Capitol’s team scored Sam Smith and Kim Petras their first Hot 100 No. 1 single with “Unholy,” which also garnered a Grammy nomination for best pop duo/group performance. Jubelirer says the track’s success is “just the start of what is going to be an amazing period in Sam’s career.” CMG also signed rapper Kodak Black (who topped the Billboard Artist 100 for the first time last year after his Atlantic Records contract ended) and worked with rising stars Doechii and Ice Spice, while its Capitol Christian Music Group scored 21 Grammy nominations.

Rihanna’s long-awaited return to music — the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever track “Lift Me Up” — resulted in her highest Hot 100 debut and best-starting radio single to date when it was released in November. Balogun says the “diversity of artists, sounds and styles” on the full soundtrack album, released on Def Jam/Roc Nation/Hollywood Records, “is perfectly aligned and representative of where we’re headed as a label.” Other successes in 2022 included Pusha T’s first No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with the Grammy-nominated It’s Almost Dry; Muni Long’s three Grammy nods, including best new artist; and the breakthrough of Armani White, who scored a viral hit with his “Billie Eilish” single.

With 2022 revenue collections approaching $400 million, DistroKid is a rapidly growing force in the indie DIY distribution marketplace, and Kaplan says, “We’re always working on new things we think musicians will love.” In 2021, the company launched DistroVid.com, a user-friendly way for musicians to get full-length music videos onto Apple Music, Tidal, Vevo and other streaming platforms. There’s also Spotify Canvas Generator, which creates kinetic album art; Mixea, an automated mastering service; and DistroPic.com, a free, artificial-intelligence image generator that can be used for such purposes as designing album art, Kaplan adds.

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Downtown completed its pivot from traditional publisher to one-stop label and artist services operation last year, restructuring itself into a creator-focused vertical — housing its digital distribution and publishing administration companies, CD Baby, Songtrust and Soundrop — and a business vertical — with FUGA, AdRev, Downtown Neighboring Rights and Downtown Music Services — to better align its offerings, which now serve some 2 million creators and businesses across 30 million tracks and 14 million YouTube assets. (AdRev’s name surfaced in a federal investigation tied to $23 million in fraudulently claimed YouTube royalties, though the company is not accused of wrongdoing and is cooperating with the investigation.) The company also established a $200 million fund with Bank of America to advance money to independent songwriters — part of its mission, Bergman says, “to empower artists and businesses to remain independent and grow on their own terms.”

A decade ago, SESAC operated mainly as a U.S. performing rights organization. Today, Josephson explains, it’s “a multiline music group with operations across four industry verticals — performing rights, licensing and administration services, sonic branding and specialty music — [as well as] music content and resources for churches.” In 2022, SESAC integrated parent company Blackstone’s acquisition of eOne Music (since renamed MNRK Music Group and led by president/CEO Chris Taylor), put SESAC Music Group into the record-label and management business while adding to its music publishing portfolio. Audio Network, originally acquired by eOne, established SESAC in the production music business, and Audiam expanded its presence in mechanical licensing and YouTube royalty collections. Christian Copyright Licensing administers licensing to churches worldwide. Other businesses under the SESAC Music Group umbrella include synch licensing outfit Rumblefish and mechanical rights management firm the Harry Fox Agency, which services over 48,000 music publishing clients.

The independent powerhouse that includes the labels 4AD, Rough Trade, Matador, XL and Young — which collectively released hit indie albums last year by Bartees Strange, Horsegirl, The Smile and Belle & Sebastian, among others — closed 2022 by earning a pair of Grammy nominations for breakout band Big Thief, as well as a best rock album nomination for Lucifer on the Sofa by veteran rockers Spoon. The latter band also returned to No. 1 on Billboard’s Triple A chart for the first time in five years. Mills is proud to “contribute to the global strength of independents.”

