live). They will use that launching pad to reintroduce Rihanna’s music career on Feb. 12, as she headlines halftime — presented for the first time…

01 Michael Rapino PRESIDENT/CEO, LIVE NATION ENTERTAINMENT Arthur Fogel PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL TOURING; CHAIRMAN, LIVE NATION CONCERTS Bob Roux PRESIDENT OF U.S. CONCERTS Russell Wallach PRESIDENT OF MEDIA SPONSORSHIP Lesley Olenik SENIOR VP OF GLOBAL TOURING Omar Al-joulani PRESIDENT OF TOURING, LIVE NATION CONCERTS Live Nation See story, page 71. 02 Jay Marciano COO, AEG CHAIRMAN/CEO Rick Mueller PRESIDENT OF NORTH AMERICA Gary Gersh PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL TOURING Paul Tollett PRESIDENT/CEO, GOLDENVOICE Melissa Ormond COO, GOLDENVOICE COO OF FESTIVALS AEG Presents See story, page 86. 03 Ron Bension PRESIDENT/CEO ASM Global See story, page 118. 04 Henry Cárdenas FOUNDER/CEO CMN CMN’s No. 3 ranking on Billboard Boxscore’s 2022 end-of-year Top Promoters list was the cherry on top of the company’s biggest year yet, says Cárdenas, as well as “a…

01 Rob Light MANAGING PARTNER/HEAD OF WORLDWIDE TOURING CAA See story, page 110. 02 Marty Diamond EXECUTIVE VP/MANAGING EXECUTIVE, NEW YORK Brent Smith EXECUTIVE VP/MANAGING EXECUTIVE, LOS ANGELES Corrie Martin EXECUTIVE VP/MANAGING EXECUTIVE, ENCINITAS James Whitting EXECUTIVE VP/MANAGING EXECUTIVE, LONDON Wasserman Music “We’re looking ahead to another giant year,” says Diamond, noting that Wasserman Music’s agents booked the most acts at Coachella 2023 — including headliner Frank Ocean and Calvin Harris — and teed up big tours by Ed Sheeran, SZA and Imagine Dragons. In 2022, the agency’s first full year since acquiring Paradigm, Wasserman’s roster of road-conquering acts included Coldplay, Billie Eilish and Kenny Chesney, who had the top country tour, according to Billboard Boxscore’s end-of-year ranking. The agency also secured branding deals for its artist clients, including…

01 Elizabeth Matthews CEO ASCAP Under Matthews’ leadership, the PRO generated a record $1.3 billion in revenue in 2021 and, for the first time, earned over $1 billion from U.S.-licensed performances. More importantly, growth slowed but didn’t decline during the pandemic. “We did this while managing a world-class, fully cloud-based technology infrastructure, adding services for our members and proving that as the only not-for-profit PRO in the U.S., we can deliver industry-leading innovation and record-breaking financial results for music creators,” she says. As for the music, in 2022, ASCAP members had the No. 1 songs on 34 separate Billboard year-end charts and swept the music categories at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. 02 Mike O’Neill PRESIDENT/CEO BMI In the fiscal year that ended June 30, BMI’s revenue grew…

01 David Israelite PRESIDENT/CEO National Music Publishers’ Association The NMPA’s big win this year was the settlement of the Copyright Royalty Board rate-setting case Phonorecords IV, which determines mechanical streaming royalties for the years 2023 to 2027. The agreement locks in royalties starting at 15.1% of music streaming service revenue (unless a per-subscriber rate or a percentage of label revenue is higher), and they will rise from there — “the highest rates in the world and the highest rates in history,” says Israelite. And as both the number of subscribers and, in some cases, the subscription fee each one pays rises, “each year will be the biggest revenue pool in history.” The NMPA also worked with songwriters to solidify a policy on copyright termination. Up next, says Israelite, is…

In early 2022, charlieonnafriday had just recorded the last song for his debut project and was about to drive away when his producer Tyler Dopps called. “He was like, ‘There’s one more thing we have to do before you leave,’ ” the 19-year-old artist recalls. Dopps played a languid loop as the singer-rapper wrote the lyrics that ultimately served as the chorus to his pop-leaning breakup track “Enough” into his phone. Though the song wasn’t ready to make the independently released project Onnafriday, out in April 2022, he stashed it away. A couple of months later, while driving to Los Angeles from his native Seattle with a friend, charlieonnafriday played the song and belted its refrain, all of which his friend filmed and posted to TikTok. It not only…

IN 2020, TRENTON KYLE WAS working as a librarian, and he “would come home and just make beats every day,” he recalls. One night, he combined searing synthesizers and degraded drums into a bulldozing beat and cold-emailed it to rising rapper SoFaygo, who eventually added vocals and put the track out that October as “Off the Map.” “People went nuts,” remembers Arshan Jawaid, founder of Kids Take Over, an Instagram page and YouTube channel that interviews rising rappers. Soon after, Trippie Redd started to tease an incendiary track called “Miss the Rage,” which arrived in May 2021 and also built around a scraping, triumphant synth melody. By the end of that year, “Miss the Rage” had earned over 200 million on-demand streams, according to Luminate. And together with “Off…

