“All I Want for Christmas Is You” hit No. 1
on the Hot 100, 25 years after its release,
and Camila Cabello debuted at No. 3 on
the Billboard 200 with Romance (featuring
“Señorita” with Shawn Mendes). “We’ve
empowered visionaries,” says Rhone, “who
continue to break new ground.”
Paul Rosenberg
Chairman/CEO, Def Jam Recordings;
co-founder/president, Shady Records;
CEO, Goliath Artists
Under Rosenberg, 48, Def Jam celebrated
its 35th anniversary in 2019 with chart
success from its new artists and veteran
stars alike. And after its Undisputed
compilation — featuring fresh signees YK
Osiris, Fetty Luciano, Sneakk and others —
dropped in February, Kanye West landed his
ninth consecutive No. 1 album with Jesus
Is King (tying a record held by Rosenberg’s
management client Eminem). Rosenberg
notes that he’s most proud of “Def Jam’s
ability to design and execute scalable
360-degree ideas and deliver expansive yet
nuanced game plans at the highest level.”
Afo Verde
Chairman/CEO, Latin Iberia;
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Latin took the 2019 top spot
on Billboard’s year-end Top Latin Labels
chart, but Verde says the real success was
his division’s ability to achieve international
success with deals crafted for each artist in
every genre. “Latin is part of the big Sony
family and not relegated; [Sony Music Group
CEO] Rob Stringer is involved in everything
we do, and that is incredibly motivating,”
says Verde, who won a Latin Grammy as
the producer for Kany García’s acclaimed
Contra el Viento. Highlights of Verde’s year
include the success of Rosalía, renewed
agreements with Maluma and Nicky Jam,
renegotiated deals for the likes of Anuel AA
and the expanded reach of artists like Pedro
Capó to genres beyond urban Latin.
Bryan “Birdman” Williams
Co-founder/co-CEO, Cash Money Records
Ronald “Slim” Williams
Co-founder/co-CEO, Cash Money Records
It has been a period of change for the Wil-
liams brothers as the Southern rap moguls
look to move beyond their separation from
Lil Wayne and the career hiatus of Nicki
Minaj, who said in September she wants
to focus on starting a family. But the label’s
future remains bright as young talents like
Blueface, whose “Thotiana” cracked the
Hot 100 top 10 in March, and R&B singer
Jacquees step in to become the next stars of
Cash Money’s hit-making machine. There’s
also plenty of value in the back catalog: The
label commercially released Drake’s break-
out mixtape, 2009’s So Far Gone, in Febru-
ary; it debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
“Being able to break some new talent is
important,” says Birdman, 50. “Being consis-
tent for over 25 years is the best part.”
Iñigo Zabala
President, Warner Music Latin America &
Iberia
Zabala points to the international diversity
of artists breaking on the Warner Music
Latin roster in the past year, from Venezu-
elan singer-songwriter Danny Ocean to
Puerto Rican reggaetón duo Zion & Lennox
to Brazilian pop star Anitta, who scored
her third top 20 hit on Billboard’s Hot Latin
Songs chart in March with “R.I.P.” along-
side Sofia Reyes and Rita Ora. On Spotify’s
end-of-the-decade charts, a Warner artist
took the top spot in each of seven markets
in which the company operates (including
Latin and mainstream acts). “It’s a testa-
ment to the originality of our artists,” says
Zabala, “and the strength of our global and
local teams.”
PUBLISHING
Josh Abraham
Co-CEO, Pulse Music Group
Scott Cutler
Co-CEO, Pulse Music Group
Pulse Music Group — co-founded by Cutler,
a songwriter, and Abraham, a producer
— last year reported a 46% increase in
its net publisher’s share (typically after
paying writer royalties and co-publishing
and administrative fees for subpublishers).