The Miami-based concert promoter and media/marketing firm closed 2022 with a record 400 shows and nearly 2 million tickets sold across the United States, Canada and Latin America for tours by such clients as Camilo, Ricardo Arjona and Carlos Vives. Albareda says Loud and Live, which launched in 2017, “achieved exponential growth” last year across live events, festivals, brands and content development. In December, the company signed a global partnership deal with Florida-based booking agency Tesa Entertainment. Panamanian artist Boza was the first act signed under the agreement. Loud and Live will also produce Miami’s new Country Bay Music Festival, set to take place at Marine Stadium in November.

After enjoying wins in the United States with the rise of rappers Babyface Ray and Larry June, Ghazi has expanded his search for talent overseas, most notably in Africa. EMPIRE has emerged as a powerhouse in the world of Afrobeats with a roster that includes Nigeria’s Fireboy DML and Kizz Daniel and Ghana’s Black Sherif. “The continued growth and development of our team and artists in Africa has been remarkable,” he says. “Over the past year, we have been able to transport that success and the African music movement overall to all corners of the world.” Last year, EMPIRE also bolstered its dance division by acquiring San Francisco-based Dirtybird Records.

WK Entertainment reaffirmed its position as one of the industry’s leading artist management companies in 2022. Reggaetón stars Wisin & Yandel broke their own record with 14 shows at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, and Maluma sold out arenas across Europe and Latin America, in addition to co-starring on the FIFA World Cup song “Tukoh Taka.” “We also saw Prince Royce’s triumphant post-pandemic return to the stage with his highly successful Classic Tour in the U.S. and Europe, as well as two key brand partnerships with Google Pixel and Ralph Lauren,” says Kolm. In addition, the executive manages Colombian singer-songwriter Carlos Vives and breakout star Emilia, who earned four top 10s on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100. WK Entertainment and WK Records also expanded operations to Brazil.

In 2022, Caren says, Artist Partner Group doubled its year-over-year sales and its catalog surpassed 50 million weekly streams. These gains were shored up by an expanded staff, with Caren noting that Artist Partner Group’s “legacy of executive development continues to be as strong as its track record for songwriters and artists.” Key launches included Sleep Soul, a series of soothing R&B albums for babies with Jhené Aiko and Taz Askew, and an addition to the Fast Saga music series, The Fast & Furious: Drift Tape (Phonk Vol 1). Meanwhile, Artist Publishing Group expanded into the Afrobeats and country genres, clocking hits by Charlie Puth, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Hitmaka.

In 2022, Big Loud received Billboard’s top Hot Country Songs Label accolade for a second consecutive year on the strength of multiple successes by the label’s roster of talent. Morgan Wallen set records with his song “You Proof,” which has now topped the Country Airplay chart for 10 weeks, and his 2021 Dangerous: The Double Album finished last year at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 Albums year-end chart and at No. 5 on the Top Artists year-end list. Wallen also ruled the 2022 Top Country Artists chart and Top Country Artists-Male chart, while ERNEST ranked at No. 5 on the year-end Top New Country Artists chart. “I’m incredibly proud of the huge leaps we’ve made across touring and new music releases and especially excited to see some of our developing acts take that next step,” says England, singling out such “game-changing” songs as ERNEST’s “Flower Shops” (featuring Wallen) and HARDY’s “wait in the truck” (featuring Lainey Wilson).

“In 2022, UnitedMasters set a new foundation for building a world where all creators own their future,” says Stoute, who founded the digital distribution service in 2017. UnitedMasters artists Tobe Nwigwe and J. Ivy were both recognized with Grammy nominations; the company launched Beat Exchange, a curated marketplace to buy, license and sell beats; and Pepsi enlisted UnitedMasters to launch its Pepsi Music Lab, which identifies and fosters promising up-and-coming musicians. “Our music distribution broke through on the global charts, and a growing share of independent artists made money on our platform by partnering with the world’s biggest brands,” says Stoute. “Our accomplishments over the last year have pushed independent music into the mainstream.”

