CHAINSMOKERS: GREGG DEGUIRE/WIREIMAGE. HALSEY: STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES. THE WEEKND: KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES. FUTURE: PRINCE WILLIAMS/FILMMAGIC. FONSI: SERGI ALEXANDER/GETTY IMAGES. BLOM: SCOTT GRIES/SPOTIFY. BLOOM: COURTESY OF AMAZON. PEARL: COURTESY OF APPLE. PEREZ: COURTESY OF ROC NATION. DENNETT: COURTESY OF KOBALT MUSIC PUBLISHING.
Digital Power Players 2017
As streaming drives the $15.7 billion global music business, these 50 executives,
deep in data and from every industry sector, are on the cutting edge of music and techT
he tipping point had arrived: For
the U.S. music business in 2016,
streaming overtook sales as its
leading source of revenue for
the first time — echoing global
results for the $15.7 billion
music industry.
Income from music streams last year also led
to the first double-digit growth seen in the United
States in nearly two decades. U.S. recorded-
music sales rose 11.4 percent to $7.65 billion, the
strongest annual increase since 1998.
Billboard’s Digital Power Players are the top
executives behind these historic numbers, chosen for
their data-driven roles at companies in every industry
sector — streaming services, record labels, music
publishers, social media platforms and others.
These leaders are tackling the challenges
that come with change: questions over data
management, emerging business models and fair
payment to creators. Collectively, they are shaping
the music business for a new era.STEVE BOOM, 49
Vp, Amazon Music
In three years, under Boom, Amazon
Music has evolved from a top retailer
to a leading streaming service. At
industry events in the past year, the
New Jersey native and father of three
has highlighted the capabilities of Alexa, Amazon’s
voice-activated digital assistant, which is
transforming how people listen to music. “Everyone
was waiting for us to [launch an on-demand
service], and we did it in a big way,” says Boom of
the arrival of Amazon Music Unlimited in October- The Amazon model entices customers to
embrace streaming — starting with its Amazon
Prime Service, where customers get free shipping
on goods and access to a limited catalog of music
and videos — then upgrade to subscription options.
After 20 years as a retailer, says Boom, Amazon had
to “re-engineer our whole organization” to
transform from a store to a service.
LINDSEY PEARL, 37
Head of digital marketing, original content,
Apple Music
After stints at Hulu and HBO, Pearl
joined Apple Music in January to head
up digital marketing for one of the tech
giant’s newest endeavors — original
content. Her first big project:
promoting Carpool Karaoke: The Series, which
debuted Aug. 8. An extended preview of the Will
Smith episode garnered more than 25 million views
across all social platforms in the first three days.
Pearl, who fuels up on eight shots of espresso a day,
knows she’s got a big job. “Communicating to a
music streaming audience that Apple Music is a
place where they can stream premium TV and film
content presents new challenges for the service,” she
says. “We’re having to do basic heavy lifting to make
that message clear and avoid confusion.”DESIREE PEREZ, 47
COO, TIDAL
TIDAL may not rival its streaming
music competitors in reach (the service
does not reveal its subscriber numbers),
but on Perez’s watch, the company has
notched a number of recent wins. In
January, Sprint acquired 33 percent of TIDAL for a
reported $200 million, a deal that made the streaming
service available to 45 million Sprint customers.
Then, on June 30, JAY-Z’s 4:44 arrived, first via an
exclusive stream to existing customers of TIDAL and
Sprint, then in a full rollout that sent the album to No.
1 on the Billboard 200. TIDAL also has offered ticket
exclusives to JAY-Z’s upcoming tour under his new
$200 million deal with Live Nation. For Perez, moves
like this put TIDAL on sure footing as it welcomes
Richard Sanders, a former senior executive with Sony
Music and Kobalt, as its new CEO. His appointment
was announced in early August.
MUSIC GROUPSSIMON DENNETT, 38
Chief commercial officer, Kobalt
At Kobalt, Dennett is focused on
AWAL, a service that allows
independent artists to market and
distribute their music to more than 200
digital stores and services worldwide,
including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon. WhileSTREAMING
STEFAN BLOM, 45
Chief content officer, Spotify
Spotify faces streaming-music
competition from Apple and Amazon —
but the company reports it is adding
subscribers faster than ever, with more
than 60 million as of July (and
140 million total registered users, counting 80 million
on its free service). “Clearly, we’d like to be one of
the most significant players in the industry overall,”
says Blom, who grew up in Sweden but lives in New
York. Spotify recently struck licensing deals with
Universal Music Group and Merlin, for independent
labels, and is expected to announce agreements
with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music
Group ahead of a public offering. “In the past 24
months,” says Blom, “we’ve had a lot of success
communicating to the industry our vision and the role
we play in the overall music business ecosystem.”Among the most-
streamed artists of the
year to date are
(clockwise from top
l e f t ) : A l ex P a l l a n d
Andrew Taggart of
The Chainsmokers,
Halsey, The Weeknd,
Future and Daddy
Yankee and Luis Fonsi.BACKSTAGE PASS
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