In the $17 billion global music business — where two-thirds of revenue comes from outside the U.S. — these 73 executives are in the vanguard, led by Stuart Camp, manager of the world’s top-selling artist, Ed Sheeran.
EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
Stuart Camp, 44
Owner, Grumpy Old Management
Stuart Camp jokes that he doesn’t have children of his own, “just one surrogate child who’s 27 and has ginger hair. You may have heard of him.”
Having exclusively managed Ed Sheeran since 2011, Camp has been there for every step of the singer-songwriter’s rise from young hopeful to global superstar, with the bond between them going far beyond the typical artist-manager relationship.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to be the manager sitting at home telling him where to go and counting my money. You have to put yourself through what your artist is going through, so I’m with him wherever he goes,” says Camp, who has been named Billboard’s international music executive of the year in recognition of Sheeran’s record-smashing success.
Sheeran’s third album, ÷ (Divide), was the global best-seller of 2017, according to IFPI, the international trade organization of the music industry, and has sold over 14 million units, according to Warner Music. His world tour has similarly broken records, and Camp says over 8.5 million people will have seen it by year’s end. “I keep redoing the sums because I think I’m bullshitting myself, but I’m not. It’s just crazy,” says the London-based manager — an outspoken critic of secondary ticketing — about the two-and-a-half-year trek, which wraps in fall 2019.
No. 35: Stuart Camp | Power 100
Sheeran’s relationship with Camp dates back to 2009 (“I got drunk with him, and then he let me sleep on his couch,” the singer has said). Camp, who studied sociology and business at Leeds Trinity University, got his first music business job with the U.K. office of Australia’s Mushroom Records. A move into artist management led to his signing Sheeran in 2011. It’s an all-encompassing role: Camp’s girlfriend, Liberty Shaw, is Sheeran’s makeup artist and stylist.
Camp praises Sheeran’s decision to take a year off before making ÷ (Divide) as well as his artist’s tireless work ethic and ambition. “You tell Ed some good news, and within a second or two, he has changed the parameters and wants the next step up. We always try [to] surpass ourselves.”
In February, Camp ended his three-year joint venture with Elton John’s management firm Rocket Music, taking Grumpy Old Management (Sheeran picked the name) independent. But there are no plans to expand the firm’s roster beyond its prolific star client, who, says Camp, is already recording new material for a tentative 2020 follow-up to ÷ (Divide). “There will be even more expectation on the next one,” he says, “but we know we’ll get it right. We’re not going to rush it.”
LIVE
Fernando Alterio, 65
Vice chairman/CEO, Time 4 Fun
Lollapalooza Brazil drew a record-setting 300,000 fans over three sold-out days in March, reports Alterio, whose Time 4 Fun is the local partner of Lolla promoter C3 Presents. He adds that brand sponsorship at the festival tripled. (The company does not report branding dollar volume.) T4F, the only publicly traded entertainment company in Brazil, runs five venues there and in Argentina, and has produced over 4,000 events in South America over the last three years.
Michael Coppel*
Chairman, Live Nation Australia
Denis Desmond, 64
Chairman, Live Nation U.K.
John Reid, 55
President of concerts, Live Nation Europe
In 2017, under Reid’s oversight, Live Nation Europe presented the largest number of arena shows (760) and stadium shows (115) in the division’s history and drew 4 million festivalgoers. Desmond reports overall attendance rose 25 percent in the United Kingdom last year (the company did not report audience totals), where, in October, Metallica broke the one-night attendance record at London’s O2 Arena by drawing 22,211 fans to its in-the-round show. Down Under, Coppel presented Adele’s first Australia/New Zealand tour, which hit 11 stadiums in 2017; sold out 18 arena dates with Bruno Mars; and promoted “Roger Waters’ mind-blowing Us and Them Tour,” he says. On deck for 2018: P!nk’s Beautiful Trauma Tour, which “sold out 40 arenas in a heartbeat,” says Coppel.