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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, Huey Lewis & The News, America, Toto and Paul Rodgers; the company also bought rights from the estate of James Brown and closed the probate legal proceedings to take control of the music assets of Prince’s estate. In addition, Primary embarked on its most ambitious “reintroduction” campaign to promote the career and music of Whitney Houston, which was capped by the December release of the biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody. But Primary’s biggest milestone was the $2.3 billion cash injection by Brookfield Asset Management in October, which Mestel calls “an enormous, transformational deal” that means “there is no good deal we can’t close.”

In a year when Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis spent $600 million buying stakes in songs by Justin Timberlake, Leonard Cohen, Nile Rodgers, Kenny Chesney, Nelly Furtado, Tobias Jesso Jr. and TMS, he says the fund closed its biggest deal yet: acquiring stakes in Justin Bieber’s publishing and recorded-music catalogs, which Billboard reported is worth just over $200 million. Mercuriadis says the deal demonstrates that catalog’s “importance over the last 12 years to a young audience that will be playing those songs for decades to come.” A $600 million budget is nothing to sniff at, but it is down from the $1 billion Hipgnosis spent in 2021, in part because Hipgnosis Songs Fund was fully invested by September 2021. Higher interest rates and more competition present challenges, and in a December presentation to shareholders, Mercuriadis called Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s share price, which fell by 31% in 2022, disappointing for a company owning shares of 13 of YouTube’s 30 most streamed songs to date. Looking forward, Mercuriadis told investors on the call that Hipgnosis’ deal pipeline was strong — it has an interest in 35 of the 100 best-selling albums of 2022, as well as Hot 100 chart-toppers “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj and “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals. The trick will be matching or beating that success while also managing investors’ concerns over the stock’s falloff and current economic conditions facing the market sector.

Hits from Jack Harlow, Beyoncé and Adele, and the Kobalt Music Group songwriters who co-wrote them — Rogét Chahayed, Adam Pigott, Freddie Ross and Max Martin — helped Kobalt’s core publishing business once again make a strong showing on U.S. Billboard charts last year and end its fiscal year with close to 15% of the second quarter’s top 100 Radio Airplay songs. But the company’s strategic shifts may lay the groundwork for even bigger accomplishments ahead. In September, Kobalt announced it sold a controlling stake to private equity investors Francisco Partners, along with smaller stakes to Matt Pincus’ Music Inc. and Dundee Partners, for a total investment worth over $1 billion. “They were the right partners to take Kobalt into its next growth phase,” says Ahdritz — a phase in which Kobalt will double down on its core publishing business and its global digital collections society, AMRA. Ahdritz and Hubert say they want to expand AMRA’s reach “to continue to innovate for the benefit of creators and rights owners.”

In addition to continuing peermusic’s longtime advocacy for creators’ rights around the world, the Peers and other top company executives sit on the boards or forums of various countries’ collection management organizations on five continents. In 2022, peermusic cut a deal to serve as subpublisher for Hipgnosis for the rest of the world outside the United States, and as the globe began to shake off the pandemic, Mary Megan says the company’s creative team gave its songwriters “cross-cultural collaboration” opportunities that brought together peermusic writers in Sweden, Korea and Japan. The result: nine No. 1 singles in Korea, four in Japan, one in China and No. 1 iTunes tracks in 28 countries. In September, the company also conducted a songwriting camp — hosted by production duo SOS and writer Larry Gaaga — in Lagos, Nigeria, for 18 up-and-coming local writers, as well as a number of peermusic’s U.S. and U.K. songwriters.

