Innholdsfortegnelse for January 27, 2024 i Billboard Magazine

WHEN WE SIT DOWNevery year to rank the most powerful people in the music business, we often start by looking at the highest-grossing tours, the most-streamed songs and albums, the top deals and the biggest cultural moments — and then we identify the masterminds behind them. Usually, these people are executives, who toil in offices and keep their minds on the money, so that the creators they serve can focus on their art. This year, though, the mastermind behind most of the industry’s record-breaking achievements — from a historic stadium run that fueled an unprecedented rule atop the Billboard 200 albums chart to the most profitable concert film of all time — was an artist herself. Taylor Swift doesn’t refer to herself publicly as an executive, but she designed…

8 Taylor Swift folklore The album grabs Greatest Gainer honors (up 24% in equivalent album units in the week ending Jan. 18, according to Luminate) largely due to its 92% sales increase after a replenishment of CD stock at retail. 59 Jimin Face The album returns to the Billboard 200 following its vinyl release, selling 8,000 copies on wax in its first week. It also debuts at No. 2 on Vinyl Albums. 124 Soundtrack Mean Girls This is the second Mean Girls-related album to chart, following the original Broadway cast recording in 2018 (No. 42). The original 2004 film’s soundtrack missed the Billboard 200 but hit No. 16 on the Soundtracks chart. 1 21 Savage American Dream 21 Savage scores his fourth No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as…

Noah Kahan reaches No. 1 on the Hot Alternative Songs chart with “Stick Season.” It’s his second chart-topper following the two-week reign of “Dial Drunk” (with Post Malone) beginning in June 2023. Originally released in 2022, “Stick Season” has resurged thanks in part to Olivia Rodrigo’s viral cover last October; after initially peaking at No. 8 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart last June, it spends a third week at its recent No. 2 high. The track earned 14.7 million official U.S. streams and 6.4 million airplay audience impressions and sold 2,000 downloads during the week of Jan. 12-18.…

ARTIST development isn’t dead, but it sure has changed. Two decades ago, a 20-something jazz musician named Norah Jones became a breakout star for Blue Note Records, a traditional route to stardom when people still bought CDs and social media didn’t exist. Last year’s breakout jazz artist, Laufey, cultivated a fan base on TikTok and posts sheet music for her songs online so fans can download it before the recordings come out. To AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick, Laufey’s success is a sign of the times. The Icelandic singer built an online following by herself, but she needed a team to develop her career and handle marketing and promotion logistics. Her second AWAL album, Bewitched, topped Billboard’s Jazz Albums and Traditional Jazz Albums charts in September. “We’re seeing this real…

“Shellback was bored,” ILYA says, reflecting on how he and the Swedish hit-maker ended up working together for the first time — ultimately changing the course of his career. Having grown up in what he calls “the hood of Sweden,” ILYA’s discovery of music production was a bit of a surprise — quite literally, as he found a CD of the music-making program Dance eJay in a cereal box. From there, he says, he “fell in love with creating.” By his late teens, in 2005, ILYA signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music and remembers “grinding, grinding, grinding... with not a lot happening.” Several years later, he met Shellback (Britney Spears, P!nk, Taylor Swift), who eventually asked ILYA what he was working on, and later suggested to his…

All Aboard! Mike WiLL Made-It, writer-producer Since we’ve made so many hits over the years, Miley approached me and said she wanted me involved — she felt like this was going to be her best work yet. She has already explored so many different sounds, and she’s really on her songwriting. It’s always dope to work with her because she’s constantly pushing the envelope. Michael Pollack, writer-producer Miley and I had done a few writing sessions in 2021 with no real mention of an album. It wasn’t until we got back in the studio in January of 2022 that the momentum seemed to pick up and I started to notice Miley assembling Endless Summer Vacation. Tyler Johnson, writer-producer I think it was just part of being in the system…