Nick Farkas, 52
Vp concerts and events, evenko
Farkas is the founder of Montreal’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festival, which grossed $9.3 million Aug. 3-5, 2017, and ranked as Canada’s most successful live event last year, according to Billboard Boxscore. He’s also a vice president at Canadian promotor evenko, which presented some 1,300 shows from Vermont to Newfoundland in the last year, grossing over $76 million, according to Boxscore. Quality events are key, says Farkas. “People are coming to shows more than ever. We can’t afford to lose them because the experience isn’t what it could be.”
Folkert Koopmans, 54
Managing director, FKP Scorpio
Koopmans promotes over 23 festivals a year in Germany but says that The Rolling Stones’ No Filter Tour “was our greatest professional accomplishment during the past 12 months.” For example, a single date at Festwiese am Stadtpark in Hamburg pulled in $12 million, a new record for the highest-grossing single show in the country. “I am not sure if sheer numbers can do justice to the feeling you have when the Stones enter the stage and you feel a year of hard work pay off,” he says.
Tom Miserendino, 68
President/CEO, AEG Europe
Adam Wikes*
President/CEO, AEG Asia
Miserendino’s AEG portfolio includes London’s O2 Arena, which marked its 10th anniversary in 2017, grossing over $168 million and drawing 2.4 million fans to 199 shows, according to Boxscore. In a bid to draw crowds during the daytime, Miserendino has overseen the addition of a designer-outlet retail village. He also continues to develop AEG’s European venue network with a new 10,000-capacity arena due to open in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2019. Meanwhile, Wilkes filled the 18,000-seat Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai with shows by Céline Dion, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry and others — and brought The Rolling Stones to Cuba.
Simon Moran, 52
Managing director, SJM Concerts
After a suicide bomber killed 22 people outside an Ariana Grande concert at England’s Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017, Moran’s SJM Concerts immediately teamed with Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, and Live Nation subsidiary Festival Republic to stage the One Love Manchester benefit concert. The June 4 event, which was hosted by Grande and televised and livestreamed around the world, raised over $13 million for victims of the tragedy and their families.
Phil Rodriguez, 65
CEO, Move Concerts
Rodriguez’s Move Concerts has been a key player in the growth of Latin America as a destination for the world’s biggest acts. Move was Live Nation’s local partner for U2’s four 2017 shows at the São Paulo Morumbi Stadium, which grossed $32 million, he reports. All told, Move sold 1.1 million tickets in 2017 for shows by Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and others. “Not bad for an independent promoter south of the border,” says Rodriguez.
Alejandro Soberón, 58
President/CEO, CIE
At the 2017 Billboard Touring Awards, CIE subsidiary OCESA ranked alongside Live Nation and AEG as a finalist for top promoter of the year. In the Mexican market, which logged $178 million in gross ticket sales in 2017, according to Boxscore, OCESA is a dominant player, producing 16 festivals (and Mexico’s F1 Grand Prix). What’s more, reports Soberón, “last year, OCESA reached an agreement to represent and promote [Mexican superstar] Luis Miguel internationally.”
RECORDING
Rebecca Allen, 44
President, Decca Records Group U.K.