“I pinch myself every day at the caliber of songwriters, artists and catalogs that call Reservoir their home,” says Khosrowshahi of the music publisher’s 2022. The year after she led her company to its biggest acquisition yet, Tommy Boy Music — the label that launched the careers of such hip-hop heavyweights as Queen Latifah, Coolio, De La Soul and Afrika Bambaataa — welcomed over a dozen new front-line writers and catalogs in 2022, including Oak Felder, Killer Mike, Snarky Puppy, Phil Manzanera, Emeli Sandé, Henry Jackman, Matt Sorum, Travis Tritt, Nick Lee and the late Fred Rister and Louis Prima. As board director at the National Music Publishers’ Association, Khosrowshahi says she was happy that the rate-setting case Phonorecords IV — which determines mechanical streaming royalties for the years 2023 to 2027 and locks in royalties at upward of 15.1% of music streaming service revenue — was settled. She notes, “I was honored to advocate alongside [president/CEO] David Israelite and the NMPA team to usher in this landmark settlement.”

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In addition to reaching 90% of Americans monthly through its 860 traditional radio stations, says Pittman, iHeartMedia is the top podcast publisher “in both revenue and profitability,” he adds, and recently expanded into the metaverse with the music/gaming platform ­#iHeartLand within both Fortnite and Roblox. Pittman, who with Sykes co-founded MTV in the early 1980s, says the broadcast giant’s “massive reach” will allow it to “support our on-air personalities and give them the resources and tools they need to continue to grow,” as well as keep breaking new artists such as Steve Lacy, JAX and Lainey Wilson.

The satellite radio giant’s top two programming executives used their platform as “the largest audio company in North America,” according to Witz, by helping launch Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco Radio, breaking stars such as Coco Jones through its artist accelerator program and overseeing Howard Stern’s Bruce Springsteen interview and Drake’s Table for One show. “We continue to enhance our easy-to-use, superior in-car user experience and extend this approach to our streaming products,” Witz says. Adds Greenstein: “Our service provides a daily connection for listeners with its unmatched diverse and premium live programming.”

Last July, SoundCloud made headlines when it struck a global licensing deal with Warner Music Group to use its user-centric “fan-powered royalties” model, which Weissman says fosters deeper relationships between artists and fans when combined with on-platform tools that “empower communication” between them: “[Fan-powered royalties] make the artist and fan relationship two-way for the first time in two decades of streaming,” he says. The company also made strides in reinventing itself as a distribution and artist/label services operation by establishing a joint venture with Quality Control’s Solid Foundation; signing direct partnerships with such artists as Lil Pump, Tekno and Kelow LaTesha; and launching SoundCloud for Artists.

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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 testament to the strength of our music and the entrepreneurial power of Hispanics.” The independent Latin company produced Bad Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour, which grossed $232.5 million, and broke the Boxscore record for highest one-month gross with a take of $123.7 million. CMN also produced Daddy Yankee’s farewell tour, which was the second-biggest in revenue, and promoted live outings by Latin music heavyweights Marc Anthony, Nicky Jam, Christian Nodal, Banda MS and Ana Gabriel.

Kenny Chesney finally set out on his Here and Now tour in 2022 after AEG partner Messina Touring Group put the dates on sale more than three years prior. Chesney’s road work vaulted him to No. 9 on Billboard Boxscore’s year-end Top Tours ranking with a gross of $135 million and 1.3 million tickets sold. To close out the year, Messina Touring Group placed Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on sale, which Billboard estimates will make her the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time solely from her U.S. dates. “This industry has been my passion and my lifeblood for over 50 years,” says Messina. “Seeing it bounce back from nothing into a blockbuster — well, that really meant something to me.”

Over the last 18 months, Concerts West helped The Rolling Stones return to the road with North American and European stadium dates despite the loss of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021 and promoted Roger Waters’ This Is Not a Drill Tour for a combined gross of nearly $250 million. Concerts West and parent company AEG Presents exclusively booked the brand-new Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas with residencies by Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood, Michael Bublé and Luke Bryan. Meglen credits AEG with keeping its staff intact through the pandemic, saying, “They kept and took care of our people well beyond amazing.”