CHAIRMANSONY MUSIC GROUP CEOSONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT Sony Music’s market share continued to climb under Stringer’s leadership, rising to 27.1% overall from 27.0% in 2022 — an increase boosted by Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” SZA’s “Kill Bill” and Luke Combs’ “Fast Car.” Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti and Travis Scott’s Utopia also cracked the top 10 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart, while breakout R&B singer Victoria Monét garnered six Grammy Award nominations. And at a time when demand for Latin and country music is surging, Sony Nashville’s current market share rose from 1.9% in 2022 to 2.3% and Sony Latin’s from 1.2% to 2%. While some executives fret about the difficulty of developing new stars and driving music discovery — especially in a world where anyone can record…

VP OF APPLE MUSIC, APPLE TV+, SPORTS AND BEATSAPPLE Schusser guided Apple Music through a year of innovation and expansion. The company launched Apple Music Classical, a separate app designed to bring more exposure to the overlooked genre, as well as Apple Music Live and a higher royalty payout model for Spatial Audio content. These developments have helped Schusser and his team distinguish Apple Music as a destination for music lovers seeking high-quality content. Some of Apple Music’s competitors are rethinking their streaming models for 2024. Are you planning to make similar changes? Whether you’re signed to a major label or you’re an artist distributing your music independently, a play on Apple Music is valued the same. We have no plans to change that. Additionally, over a year ago,…

CEO OF RECORDED MUSICWARNER MUSIC GROUP In 2023, WMG’s recorded-music division released No. 1 Billboard 200 albums from Lil Uzi Vert (Atlantic) and Zach Bryan (Warner Records) and No. 1 Hot 100 singles from Bryan and Jack Harlow (Atlantic). But Lousada points out that many of its divisions scored wins last year. Warner Music Latin America broke records with Yng Lvcas and Myke Towers; Bailey Zimmerman was the Nashville division and Elektra’s breakout success story; Bryan, Teddy Swims and Kenya Grace emerged as reliable hit-makers for Warner Records; and, in addition to success with Uzi, Harlow and Gunna through its 300 Entertainment subdivision, Atlantic steered the Barbie soundtrack to 11 Grammy nominations, including one for record of the year and two for song of the year, while Fred again..…

FOUNDER/CEO Avery Lipman FOUNDER/COOREPUBLIC RECORDS The number that sums up Republic’s year: 13.5%, the label’s market share among current releases (music released in the past 18 months). It’s the third straight year that Republic has finished north of 10% and the highest mark for a single label since at least 2015, which put it on top of Billboard ’s 2023 year-end Top Labels chart for the seventh time in nine years and third in a row. Leading the charge for the Lipman brothers was Taylor Swift, whose 18.9 million equivalent album units in 2023 accounted for 1.7% of the entire U.S. recorded-music industry on her own, with a record-breaking tour and concert film to boot. But it wasn’t all Swift. The label also delivered massive chart-topping albums from Morgan…

CHAIRMANHYBE SCOOTER BRAUN CEOHYBE AMERICA If 2019 was the year K-pop broke, 2023 was the year that the genre solidified its place on the global business stage. HYBE deepened its hold on the world’s largest music market by acquiring Atlanta-based hip-hop company Quality Control, home of Migos and Lil Baby. It also created a presence in the fast-growing Latin genre by buying Exile Music Group and creating the Mexico-based HYBE Latin America. No longer a geographically confined company focused on K-pop, HYBE’s market capitalization at the end of 2023 was $7.5 billion (two-fifths of Warner Music Group’s $18.6 billion), and its revenue of 1.3 billion won ($1 billion) in the first half of 2023 more than doubled BMG’s $447 million of revenue during the same period. K-pop hits kept…