Named in May 2017 to head the United Kingdom’s leading classical label — “the first woman in its 90-year history,” she says — Allen cemented Decca’s market leadership with the second consecutive No. 1 on the U.K. albums chart from the duo of Michael Ball & Alfie Boe. Decca also scored top-five titles from Irish singer Imelda May and a catalog release from Dame Vera Lynn while also championing new talent like British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
George Ash, 52
President, Universal Music Asia Pacific
Frank Briegmann, 50
President/CEO, Universal Music Central Europe/Deutsche Grammophon
Adam Granite, 44
Executive vp market development, Universal Music Group
David Joseph, 49
Chairman/CEO, Universal Music U.K. and Ireland
Jesús López, 62
Chairman/CEO, Universal Music Latin Entertainment Latin America and Iberian Peninsula
Dickon Stainer, 50
President/CEO of global classics and jazz, Universal Music Group
In July 2017, UMG named former Sony executive Granite to develop opportunities for its artists and labels across Europe and in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. He also heads up global strategy for marketing, distribution, licensing and acquisitions. Granite says he’s focusing initially on India, Africa, the Middle East and China. The lattermost market is transitioning from piracy to streaming and showing “some very good early signs [it] will develop into a very healthy paid environment,” adds Granite. Ash describes the Asia Pacific region as “exploding with entrepreneurial energy.” Briegmann oversaw a 42.8 percent increase in streaming revenue in 2017 in Germany, the world’s third-largest market. Under Joseph’s guidance, UMG U.K. released seven of the year’s 20 biggest selling artist albums, including The Thrill of It All by Sam Smith, which has sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide, according to UMG. And López played a key role in what was the biggest cultural crossover in ages when he helped propel “Despacito” to global success: It’s the only clip to surpass 5 billion views on YouTube. Under Stainer, Universal’s classical streaming grew 50 percent in 2017, helped by the long-awaited November debut of UMG-distributed ECM Records on streaming platforms.
Stu Bergen, 51
CEO of international and global commercial services, Warner Music Group
Thierry Chassagne, 54
President, Warner Music France
Bernd Dopp, 62
Chairman/CEO, Warner Music Central Europe
Tim Fraser-Harding, 58
President of global catalog for recorded music, Warner Music Group
Simon Robson, 46
President, Warner Music Asia
Iñigo Zabala*
President, Warner Music Latin America and Iberia
Warner Music “is serious about strategically growing its global footprint,” says Bergen. The company boasted the top-selling global artist of 2017 with Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide), according to IFPI, achieving multiplatinum status in 36 markets. And WMG’s regional successes were many. Chassagne reported that rapper Soprano’s L’Everest was the biggest selling album last year by a French artist (600,000 album-equivalent sales to date). Under Dopp, Warner Music Germany claimed 26 percent of the singles chart in 2017 thanks to Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and also local hits from rap star Bausa and Burak Yeter featuring Danelle Sandoval. Robson notes that K-pop girl group TWICE, signed to Warner Music Japan, was the third-highest-ranked act in that market in 2017, according to Billboard Japan. Zabala says that the flow of artists within the Latin region is helping his division become “an international A&R powerhouse,” led in the past year by Brazil’s Anitta, Venezuela’s Danny Ocean and Mexico’s Sofía Reyes. Fraser Harding has overseen the growth of WMG’s global catalog sales with over 20 heritage tracks hitting the 100 million-stream threshold in the past 12 months, he says, marking the transition of back catalog “from being a physical-led to a streaming-first part of the business.”
Michael Gudinski, 65
Chairman, Mushroom Group
Melbourne-based Mushroom Group’s Liberation label had a No. 1 album when Australia’s Vance Joy hit the top in his homeland in February with his sophomore release, Nation of Two, followed by a top 10 showing on the Billboard 200. Meanwhile, Mushroom’s live division, Frontier Touring Company, produced stadium tours for Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran, whose ÷ (Divide) Tour sold upwards of 1.1 million tickets, according to the promoter, beating a Down Under record that Dire Straits set in 1986. “I’ve been living the dream,” says Gudinski.