The global venue development, advisory and investment company opened two owned-and-operated arenas — the Moody Center in Austin and the Acrisure Arena in Greater Palm Springs, Calif. — while continuing construction on three North American venues and new buildings in Manchester, England; Cardiff, Wales; and São Paulo. Oak View Group also opened facilities in Savannah, Ga., and Tempe, Ariz., and completed the acquisition of venue management and hospitality company Spectra, which led to the launch of global full-service food and beverage hospitality division, OVG360. “We expect to build upon our [mergers and acquisitions] activity” with a slate of new projects in 2023 that Leiweke says will keep him and his daughter Bodie, who is Oak View Group president of business development, on the move.

Twenty years after its launch, the Bay Area-based live-event producer puts on a year-round slate of shows and festivals that host crowds from 500 to 75,000. Over the course of nine months in 2021 and 2022, Another Planet Entertainment co-produced two sold-out Outside Lands festivals in San Francisco to make up for pandemic downtime, a fallow period during which, Perloff says, “we kept our full-time staff on full salary.” The company also orchestrated large-scale festivals, co-producing Life Is Beautiful and producing the debut California edition of Breakaway, and sold a total of 1.5 million tickets for its venues and festival sites in California and Nevada.

In the past year, the Los Angeles-based Insomniac produced over 40 festivals, 200 concerts and 1,500 club nights, which drew a total of 7 million fans, Rotella says. Insomniac Music Group released 800 tracks in 2022, up 49% from the previous year, and in December the promoter returned to a former venue, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with Kx5’s first headlining show. In 2023, the company will launch a festival cruise, EDSea, and a temporary, festival-themed Hotel EDC in Las Vegas. Despite these accomplishments, says Rotella, “still being here is our brightest highlight of them all. This year marks 30 years of Insomniac, and we could not be more humbled and grateful.”

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“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 Kendrick Lamar’s tour presale for Cash App users and Blake Shelton’s Lands’ End clothing line. In April, the company boosted its global client roster and European footprint by acquiring Paradigm’s London-based business, which brought Whitting into the fold.

Clayton says the company’s Latin division made “major strides” with the record-breaking success of Bad Bunny’s stadium tour, along with live and brand work for stars Anitta, Karol G and Romeo Santos. He adds that UTA is “very excited” about its momentum in the country space, thanks to new signings such as Tyler Hubbard, who joins a roster that includes Dolly Parton and Toby Keith. The agency, whose clients were nominated for almost 100 Grammy Awards in total, also made over a dozen key hires across its London, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Nashville offices.

In August, Dickins became the first woman to lead a talent agency’s music division when she was promoted to global head of contemporary music and touring. Last year, WME also added Snoop Dogg, Lil Baby, Meek Mill and J Balvin to its roster; brokered branding deals for Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello, Kid Cudi and Solange; and booked over 40,000 engagements, including 4,000-plus festival slots and headline arena and stadium tours for Pearl Jam, The Killers, Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Tool and Rage Against the Machine.

AGI’s piano man, Billy Joel, who is slated to play the 89th show of his Madison Square Garden residency in March, has sold more than 1.5 million tickets and grossed over $182 million since his monthly concerts launched in 2014. Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe’s 36-date stadium tour grossed over $173 million, and the year ahead is looking good as well. Metallica’s 2023-24 North American tour has sold more than 1 million tickets. New signings in 2022 included Pantera, Noel Gallagher, Limp Bizkit, Paris Jackson and Jane’s Addiction, which joined fellow AGI client Smashing Pumpkins on a joint North American tour last fall (though the former had to sit out five dates after frontman Perry Farrell suffered an injury).

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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.”