CEOROC NATION Four years into its partnership with the NFL to oversee entertainment initiatives, Roc Nation served as executive producer of the Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring Rihanna’s first televised performance in five years on a cutting-edge floating stage. The presentation ended with the R&B star’s pregnancy reveal and attracted 121 million viewers, according to Nielsen — the most-watched halftime show of all time — and won two Emmys. Then, in July, after the first half of the year notably did not have any No. 1 hip-hop albums, Roc Nation artist Lil Uzi Vert broke through with his third Billboard 200 chart-topper, The Pink Tape, which included his Grammy-nominated single, “Just Wanna Rock.” Uzi, as well as longtime client Alicia Keys, delivered sold-out national tours over the summer, which…

CHAIRMAN/CEO OAK VIEW GROUP Since the beginning of 2022, Leiweke and his team (which includes the company’s new COO, his daughter Francesca Bodie) have built seven arenas — five that it owns and operates — including Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif.; CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore; and UBS Arena on New York’s Long Island. He says he’s just warming up. “We’re well on our way to having 20 of the top 50 music arenas in the world that OVG will own and operate,” he says. “We’re going to double down on the half a billion we’ve already spent on building these beautiful buildings and spend another half a billion now.” In April, OVG plans to open Co-op Live in Manchester, England, a $460.3 million, 23,500-capacity arena — the…

CHAIR/CEOCAPITOL MUSIC GROUP Capitol’s biggest win in 2023 was a surge in current market share — from 5% in 2022 to 5.9% in 2023 — thanks to such breakout artists as Toosii, Ice Spice and Doechii who “turned round the label,” says Jubelirer, who’s entering her third year in the top job. What were the keys to Capitol’s growth this year? Every single artist and project must have a bespoke campaign. And every artist needs something different. There are certain artists that benefit from the attention of a small group of people who bring passion and nuance to artist development. Others need the full power of the organization. At a time when local music is increasingly dominant abroad, how do you approach international marketing? We realized that we need…

FOUNDER/CEOEMPIRE When Ghazi founded EMPIRE in his native California in 2010, digital distribution was considered the cutting edge of the music business. The company’s recent growth comes from its expansion into more traditional sectors — music publishing and a label — but it continues to push the envelope. Last year, it worked with San Francisco-based Kaiber AI and independent Web3 streaming service Nebula to create a music video for the Money Man and Babyface Ray song “Drums” and enable fans to buy a piece of the song’s royalty streams. EMPIRE also leaned into its deep roots in the African music space, where it is a leading distributor, label and artist incubator. The company led discussions with the Recording Academy to establish a new Grammy category for best African music…

“We fully embrace artificial intelligence across the entire business, with a responsible approach to foster opportunities for artists and labels through a set of engagement rules: consent, control, compensation and transparency. We produced a survey of nearly 1,600 independent artists via TuneCore, whose opinion was very much aligned with ours.” —Denis Ladegaillerie, Believe “AI will bring a massive period of dislocation and fundamental societal, systemic change over the next five years, and that will change music and everything else in both good and bad ways. What won’t change is humans’ desire for a soundtrack to their lives, for the role that music plays in their lives and for their connection to the artist behind that music. The reason Taylor Swift is the biggest artist in the world, the reason…

ARIANA GRANDE’s “Yes, And?” soars in at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the pop superstar’s eighth leader on the chart. The song is the lead single from her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine, due March 8. Released Jan. 12, “Yes, And?” drew 27.2 million official streams and 24.8 million radio airplay audience impressions and sold 53,000, including 41,000 digital downloads, in the United States through Jan. 18, according to Luminate. (It was available for purchase in 14 digital iterations, all for 69 cents by the end of the tracking week: its original version, an edit, an extended mix, an a cappella version, and slowed and sped-up mixes, each in clean and explicit options, as well instrumental and extended mix instrumental versions.) The single launches at No.…

FLO MILLI’S “NEVER LOSE ME” vaults 7-1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart dated Jan. 20. The 2023 song has been involved in a variety of trends on TikTok, such as one in which creators display medals and trophies made to seem correlated to tongue-in-cheek accolades (e.g., having the worst ex) that they describe with captions. Recently, the trends have also included a bevy of uploads highlighting the song’s “never had a bitch like me” lyric. “Never Lose Me” takes the lead from Lesley Gore’s “Misty,” the jazz standard penned by Erroll Garner in 1954 and recorded by Gore for her 1963 debut album, I’ll Cry If I Want To. “Misty” dips to No. 2 after a week at the top, and continues to appear in a trend…