“FREAKY DEAKY” Tyga x Doja Cat After Tyga texted Breslauer about shooting a “futuristic” video for a Doja Cat collaboration from his forthcoming album, Breslauer imagined a sexy cat-and-mouse game, with various traps during a late-night rendezvous. The lyrics inspired some of them, including “Black Barbie, perfect and you gnarly,” which reminded Breslauer of a scene from Joe Dante’s 1998 film Small Soldiers when action figures punched out of their plastic boxes. “I put a lot of intention in breaking down the song,” he says. “ABOUT DAMN TIME” Lizzo Last year, Lizzo’s team asked Breslauer to direct multiple videos for her Grammy-nominated album Special. But once “About Damn Time” went viral, that took priority. The two set out to make something uplifting, with Breslauer running with Lizzo’s idea to…

LOVE IS THE BRIDGE between you and everything,’ ” Terius Nash reads aloud, gesturing to the words scrawled in the corner of an art piece. “Ah!” he claps. “I love it. These quotes are completely amazing.” The 45-year-old hit songwriter and artist, better known as The-Dream, sighs wistfully as he plops down on a peach-colored velvet love seat, which sits just beneath the artwork. Hung in an ornate gold frame, the piece depicts a group of people intertwined in collective embrace — a painting style reminiscent of Renaissance-era masterpieces — juxtaposed in front of an urban brick wall that’s splattered with various phrases written in technicolor graffiti. The artwork consumes an entire wall of the sitting room in The-Dream’s so-called “creative house” in the upscale Buckhead area of Atlanta.…

CO-FOUNDER/CEO, RIMAS ENTERTAINMENT WHEN TICKETS FOR Bad Bunny’s El Último Tour del Mundo arena tour went on presale in April 2021, his manager, Noah Assad, was cautiously optimistic. “I thought we would do well, because it was post-pandemic and everyone wanted to go out, but we went on sale without really knowing — and we did it a year out for that very reason,” says Assad. For Assad, “doing well” has become synonymous with breaking some sort of record. But even he wasn’t expecting Bad Bunny to have one of the most historic, record-setting runs for an artist in the history of the Billboard charts. El Último Tour del Mundo’s presale date became the top sales day for any tour on Ticketmaster since Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run…

01 Monte Lipman FOUNDER/CEO Avery Lipman FOUNDER/COO Jim Roppo Wendy Goldstein CO-PRESIDENTS Republic Records See story, page 102. 02 Julie Greenwald CHAIRMAN/CEO Atlantic Music Group Craig Kallman CHAIRMAN/CEO Atlantic Records See story, page 104. 03 John Janick CHAIRMAN/CEO Steve Berman VICE CHAIRMAN Interscope Geffen A&M See story, page 106. 04 Ron Perry CHAIRMAN/CEO Jenifer Mallory EXECUTIVE VP/GM Columbia Records See story, page 116. 05 Peter Edge CHAIRMAN/CEO John Fleckenstein COO Mark Pitts PRESIDENT RCA Records “Thoughtful, patient, A&R-focused leadership and dedicated artist development has led to a true renaissance for the label,” says Edge, who with Fleckenstein and Pitts led RCA to several triumphs in 2022, including Billboard cover star Steve Lacy’s record of the year contender, “Bad Habit,” which spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Fellow…

Oliver Schusser Apple revolutionized the music industry when it launched its iTunes store in 2003. It eventually lost its leadership role to the game-changing Spotify, but it’s back to battling with Daniel Ek’s streaming service for music distribution supremacy. Apple has displaced Spotify as the No. 1 digital platform in the United States in terms of revenue and the royalty fees it pays labels and publishers, according to industry sources. And Billboard estimates that in 2021, Apple Music’s U.S. streaming and download services topped $3.5 billion in revenue. The platform’s emergence as the new sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show should boost its profile when Apple Music livestreams Rihanna’s performance at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 12. Apple trails Spotify internationally (and Tencent in Asia),…

Jody Gerson CHAIRMAN/CEOUNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP Looking back on 2022, Gerson says she’s proud to have led UMPG to its “most successful year ever,” as well as one of major transformation. As Universal Music Group’s publishing division adjusted to its first year as part of a publicly traded company, Gerson successfully navigated the aftereffects of the pandemic and a volatile economy with help from stakes in songs released by artists that defined music in 2022: Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, Drake, Rosalía and Steve Lacy. UMPG also added the songs of Sting, Neil Diamond, Brian Wilson and Frank Zappa to its catalog. “Since I joined as chairman/CEO in 2015, our revenue has more than doubled, and 2022 was our best year yet,” she says.…

01 Brad Navin CEO Colleen Theis PRESIDENT/COO The Orchard See story, page 119. 02 Denis Ladegaillerie FOUNDER/CEO Believe Since Ladegaillerie took Paris-based Believe public in mid-2021, the digital music distributor, which owns TuneCore, has scored significant market-share gains in Europe. In 2021, hits by French rappers JUL and Naps pushed Believe to No. 2 (behind Universal Music Group) for new releases in France, and last year, Believe was No. 3 (behind UMG and Sony Music) in the German streaming market thanks to names like Austrian hip-hop artist RAF Camora. With 1,600 employees in 50 countries supporting over 1 million artists, Believe’s growth led Ladegaillerie to raise revenue forecasts to 750 million euros ($809.2 million) for 2022 — putting it among the ranks of BMG and HYBE. “We pride ourselves…