Since Clarke Soares launched HarbourView in October 2021, the company has acquired over 50 music catalogs, including that of Latin superstar and “Despacito” co-writer Luis Fonsi, Usher’s stake in RBMG Records (which houses Justin Bieber’s recorded-master catalog), country group Lady A and Sum 41 singer-songwriter Deryck Whibley. Calling her asset management firm “a dream many years in the making,” Clarke Soares officially opened HarbourView’s Newark, N.J., headquarters in December 2022, calling the event “a measure of our conviction to contribute to the city’s cultural plans addressing social challenges through the arts.” She adds, “I’m proud of our ability to challenge ourselves daily to defy conventional wisdom, which I believe allows us to see opportunities that others do not yet see.”

In the fourth quarter of 2021, KKR pulled off one of the biggest music industry deals of the last two years when it established Chord Partners alongside Dundee Partners to acquire Kobalt Capital Fund II for $1.1 billion. Then, in early 2022, the private equity giant almost topped itself when it securitized those music assets with a $730 million bond offering. The firm’s ambitious move into the music asset business also included joining with BMG for acquisitions, including the music rights of ZZ Top and a stake in John Legend’s publishing. “Music royalties have continued to experience momentum from an array of areas, including the continued growth of streaming and positive developments such as the new rates announced by the [Copyright Royalty Board],” Box says. “At KKR, we’ve also continued to invest in technology and media platforms that are helping to expand the reach of music in innovative ways,” she adds. “Combining royalties with broad-based institutional capital is helping rights owners cement lasting value for their assets and also has exciting implications for the entire music industry.”

Pinnacle Financial Partners’ reputation as a major player in music finance grew in 2022 with the addition of an Atlanta office, deeper relationships with electronic music and rock labels, and a greater international presence. Notably, nearly half of the Nashville-based company’s new label and publishing clients acquired last year are headquartered outside the United States. “Despite rising interest rates and growing economic uncertainty, Pinnacle provided a record-setting amount of capital to the music industry in 2022, issuing nearly $1 billion in new loan commitments to music publishers and record labels all over the world,” says Moats.

As the music acquisition market heated up, Dunn solidified his status as one of the industry’s key dealmakers. In 2022, Shot Tower advised on three of Billboard’s 10 largest music deals of 2022, including HarborView Equity Partners’ acquisition of SoundHouse’s recorded-music assets and Concord’s purchase of the publishing and recorded-music catalogs of Genesis and the solo work of band members Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks. “The firm successfully closed 100% of its engaged transactions for the year with total transaction volume in excess of $1 billion,” says Dunn, who still represents the Michael Jackson estate on all investment banking and corporate finance matters.

The music investment and advisory team at The Raine Group continued its steady, quiet work fueling music’s biggest business deals in 2022. Davis, along with Joe Puthenveetil and Rob Frech, served as advisers to Francisco Partners in their acquisition of Kobalt, as well as to former Apple Music global creative director Larry Jackson, Quality Control Music and DJ and music production software maker Serato. Davis says the year also brought notable successes from SoundCloud, Amuse and Firebird, all companies in which Raine Group is invested and Davis or another of the team advises. He says Raine Group remains focused on its mission of working worldwide “to help leading music entrepreneurs achieve their vision.”

Entrepreneur-investor Pincus had a watershed year. In April, Pincus, along with LionTree, closed $200 million in equity financing to form MUSIC, a long-term holding company that invests in a variety of music enterprises. It was his next major move after selling his indie publishing company, SONGS, in 2018. “It’s a dream to support the people building the next generation of great companies,” he says. “I try to be the investor I wish I had when I was building my business.” In the months since founding MUSIC, Pincus has spent $80 million in investments. This includes the acquisition of Kobalt (which he calls “the great at-scale independent of our time”) alongside Francisco Partners, investment in label LVRN (“one of the best independent companies in music”) and additional investments in Splice, the music creation/sampling company, and ticketing app Dice.