Jack Harlow’s “Lovin on Me” ascends to No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart with 67 million in audience, up 15%. It becomes the rapper’s second leader on the list after “First Class” reigned for four weeks in 2022. The song is scoring support at multiple formats as it rules Rap Airplay for a fifth week and Rhythmic Airplay for a fourth week and soars 7-1 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. It also pushes 4-3 on Mainstream Top 40 Airplay. “Lovin on Me” concurrently tops the multimetric Hot R&B/ Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts for a 10th week each.…

IN THE OPENING DAYS of 2024, a pioneering new sound vibrated throughout the industry, capturing the top spot on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. The electrifying corridos track “La Diabla” (“She Devil”) was by newcomer Xavi, a relatively unknown 19-year-old Mexican American artist delivering an equally unknown sound. The tumbados románticos single — which tells the tale of a bad boy’s romance with a bad girl — is crafted with the crisp strains of a requinto guitar — a signature instrument in regional Mexican music. But it’s Xavi’s combination of the rebellious corridos tumbados spirit with the tenderness of romance that sets him apart. However, “La Diabla” almost never came to be. “I DM’ed him and he wouldn’t answer me,” recalls Interscope executive vp Nir Seroussi. He discovered Xavi…

“YES, AND?” Ariana Grande “This whole song was her idea — she had a vision. I remember we were going through chords and she was like, ‘It needs to be more confident. It has to be more sassy.’ When Ari’s describing an emotion she wants to have, I instantly go, ‘What sounds can make that emotion come to life?’ And to me, the 909 drums are what that vibe is. In the bridge there are all these funny Mellotron sounds that are really ’60s, Beatles-esque, and a flute that Max played that I laugh at every time I hear it. Once we finished it, that’s when I fell in love with it.” “GUILTY CONSCIENCE” Tate McRae “The first time I worked with [Tate] she seemed very unsure of everything.…

PRESIDENT/CEOAEG PRESENTS COO/OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMANAEG AEG Presents’ $2 billion second-place finish on Billboard Boxscore’s Top Promoters chart of 2023 is somewhat misleading. Because Taylor Swift doesn’t report her box-office results to Billboard, the estimated $906.1 million grossed on her The Eras Tour — 66 shows promoted by AEG partner Messina Touring Group — isn’t included in that official total. Were it added, the live-entertainment giant’s numbers would have increased 25% to 30% over 2022. (As it stands, they’re about even year to year.) By the time Swift’s tour is done, she will almost certainly break the record for biggest concert gross of all time, an achievement currently held by another AEG-promoted artist: Elton John, whose Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which ended last year, grossed $939.1 million from…

CHAIRMAN/CEOSONY MUSIC PUBLISHING In a 1998 interview, Platt said that when he attended high school in Denver, he attempted to satisfy his thirst for new music by calling labels and asking for free albums — until he racked up a $500 phone bill in a single month. His love of songcraft eventually paid off. He now runs the industry’s largest global publishing company, which generated revenue north of $2.1 billion through the third quarter of 2023 (the most recent results available), thanks in part to big hits by Miley Cyrus and Morgan Wallen. Since he took control of Sony Music Publishing (then called Sony/ATV) in 2019, the company has signed Olivia Rodrigo, Jack Harlow, Latto and The Kid LAROI, among other creators. In late 2021, it acquired Bruce Springsteen’s…