Denis Handlin*
Chairman/CEO of Australia and New Zealand, Sony Music Entertainment; President of Asia, SME
Jason Iley, 49
Chairman/CEO, Sony Music U.K. and Ireland
Daniel Lieberberg, 47
President of Continental Europe and Africa, SME
Nicola Tuer, 51
COO, Sony Music U.K. and Ireland
Afo Verde, 51
Chairman/CEO of Latin America, Spain and Portugal, SME
Handlin, who was honored in June 2017 as an officer in the Order of Australia for his philanthropy and “distinguished service” to that country’s recording industry, led Sony’s Australian division to a company record: wins in seven categories at the 2017 Australian Recording Industry Association Awards. He secured a new deal with China streaming giant Tencent and reports “significantly increased” regional A&R with new offices in Vietnam and the Philippines. Under Iley and Tuer, Sony Music U.K. obtained a nearly 25 percent share of the market’s album chart in 2017 with hits including Human, the debut album from Rag’n’Bone Man, which has reported over 3 million in global album-equivalent sales. Lieberberg joined Sony from Universal in January and says that overseeing his expansive region is “about establishing a network for A&R and talent development.” He has signed Kygo’s “Stardust” collaborator Justin Jesso to a global deal. Sony’s market share in Latin America grew by 7 percent in the past year, says Verde, not only with superstars like Shakira, Maluma, Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, but also rising regional acts like Puerto Rico’s Residente, Colombia’s Monsieur Periné and the Dominican Republic’s Vicente García, who won the 2017 Latin Grammy Award for best new artist.
DominIque Kulling, 36
Managing director of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, BMG
Alistair Norbury, 52
President of repertoire and marketing for the U.K., BMG
Ama Walton, 47
General counsel/senior vp business and legal affairs for the European Union, BMG
BMG reports that its revenue in 2017 rose 21.8 percent over the previous year to $627 million. “The big challenge for 2018,” says Walton, “is whether the [music] industry really applies fairness and transparency to the way they distribute the spoils of the streaming revolution” to artists. In 2017, Norbury helped Gary Numanscore a No. 2 album in the United Kingdom with Savage (Songs From a Broken World), his highest chart placement since 1980, and achieved BMG’s first U.K. chart-topping single with Lil Dicky’s “Freaky Friday.” In Germany, under Kulling, BMG led the market in early December off the success of singer-songwriter Max Giesingerand teen pop star Lina. BMG also publishes Germany-based Alice Merton, whose “No Roots” cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 84 in April.
Lonny Olinick, 36
CEO, AWAL/Kobalt
At AWAL, Kobalt’s music distribution and services partner for independent artists, Olinick — who joined Kobalt in 2016 — saw streaming revenue for its acts reach $39.6 million in 2017, “and we are on pace to double [that] in 2018,” he says. “We’ve taken Lauv to over 800 million streams in a very short time. And we have hundreds of artists on AWAL earning over $50,000 per year from streaming alone.”
Bang Si-hyuk, 45
CEO/executive producer, BigHit Entertainment
Produced by Bang, BTS’ Love Yourself: Her has sold over 1.6 million copies worldwide, according to BigHit, becoming the first album by a K-pop group to reach the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The set yielded the single “DNA,” which reached No. 37 on the Digital Song Sales tally. Bang predicts that more South Korean pop acts will hit the charts soon. “There is a wealth of local artists to satisfy American music fans,” he says.
DIGITAL
Paul Firth, 47
Head of Amazon Music U.K.
In 2017, Firth headed the launch of the voice-guided app Alexa for Amazon Music Unlimited in the United Kingdom, driving growth for the service in the world’s fourth-largest music market. While Amazon Music doesn’t report subscriber numbers by nation, the United Kingdom is now among 35 markets worldwide offering access through Alexa to Amazon Music Unlimited’s streaming catalog of 40 million songs.
Tracey Hannelly*
Senior director of iTunes International, Apple
Hannelly, who joined Apple in 2007, previously was iTunes’ director of emerging markets, focusing on India, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, Southeast Asia and Latin America. She also oversaw setting up iTunes’ marketing presence in China. In April, she ascended to the position held previously by Oliver Schusser, who was chosen to head Apple Music’s global operations. That move came as Apple Music confirmed that it has 40 million paid subscribers worldwide.
Candice Morrissey, 37
Head of music content partnerships for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, YouTube/Google Play
Exposing artists internationally through YouTube Music is Morrissey’s top goal in her territories in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the company’s data says that she’s succeeding. Over 60 percent of the views of artists’ channels are outside their respective home markets, according to YouTube. “No matter where a fan is based,” says Morrissey, “they can experience music from other cultures.”