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 Grubman Shire Meiselas partner Grace Kim) and Chris Brown, Usher’s recently extended Las Vegas residency and Springsteen and The E Street band’s 2023 return to the road. The firm also repped The Weeknd in connection with his upcoming HBO series, The Idol; Gaga’s role as Harley Quinn in the 2024 sequel to Todd Phillips’ The Joker; and Lizzo’s Emmy-winning Amazon Prime show, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. The firm capped the year with founding partner Allen Grubman’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Gang Tyre Ramer’s clients include Taylor Swift, Adele and Elton John, all of whom had banner years: Swift’s Midnights earned over 3 million album-equivalent units, while Adele’s “Easy on Me” continued to dominate radio (top 10 in overall audience impressions in 2022) and John polished off the U.S. leg of his retirement tour with three dates at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium. Swift also announced a massive live run, which requires her legal team to sign off on a heap of contracts, from the promoter all the way to the bus company. On top of that, the firm’s clients landed 13 total Grammy nominations in 2022 — a feat that Passman calls “pretty extraordinary” — and the practice expanded by adding a pair of new attorneys. Students of the music industry will also be excited to hear that Passman has begun work on the next edition of his canonical text, All You Need To Know About the Music Business.

Lepera is a go-to litigator for top creators facing copyright lawsuits, and her past clients have included Drake and Jay-Z. She’s gearing up to rep Post Malone this spring in a trial over a songwriting co-credit for his 2019 hit “Circles.” And Dua Lipa hired her last year to handle two high-profile cases over her 2020 smash “Levitating.” Lepera’s biggest recent victory came in March, when she fended off a copyright case over Katy Perry’s 2013 chart-topper “Dark Horse” — and set a precedential opinion issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. “It expressly recognizes that music creators need the breathing room to create with music building blocks and commonplace expression cannot be monopolized,” Lepera says of the decision for Perry. “That is a victory for the creation of music itself.”

Anderson, who has represented The Weeknd, Zac Brown, Green Day, Gwen Stefani and other acts, handled two of the biggest music copyright cases in recent memory, winning a landmark ruling for Led Zeppelin in 2020 over “Stairway to Heaven” and, in December, negotiating a resolution to the five-year-long copyright battle against his client Taylor Swift regarding the lyrics to “Shake It Off.” In December, he also won a high-profile victory for Cardi B in a case about the use of a man’s tattoo on the cover of her 2016 mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1, and secured a key ruling in a long-running dispute over the rights to Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

Alter’s firm has handled music acquisition deals involving James Brown, Whitney Houston, Gerry Goffin and Bing Crosby — and that’s just over the past 18 months. Since what Alter calls the “gold rush” for music catalogs started in 2018, she says her firm has completed more than 200 deals totaling over $6 billion in total value, including a blockbuster deal in which Primary Wave Music Publishing bought a stake in Stevie Nicks’ catalog. All that work requires savvy in negotiation and drafting contracts, but Alter prides herself on also being able to offer clients “in-depth legal analysis founded in principles of domestic and international copyright law.”

Nearly 14 years after Jackson’s death, the King of Pop still reigns on Broadway, thanks in large part to Branca, who is a co-executor of Jackson’s estate and one of three lead producers of MJ: The Musical. “I was proud of Myles Frost [who plays Jackson] winning the Tony Award for best performance by a leading actor in a musical in 2022, as he and the rest of the cast continue to perform for sold-out houses,” says Branca, whose team also completed the financing and distribution deal with Lionsgate for a forthcoming Jackson biopic, represented the Elvis Presley estate in negotiating licenses for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and repped Primary Wave in the acquisition of the James Brown estate and catalog.

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.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, BMI’s revenue grew 16% to $1.6 billion, and the PRO distributed a record $1.5 billion to its member songwriters, composers and publishers. But the most notable accomplishment of the year was a legal and organizational maneuver: A nonprofit operation since its founding in 1939, BMI became a for-profit business. “This opens up new and important opportunities for us to invest in our business in ways we weren’t able to do before,” says O’Neill, “ensuring we are well-positioned for the future and can continue to deliver on our mission to support our songwriters, composers and publishers, and grow the value of their music.”