CHAIRMAN/CEO Steve Berman VICE CHAIRMANINTERSCOPE GEFFEN A&M Once known as “The House That Dre Built,” Interscope Geffen A&M has undergone some extensive remodeling — by “continuing to expand and diversify,” Berman says — while maintaining the integrity of the original label founded by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field. Armed with a patient artist-development philosophy, IGA’s team has spent the past few years breaking Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, Kali Uchis and other generational stars to rejuvenate its roster of legacy acts, which includes U2, Eminem and The Rolling Stones. Janick honed this approach at his DIY label Fueled by Ramen, and Interscope’s 8.8% 2023 current market share — the second-highest among labels last year — indicates it’s still working. So does the success of Rodrigo’s…

CO-CHAIR/CEO CARIANNE MARSHALL CO-CHAIR/COOWARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC Warner Chappell’s 2023 revenue totaled almost $1.1 billion, a 66% increase from the $653 million the publisher generated in 2019, the year Moot and Marshall were tapped to run the company. The duo also turned heads when WCM’s third-quarter market share of Hot 100 songs eclipsed Universal Music Publishing Group’s, 18.2% to 18%, putting it at No. 2 behind Sony Music Publishing — the first time it held the position since Billboard began tracking publishers’ shares of Hot 100 songs in 2019. With business on the upswing, Marshall says the publisher is focused on adapting to new digital music challenges. “We’re trying to figure out the best way to make sure our music gets heard the way people consume music currently, but it’s…

PARTNER/CEOBIG LOUD Big Loud finished 2023 as Billboard’s top country label largely on the strength of Morgan Wallen’s spectacular year. The singer-songwriter’s single “Last Night” spent 16 nonconsecutive weeks atop the Hot 100, and his album One Thing at a Time matched that run on the Billboard 200. And though the Grammys snubbed him, 1.3 million fans flocked to his live shows, which grossed $260.4 million — good enough for fourth place on Billboard Boxscore’s Top Tours of 2023 ranking. “I’m so proud of Morgan’s success,” England says, in part because the artist is one of Big Loud’s earliest signings. “We’ve grown together, and he’s certainly hitting his stride,” he says. “I don’t believe that will slow down.” In the wake of Wallen’s success, Big Loud has expanded into…

CEOBMG Since ascending to the top job in July, Coesfeld has steadily streamlined BMG’s operations as he attempts to lead the fourth-largest global music company over the 1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) revenue threshold. Coesfeld calls his revamped business strategy BMG Next, and one of his first moves was moving the company’s 80 billion digital stream distribution in-house after ending its relationship with Warner Music Group’s ADA. He also integrated front-line and catalog operations and expanded the roles of the recorded-music division’s catalog, sales and marketing teams from local to global. The restructuring led to BMG shedding about 40 staffers, but Coesfeld, who was its CFO before succeeding Hartwig Masuch in the top job, says it will enable the company to adapt quickly to technologies that are advancing exponentially.…

CO-FOUNDER/CEOSALXCO/XO RECORDS HBO’s swift cancellation of The Idol — which was co-created by and starred The Weeknd and credited Slaiby as co-executive producer — turned out to be a mere blip in an otherwise successful year for the pop star and his co-manager. The second leg of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn stadium outing grossed $192.5 million and ranked eighth on Billboard Boxscore’s top tours of 2023. This past January, Spotify announced that “Blinding Lights,” No. 1 on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Hot 100 chart, was the first song in the streaming platform’s history to cross the 4 billion stream mark. And he’s not the only SALXCO artist on the come-up. Metro Boomin’s 2022 album, Heroes & Villains, became his third No. 1 on the Billboard 200…

CHAIRMAN/CEOSONY MUSIC LATIN-IBERIA Verde oversees 10 global music groups across three continents and in two languages, a job that requires understanding different musical styles and cultures in highly competitive markets, including Mexico, Brazil, Central America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal. Live entertainment plays a key role in Verde’s management of those territories, and last year, he ran point on the acquisition of Chile’s Punto Ticket and Peru’s Teleticket through Sony’s joint venture with CTS Eventim, which also operates in Brazil. Of the hundreds of artists signed to the labels Verde runs, one stands out: Shakira. “She is a cornerstone of our strategy to present powerful role models in Latin music to the international markets, he says of the Colombian singer-songwriter, citing her “remarkable international appeal.” Shakira — who has…