Mia Nygren, 45
Managing director of Latin America, Spotify
Under Miami-based Nygren, Spotify’s Latin American operation now accounts for 21 percent of the streaming service’s monthly active users worldwide, an impressive 37 percent growth from December 2016 to December 2017. The Swedish-born Nygren, who is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, has focused on building a diverse but connected team with women (57 percent of the division’s employees) in leadership roles. Her key markets include Brazil, one of Spotify’s top three territories globally in monthly active users.
PUBLISHING
Kim Frankiewicz, 54
Executive vp of worldwide creative, Concord Music
Kent Hoskins, 42
CFO of publishing operations, Concord Music
John Minch, 61
President of Europe, Concord Music
Former Imagem executive Minch helped steer the June 2017 sale of the Dutch music publishing giant to Concord Bicycle Music in a $600 million deal that gave Concord control of the Imagem, Rodgers & Hammerstein and Boosey & Hawkes catalogs. Hoskins, a former BBC accountant and previously Imagem’s head of finance, says Concord looked beyond Imagem’s pop holdings to the potential in its musical theater and classical copyrights. Music publishing veteran Frankiewicz, who once managed INXS’ publishing, moved from Imagem to Concord without letting up her A&R pace. Earlier in 2018, she signed U.K. artist Justin Parker, who co-wrote Lana del Rey’s “Video Games” and Rihanna’s “Stay.”
Guy Henderson, 57
President of international, Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Guy Moot, 52
President of worldwide creative/U.K. managing director, Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Under Henderson’s guidance, Sony/ATV is making inroads into China through its relationship with internet giant Tencent, which runs major Chinese music services. “The beneficiaries of streaming thus far have been new artists in predominantly Western markets,” says Henderson. “The biggest issue for the music industry is to expand this success across artists from all eras, genres and territories.” Moot oversees all of the company’s signings, which are shared equally between Sony/ATV and EMI Music Publishing. (Sony/ATV generates about $600 million of the $670 million in revenue generated by Sony Corp.’s overall music publishing operations, which combined reported a 16.9 percent year-on-year increase for its fiscal year. In 2017, EMI Music had a 9.7 percent increase in revenue, sources tell Billboard.) Moot also renewed Sony/ATV’s deal with its top songwriter of 2017, Ed Sheeran.
Andrew Jenkins*
President of Australia and Asia Pacific, Universal Music Publishing Group
Alexandra Lioutikoff*
Executive vp Latin America and U.S. Latin, UMPG
Mike McCormack, 55
Managing director of the U.K., UMPG
UMPG had a 9.6 percent increase in global revenue over the past year, and the international markets that these three executives oversaw were key to that growth. Jenkins renewed a “groundbreaking deal” with Chinese internet giant Tencent for use of songs on its digital music services and re-signed agreements with Tom Waits and his wife and collaborator, Kathleen Brennan, and the estates of Bee Gees Robin and Maurice Gibb. Lioutikoff, whose roster includes J Balvin and Anitta, signed regional Mexican rising star Christian Nodal and a wave of Brazilian funk acts. “With increasing digital consumption, this genre is reaching beyond Brazilian borders,” she says. McCormack notes that British songwriter Steve Mac enjoyed a string of global hits, including credits on Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and Clean Bandit’s “Rockabye,” while Dua Lipa (through Tap Publishing) was one of the U.K. company’s biggest breakthroughs. Those writers helped make “2017 one of our best years ever,” says McCormack.
Lars Karlsson, 56
Managing director of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Nordics, Warner/Chappell Music
Mike Smith, 52
Managing director, Warner/Chappell Music U.K.
In Germany, the world’s third-largest market, Warner/Chappell Music has a 25 percent share of the publishing business and grew by 6 percent in 2017, according to Karlsson. (The company does not report the dollar volume of its business by market.) Contributing to that growth is songwriter-producer Rascal (Tobias Breuer), who co-wrote “I Am” on the blockbuster Black Panther soundtrack. In the United Kingdom, says Smith, the BRIT Awards recognized four Warner/Chappell songwriter-artists: Gorillaz, Kendrick Lamar, Rag’n’Bone Man and Stormzy.