Merlin went deeper into expansion mode in 2022 with new partnerships aimed at giving its growing membership — 46 independent labels and distributors were added — more ways to boost revenue and payouts to artists, as well as audience. Under Sirota, Merlin spent its 14th year adding reach in visual discovery (Pinterest), livestreaming (Twitch), fitness (Supernatural) and nearly a dozen other services. The global digital rights organization also boosted member opportunities internationally through deals with streaming and social media platforms Boomplay in Africa, JioSaavn in India and Kuaishou in China. “The independent music from Merlin members serves as the global soundtrack in people’s daily lives around the world,” says Sirota.

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 “our fight with Twitter,” which doesn’t pay royalties on the music it uses. The battle “is going to reach a boiling point.”

As the U.S. recorded-music business keeps growing, the RIAA continues to reinforce the copyright protections on which its label members depend. One highlight: A jury found internet service provider Grande Communications liable for almost $47 million in damages for willful copyright infringement for failing to prevent piracy. (Grande is appealing.) The organization also took steps to shape policy around music created by artificial intelligence and helped push a California law that prevents courts from using rappers’ lyrics as evidence against them in criminal cases, with lobbying in other states to follow.

“I say this humbly, but the Recording Academy is a transformed organization,” Mason says of the organization behind the Grammy Awards. “We are more open and transparent than ever before. Our staff and membership are more diverse and reflective of the music community than in years past. We hit major milestones and made amazing progress in advocacy, membership and awards.” Mason points to the academy’s work in advocating for pro-music legislation including the HITS Act, the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, the American Music Fairness Act and the RAP Act. The organization recently welcomed its fourth new-member class since transitioning to a community-driven and peer-reviewed annual membership cycle. “We are younger, and we are more diverse. We have achieved a 20% increase in women; a 38% increase in people of color; a 100% increase in Black members. After years of listening, learning and putting in the work, we’re beginning to see the results of our efforts to diversify the academy’s membership.”

Contributors
Katie Bain, Dave Brooks, Ed Christman, Leila Cobo, Frank DiGiacomo, Elizabeth Dilts Marshall, Bill Donahue, Chris Eggertsen, Griselda Flores, Paul Grein, Steve Knopper, Carl Lamarre, Elias Leight, Robert Levine, Rebecca Milzoff, Taylor Mims, Gail Mitchell, Melinda Newman, Jessica Nicholson, Glenn Peoples, Isabela Raygoza, Kristin Robinson, Jessica Roiz, Neena Rouhani, Dan Rys, Marc Schneider, Andrew Unterberger

Methodology
Nominations for Billboard’s executive lists open no less than 120 days in advance of publication, and a link is sent to press representatives by request before the nomination period. (Please email thom.duffy@billboard. com for an editorial calendar and inclusion on the email list for links.) Billboard editors and beat reporters choose the industry sectors to be included on each list, the most significant companies within each sector and the maximum number of honorees per company. In choosing honorees, editors weigh a variety of factors including, but not limited to, nominations by peers, colleagues and superiors. For the Power 100, we considered the impact of honorees and their companies on consumer behavior, as measured by year-end Billboard charts, sales and streaming performance; market share; revenue, or where not available, Billboard revenue estimates, which may be aided by company guidance; and social media impressions; and radio audiences reached, using data available as of Dec. 31, 2022. Career trajectory was also considered. Where required, U.S. record-label market share was consulted using Luminate’s current market share for albums, plus track-equivalent and streaming-equivalent album consumption units and Billboard’s quarterly top 10 publisher rankings. Unless otherwise noted, Billboard Boxscore and Luminate are the sources for tour grosses and sales/ streaming data, respectively. Luminate is also the source for radio audience metrics. The source for radio metrics is monitored station airplay from Mediabase provided by Luminate.