CHAIRMAN/CEOWASSERMAN MUSIC Wasserman wants the industry to know that he’s in it to win it. “We bought the music business because we believe in the music business,” he says of his 2021 acquisition and rebranding of the Paradigm agency’s concert business. “We’re not buying it for tomorrow. We’re buying it for the next 100 years, and we believe in the value and the power of it.” Wasserman’s leadership group is led by 12 agents: Lee Anderson, Marty Diamond, Brent Smith, Sam Hunt, Jonathan Levine, Corrie Martin, Jackie Nalpant, Matt Rodriguez, Tom Windish, Alex Hardee, Tom Schroeder and James Whitting. With the exception of former WME partner Smith, who brought over a group of clients that includes Drake, SZA and Kendrick Lamar, the others originated with Paradigm. Among the agency’s…

TWO DECADES SINCE forming MGMT as Wesleyan University students, Andrew VanWyn- garden and Ben Goldwasser haven’t lost their psychedelic puckishness: Despite its grim title, their fifth album, Loss of Life (out Feb. 23), contains some of the duo’s most sincere, hopeful music yet. “Coming out of the pandemic, there was a whole wave of super doom-oriented art and music and apocalyptic shit,” VanWyngarden says of MGMT’s first album since 2018’s Little Dark Age. Loss of Life is also the act’s Mom + Pop debut (after leaving longtime label Columbia Records) and features “Mother Nature,” MGMT’s first hit on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart since its 2007 smashes “Time To Pretend” and “Kids.” As Van-Wyngarden says, “This album is more reflective and existential and sort of philosophical. But at the core,…

WHEN 9-YEAR-OLD Coco Jones was first trying to break into the entertainment world — auditioning and sitting in business meetings with strange executives — her mother would sometimes give her a secret signal. “If my mom grabbed her earring, that meant, ‘You need to sing.’ And I’d sing,” Jones recalls with a laugh. “I spent a lot of time perfecting the a cappella.” That early confidence-building lesson has served Jones well. At 12, she embarked on the path to tween stardom with roles on Disney Channel shows and films like So Random! and Let It Shine; more recently, she won the role of Hilary Banks on Peacock’s Fresh Prince reboot, Bel-Air. And now, it has helped her become one of R&B’s most promising rising stars, signed to High Standardz/Def…

GLOBAL HEAD OF MUSICGOOGLE/YOUTUBE The numbers show one facet of YouTube’s reach and influence: According to the streaming platform, there are over 100 million songs globally on YouTube; YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are available in over 90 countries and regions; and from July 2019 through June 2022 (the most recent financial results available), the company paid over $50 billion to artists, creators and media companies. As of September, over 2 billion logged-in YouTube users were watching Shorts videos every month, and the platform was logging 70 billion daily views and surpassed 80 million Music and Premium subscribers globally (including trial subscribers). The big news of last year, however, was the leading role YouTube took in embracing AI. In August, it unveiled the industry’s first set of AI Music…

FOUNDER/CEOMESSINA TOURING GROUP Messina has two longtime clients in the top 20 of Billboard’s biggest tour boxscores of 2023 — No. 5, Ed Sheeran ($256.9 million), and No. 17, George Strait ($107.5 million) — and he says playing a role in their tours was one of his biggest accomplishments. Topping that list, not surprisingly, “is being a part of musical history with Taylor,” he says. That’s Taylor Swift, who grossed an estimated $906.1 million on her The Eras Tour, which Messina Touring Group is promoting and is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing tour of all time. Messina, who first worked with Swift in 2005, says he’s not surprised. “She’s the biggest dreamer in the world, and seeing her from when she was at 17 to where she…