Jay Marciano COOAEG CHAIRMAN/CEOAEG PRESENTS As CEO of one of the biggest privately held companies in entertainment, Marciano’s challenge coming out of the pandemic has been to get the $10 billion AEG machine back up to cruising altitude. That has included pushing forward ventures like the construction of its venue at the $1 billion Nashville Yards project and a new 3,500-capacity venue in Raleigh, N.C., set to open next year. AEG has also opened three music clubs since the summer of 2021, including Roadrunner in Boston, part of the company’s renewed effort, Marciano says, to expand its theater and club holdings after it hosted nearly 10,000 midsize events in 2022. While AEG is much smaller than its competitor Live Nation, the company’s concert promotion business handled four of 2022’s…

Max Lousada CEO, WARNER RECORDED MUSICWARNER MUSIC GROUP The past year for WMG has been bookended by Grammy love, with superstar R&B duo Silk Sonic taking home record and song of the year at the 64th annual awards in April and WMG acts Anitta, Omar Apollo and Molly Tuttle scoring best new artist nods for the forthcoming 65th honors. It’s a reflection of the major’s dual role in nurturing big acts and developing up-and-coming artists. And increasingly, that means restructuring the company to better reflect a more global marketplace that is rich with options for acts to be heard — a focus for Lousada over the five years he has led WMG’s recorded-music business. “We’ve created an ecosystem where we can do one-off records with [distributor] Level, partnerships and…

01 Jon Platt CHAIRMAN/CEO Brian Monaco PRESIDENT/GLOBAL CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Rusty Gaston CEO, NASHVILLE Jorge Mejia PRESIDENT/CEO, LATIN AMERICA AND U.S. LATIN Sony Music Publishing See story, page 79. 02 Jody Gerson CHAIRMAN/CEO Marc Cimino COO Troy Tomlinson CHAIRMAN/CEO, NASHVILLE Alexandra Lioutikoff PRESIDENT, LATIN AMERICA AND U.S. LATIN Universal Music Publishing Group See story, page 80. 03 Guy Moot CO-CHAIR/CEO Carianne Marshall CO-CHAIR/COO Ryan Press PRESIDENT, NORTH AMERICA Gustavo Menéndez REGIONAL GM, LATIN AMERICA Warner Chappell Music Ben Vaughn PRESIDENT/CEO Warner Chappell Music Nashville See story, above. 04 Larry Mestel FOUNDER/CEO Justin Shukat PRESIDENT Primary Wave Music In 2022, Primary Wave snapped up more than 20 catalogs to add to its growing collection of assets by “legends and icons,” says Mestel, including the rights to music by The Ramones,…

Bang Si-Hyuk CHAIRMANHYBE Scooter Braun CEOHYBE AMERICA South Korea’s HYBE wasn’t caught flat-footed when its cash cow, K-pop group BTS, announced in June 2022 that it would take a hiatus to pursue solo projects and fulfill mandatory military service. The news dropped HYBE’s share price 24.8% the following day and, as stocks fell worldwide, contributed to $2.8 billion of lost market capitalization by October. It could have been worse had “Hitman” Bang, as he’s known professionally, not used the proceeds of HYBE’s $840 million initial public offering in 2020 to begin building a bridge to the United States and beyond. In 2021, HYBE acquired Ithaca Holdings, an umbrella company for Braun’s management firm and Nashville-based Big Machine Label Group, then made Braun co-CEO of HYBE America. (He is now…

Rob Light MANAGING PARTNER/HEAD OF WORLDWIDE TOURINGCAA In June, CAA finalized a deal to acquire ICM Partners for a reported $750 million, adding 425 new employees to the agency’s staff. The music department of this newly formed behemoth repped eight acts that finished in the top 20 Billboard Boxscore tours of 2022: Harry Styles, The Weeknd, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, the Eagles, Justin Bieber and My Chemical Romance. Styles, The Weeknd and the Chili Peppers made the top 10 with a combined $522 million in ticket sales across 121 shows. The latter two acts were among more than a dozen new clients to join the agency since 2020, Light says, including Grupo Firme, John Mayer, Maroon 5, Arcade Fire, Zac Brown, Mariah Carey, Stevie Nicks,…

Scott Pascucci CEOCONCORD In 2022, Concord laid down building blocks for its future by releasing a $1.8 billion asset-backed securitization offering of music rights that included over 1 million copyrights. The move came in a year that also included the purchase of Genesis’ publishing and recorded-music catalog as well as the solo work of band members Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks; expansion into Australasia — through the acquisition of publisher Native Tongue and the subsequent creation of Concord Music Publishing ANZ — and West Africa through the signing of Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido and a joint venture with Immensum Music. “We are determined to capitalize on our past success and to continue the journey that we have been on for the past 10 years,” says Pascucci. “We…