Daniel Lloyd Jones, 38
Senior vp global creative services/head of U.K. A&R, Downtown Music Publishing
A 10-year veteran of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Jones joined independent Downtown Music Publishing in August 2017 to drive such global creative initiatives as Songwriters Without Borders, which brings together writers in the firm’s offices in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Sydney and Paris as well as New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. In his A&R role, Jones has signed worldwide deals with pioneering producer DJ Goldie and grime rapper Kano, whose last album, 2016’s Made in the Manor, debuted at No. 8 on the U.K. albums chart.
Sas Metcalfe, 57
Chief creative officer, Kobalt Music
Ann Tausis, 50
Managing director of neighboring rights, Kobalt
As Kobalt’s top A&R executive, Metcalfe oversees all of the company’s publishing deals and signings worldwide. Citing one key success story, she notes that Kobalt songwriter Andrew Watt co-wrote five different singles that have reached the top 10 during the first three months of 2018 in 51 different countries. In the business of neighboring rights (the collection of payments for public performances of master recordings for countries outside the United States), Tausis raised Kobalt’s profile through the 2016 acquisition of Fintage House and Rights Agency. “Growing the client roster by 600 percent and the team by 200 percent in one big sweep is no mean feat,” she says of the integration of the two firms during 2017. “We did it by combining great technology with knowledgeable people.”
Mary Megan Peer*
Deputy CEO, peermusic
Ralph Peer II*
Chairman/CEO, peermusic
Thanks in large part to a worldwide sub-publishing agreement that 90-year-old peermusic signed with Big Deal Music Group, 2017 marked “the first time we collected over $10 million for our sub-publishing clients,” says Ralph Peer II, the son of founder Ralph S. Peer. The firm, run by Peer II and his daughter, Mary Megan Peer, has offices in 28 countries and over 250,000 copyrights.
AGENCIES
Brian Ahern, 39
Partner, music; co-head of London music division, WME
Brian Cohen, 39
Tony Goldring 51
Rob Markus, 50
Partners, music; WME
In his first year leading WME’s 45-member music team in London (with co-head David Levy), Ahern reports a 25 percent rise in business out of the United Kingdom. Goldring recently oversaw Kendrick Lamar’s sold-out tour of Europe, Markus is helping book Depeche Mode’s 30-country 2017-18 world tour, and Cohen, working with WME partner John Marx, had Bruno Mars sell out four stadium shows in Mexico in early 2018. “The music business is so vibrant,” says Ahern, “we have to work harder to plan far in advance on behalf of our clients. It’s a good problem to have.”
Emma Banks*
Chris Dalston*
Mike Greek*
Marlene Tsuchii*
Co-heads of international, Creative Artists Agency
CAA reports that its international business grew nearly 15 percent in the second half of 2017 compared with the previous year (CAA does not report dollar volume), and the agency says that its international clients sold over 4.5 million tickets in 2017, driven by the work of Banks and Greek in London and married couple Dalston and Tsuchii in Los Angeles. Worldwide tours by Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande were among CAA’s strongest, but Tsuchii proudly points to a breakthrough by rising artist Maggie Rogers, who was discovered after Pharrell Williams visited her class at New York University in 2016. “She sold out all of her global dates just based on one EP,” says Tsuchii. Adds Banks: “We need to keep developing artist careers and make sure that they are known by our ticket-buying public.”
Ari Bernstein, 36
Agent, concerts; ICM Partners
Scott Mantell, 39
Partner/head of international touring, ICM Partners
ICM increased the number of concerts it booked by 20 percent over 2017, with more than 2,500 shows in 100 countries, according to the agency. Los Angeles-based Mantell, who was promoted to partner in February, together with New York-based Bernstein, oversees international outings for Nicki Minaj, Migos, Chris Rockand J. Cole, whose recent world tour grossed $29 million, according to Boxscore. The two have developed Khalid from clubs to theaters, with arena and festival bookings in the works.