CHAIRMAN/CEOUNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP As UMPG’s CEO, a National Music Publishers’ Association board member and co-founder of She Is the Music, an organization committed to empowering female creators, Gerson is one of the most trusted voices in music publishing. Since taking the helm of UMPG in 2015, she has transformed, as she puts it, from “slow and steady” publisher that was a “small piece” of UMG’s multifaceted music business into the “valuable asset it is to the overall UMG pie.” From 2013 to 2023, UMPG’s U.S. revenue grew from $900 million to more than $1.9 billion. And with new signees like Jack Antonoff and Lana Del Rey bolstering the publisher’s roster, Gerson says her goal in 2024 is to be “the undisputed market-share leader — I’m going for it.”…

CHAIRMAN/CEOATLANTIC MUSIC GROUP CRAIG KALLMAN CHAIRMAN/CEOATLANTIC RECORDS Greenwald says that Atlantic Music Group’s year was distinguished by “a lot of different successes in different genres”: the Barbie soundtrack; Nigerian Afrobeats star Burna Boy “going into stadiums”; and Melanie Martinez releasing her third album, Portals, which Greenwald says “took her to the next level” — her third top 10 Billboard 200 release and the highest-charting. Portals debuted at No. 2 and was followed by an international tour that will end in February. In May, Martinez will return to the road in North America with her Trilogy arena tour, which already has sold out in most markets. “She blew it out,” Greenwald says, adding that Ed Sheeran broke the attendance record at San Francisco’s Levi’s Stadium in September. “It’s not just…

FOUNDERRED LIGHT MANAGEMENT “When I look back at 2023, the word ‘consistency’ comes to mind,” Capshaw says. He is referring to annual touring by Dave Matthews Band, Chris Stapleton, Phish, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, among others. While those five acts are a fraction of the 400 or so names on Red Light Management’s roster, their annual tours consistently rank among Billboard Boxscore’s top 100 of the year and grossed $250.5 million in 2023. RLM clients grossed nearly $300 million in 2023, with Phish ($76.8 million) and DMB ($66.6 million) earning more than half that figure. A number of RLM artists also hold annual destination events, such as Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna and Mothership weekends in Maya Riviera, Mexico, and Miramar Beach, Fla. The press-shy Capshaw steers clear…

EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN/CEO SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN ENTERTAINMENT In late September, Dolan finally realized his daring, years-in-the-making vision when Sphere, a bleeding-edge, 20,000-capacity live-music venue on the Las Vegas Strip, premiered with what became a 40-date U2 run that grossed $159.8 million and sold 413,000 tickets to its first 25 shows. In spring 2023, Dolan oversaw the creation of Sphere Entertainment, separating the immersive facility’s business from Madison Square Garden Entertainment (owner of MSG, Radio City Music Hall and other established venues) and the latter company’s stock. With U2’s residency ending in March, Sphere Entertainment, which is also publicly traded, is moving aggressively to offset its $2.3 billion construction cost. Although skeptics contend there are few artists with the technological and financial wherewithal to mount a run there, the…

CO-CHAIRMAN/CEO TOM CORSON CO-CHAIRMAN/COOWARNER RECORDS After five years at the helm, Bay-Schuck and Corson are celebrating Warner Records’ climb to fourth place in current and total market share — 6% and 6.7%, respectively. “When Tom and I began, we were in eighth place, and it has taken great patience and endless hard work to grow the way we have,” Bay-Schuck says. At a time when many in the industry are lamenting the lack of artist development at major labels, Warner has shown a knack for taking emerging artists to new heights. Among them, country-rock hybrid Zach Bryan, whose self-titled second album and its single, “I Remember Everything” (featuring Kacey Musgraves), topped the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, respectively. And Dua Lipa extended her run of hits with the Golden…