Those results helped draw the attention of
Concord Music Publishing, which in January
did an A&R-driven joint venture with Pulse
and bought out the firm’s longtime financial
partner FujiPacific Music. Terms of the deal
were not disclosed. (FujiPacific will still act
as the subpublisher for the Pulse catalog in
most of Asia.) Pulse had songwriting stakes
in Billboard 200 No. 1s from Madonna (Star-
rah), Juice WRLD (Brent Faiyaz) and J. Cole’s
Dreamville collective, plus Hot 100 hits like
the Travis Scott No. 1 “Highest in the Room.”
Says Cutler: “We know what works for writ-
ers, and we bring that firsthand knowledge
to everything we do.”
Jody Gerson
Chairman/CEO,
Universal Music Publishing Group
Marc Cimino
COO, Universal Music Publishing Group
For UMPG, Gerson has guided deals with
Billie Eilish, Alicia Keys, Rosalía, Maren
Morris, Post Malone, Halsey, Logic, H.E.R.,
Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Bruce
Springsteen and the Bee Gees. Gerson, the
only woman leading a global music com-
pany (see page 102), has turned the music
publisher into a billion-dollar-plus company
with revenue up 40% since her 2015 arrival,
according to UMPG. “We are constantly
pushing the envelope in ways that benefit
our songwriters,” says Cimino, who leads
global business strategy and oversees
public policy and business development for
the publisher.
Golnar Khosrowshahi
Founder/CEO, Reservoir
In October, led by its publisher’s share
in Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s
“Señorita,” Reservoir jumped to No. 5 on
Billboard’s most recent Publishers Quarter-
ly Hot 100 ranking, with a market share of
3.96%. “There is and always will be room
for the indie among the giants — creative-
ly, competitively and by market share,”
says Khosrowshahi, 48. After becoming
a force among indie music publishers,
Reservoir is transitioning into a full-service
music company with the acquisition of
Chrysalis Records, whose catalog includes
works from Sinéad O’Connor, Generation X
and The Waterboys. Reservoir now repre-
sents over 110,000 copyrights and 26,000
master recordings.
Merck Mercuriadis
Founder/CEO, Hipgnosis Songs Fund
In mid-2018, Mercuriadis, 55 — who has
worked as a manager of Guns N’ Roses, Be-
yoncé and Elton John — steered Hipgnosis
onto the London Stock Exchange, raising
£625 million ($833 million) from the world’s
top institutional investors from July 2018 to
October 2019. The company’s 2018 initial
public offering was one of the biggest
on the exchange. Today, the catalog-only
business includes recent acquisitions of
copyrights from songwriter-producers Jack
Antonoff (Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey) and
Jeff Bhasker (Bruno Mars, Kanye West).
Hipgnosis now represents some “11,000
songs, more than 6,000 of which are No. 1s
or top 10s,” says Mercuriadis.
Lawrence Mestel
Founder/CEO, Primary Wave Music
In the past year, Primary Wave boosted its
15,000-song catalog with strategic acquisi-
tions: 50% of the intellectual-property assets
of Whitney Houston’s estate; the publishing
for works by multiple acts, including Bos-
ton’s multiplatinum self-titled debut album;
copyrights to Culture Club’s songs (as well
as master-recording income from the band’s
hits); “and, most recently, a portion of the
Prince estate,” says Mestel. Primary Wave’s
entertainment division covers TV/film
production, branding, digital marketing and
talent management for Melissa Etheridge,
Cee Lo Green and Anita Baker, among oth-
ers. It’s all part of an overarching goal, says
Mestel, “to be the best at what we do.”
Guy Moot
Co-chair/CEO, Warner Chappell Music
Carianne Marshall
Co-chair/COO, Warner Chappell Music
Moot and Marshall’s co-leadership of
Warner Chappell Music was announced in
January 2019. Moot arrived in April to pair
with Marshall, who joined the company in
- They haven’t wasted a moment since,
bolstering the music publisher’s global
leadership team, unveiling a new brand
identity, creating a song pitching system,
CUTLER
GERSON
CIMINO
KHOSROWSHAHI
ABRAHAM
MOOT
MARSHALL
MERCURIADIS
MESTEL
R. WILLIAMS
B. WILLIAMS
ZABALA
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