Greg Bestick, 66
President, Paradigm Talent Agency
Alex Hardee, 49
Partner, Coda
Steve Strange, 49
Director, X-ray Touring
Over 500 acts are now “shared globally between Paradigm and our U.K. partners Coda and X-ray Touring,” says Bestick of the agency alliance, which expanded further in 2017 when Hardee’s Coda struck a deal to obtain non-music services from the United Kingdom’s Independent Talent Group for Coda’s clients, which include Imagine Dragons. At X-ray, Strange booked dates outside North America for Coldplay’s 2016-17 A Head Full of Dreams Tour, which reached 3.6 million fans, he says. X-ray’s European summer dates for Eminem sold out all 435,000 tickets in February, says Strange. Now that Bestick has tapped Rob Zifarelli, formerly of United Talent Agency, to run its new office in Toronto, Paradigm will be expanding north of the border.
Neil Warnock, 72
Global head of touring, United Talent Agency
Warnock celebrated his 50th year in the music industry in 2017, guiding the global tours of UTA clients. “I am particularly proud of the strong presence our artists have across all of the major festivals in Europe and the U.S.,” he says. “Last year, we had 26 acts at Reading & Leeds, 38 at Download festival, 36 at Bonnaroo and 26 at Coachella.” It was also a big year for client Guns N’ Roses, whose worldwide Not in This Lifetime Tour has so far sold 4.3 million tickets and grossed over $475 million, according to Boxscore. “We, as an industry, are always in search of the next big superstars,” says Warnock. “It is important to invest time and resources into cultivating and nurturing the next generation of talent.” David Zedeck, UTA’s global head of music, says Warnock “has been an asset to the growth and success of our U.K. office. He is a great mentor to our developing agents who have the opportunity to learn from his 50 years of experience.”
TRADE GROUPS
Jackie Alway, 52
Chairwoman, Music Publishers Association (United Kingdom); senior vp international legal and industry affairs, Universal Music Publishing Group
While Alway tracks UMPG’s rising global revenue (a 9.6 percent increase in 2017, thanks to digital subscriptions and streaming), as chairwoman of the United Kingdom’s Music Publishers Association she helped lead the trade group as the country’s publishing export revenue grew 25 percent in 2016 over the previous year to $916 million (at current exchange rates). Her key challenge at the MPA: fighting to “level the playing field” with “fair terms” for creators whose work is uploaded to platforms like YouTube.
Jean-Michel Jarre, 69
President, CISAC
An electronic music trailblazer and outspoken creators advocate, Jarre says his priority is reclaiming for composers the value of music “siphoned off by large global digital services — notably, user-upload platforms.” Since 2013, he has been the face of CISAC, the Paris-based organization representing 239 authors societies with a combined global membership of over 4 million creators.
Frances Moore*
CEO, IFPI
Under Moore, the London-based IFPI advocates for the global recording business. The industry’s “biggest accomplishment is its continuing path of growth,” she says of the 8.1 percent rise in global trade revenue in 2017. “The industry is beginning to see the benefits as it continues to invest in music, embrace technology and open up new markets around the world.”
Alison Wenham, 64
CEO, Worldwide Independent Network
Wenham advocates for non-major-owned companies and their performers who account for nearly 40 percent of the global music market. Overseeing trade associations on every continent, she is particularly focused on fair use of copyrights, securing streaming revenue and, she says, “successfully helping the independent industry flourish in every market in the world.”
*Declined to reveal age
Contributors: Jeff Benjamin, Karen Bliss, Lars Brandle, Dave Brooks, Dean Budnick, Judy Cantor-Navas, Ed Christman, Leila Cobo, Thom Duffy, Adrienne Gaffney, Steve Knopper, Juliana Koranteng, Robert Levine, Paula Parisi, Richard Smirke, Wolfgang Spahr, Eric Spitznagel, Colin Stutz, Deborah Wilker
This article originally appeared in the May 19 issue of Billboard.