FOUNDER/CEOPRIMARY WAVE MUSIC Mestel founded Primary Wave in 2006 and has grown the company into a formidable publishing, branding and marketing operation that owns the rights to songs by Prince, James Brown, Whitney Houston and Stevie Nicks, among many others. Last year, it spent $750 million to acquire assets from The Doors, Isaac Hayes, the Ramones and Dennis DeYoung, the original lead singer of Styx. Primary Wave also made a $100 million strategic investment in India’s Times Music, one of the country’s leading players in the business — part of Primary Wave’s search for opportunities in emerging markets. Following the success of last year’s Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which grossed $59.8 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, Mestel says the company has some three…

CHAIRMAN/CEORCA RECORDS RCA star and Billboard’s No. 3 Artist of the Year, SZA, spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200 with her second album, SOS, which spun off the No. 3 Hot 100 single of 2023, “Kill Bill.” Grammy voters noticed and nominated her for nine awards — the most this year — including record, song and album of the year. Labelmate and fellow 2024 Grammy nominee Doja Cat returned to her rap roots and netted her second Hot 100 No. 1 with “Paint the Town Red” — that chart’s first rap topper since August 2022. RCA artists Tate McRae and Victoria Monét had breakout years, with the former’s single “Greedy” peaking at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in January after more than three months on the chart.…

MANAGING PARTNER/HEAD OF WORLDWIDE TOURINGCAA In 2023, Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour topped Billboard Boxscore’s year-end chart after drawing 2.8 million concertgoers to 56 shows for a total tour gross of $579.8 million, and Light says that, numbers aside, he has never seen anything like it. “When I think of all the great stadium shows — and I’ve seen them all — no one has come close to that sort of presentation.” Beyoncé’s stadium tour and subsequent concert film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé , were just a fraction of CAA’s stellar 2023. Led by Light, who will celebrate 40 years there and 25 as head of music this year, the agency landed more than a quarter of the top 40 tours on Boxscore’s year-end charts, including outings by Harry…

CEOCONCORD In 2021, when former CEO Scott Pascucci signaled that he was ready to step down, Valentine moved from CFO into the newly created position of president to shadow his boss before succeeding him last July. “Because of that long transition process, nothing has happened that I haven’t had at least some awareness of,” Valentine says. That approach to the transition seems to have paid off. Concord made news in the second half of 2023 with a $468 million acquisition of the Round Hill Music Royalty Fund, which was the year’s biggest catalog deal. The purchase included more than 150,000 songs, including compositions recorded by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Meat Loaf, James Brown and Billie Holiday. Concord also acquired the Mojo Music & Media catalog, which comprises 30,000 songs,…

label groups 01 Lucian Grainge THE LEADERBOARD // NO. 2 Chairman/CEO Boyd Muir Executive vp/CFO/president of operations Michele Anthony Executive vp Jeffrey Harleston General counsel/executive vp of business and legal affairs Will Tanous Executive vp/chief administrative officer Michael Nash Executive vp/chief digital officer UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP The market leader with a 35.8% current-release share of the recorded-music industry, UMG and its top executives have often driven the biggest changes in the business. Last year was no different. The year kicked off with Grainge’s call for streaming royalty reform toward an “artist-centric” model, which is “already being implemented by leading platforms to the benefit of major, indie and DIY artists at all stages of their careers,” Tanous says. Harleston cites UMG’s leading role in establishing the Responsible AI initiative to…

In 2019, Alabama-based country-rock quintet The Red Clay Strays was performing at small clubs and festivals around the Southeast. “We were playing honky-tonks [with] no stability, chasing the dream,” says guitarist/vocalist/harmonica player Drew Nix, acknowledging in the same breath the toll that such commitment took on their romantic partners. “We were like, ‘Our women have the short end of this.’ ” The notion inspired Nix and lead singer Brandon Coleman, along with songwriter Dan Couch, to write “Wondering Why” — a bluesy, romantic ballad about an upper-class woman and a working-class man. Nearly two years after it appeared on the band’s 2022 debut album, Moment of Truth, the song reached No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated Jan. 20. Comprising Coleman, Nix, guitarist Zach Rishel, bassist Andrew Bishop…