Michele Ballantyne
COO
RIAA
Latin music has experienced explosive growth in recent years, and the RIAA set out to honor the musicians and policymakers behind that achievement at the RIAA Honors in September. Held at the trade group’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, the celebration highlighted the fastest-growing genre in the United States by naming Gloria Estefan as icon and Emilio Estefan as industry trailblazer, as well as Sebastián Yatra as artist of the year, Sony Music’s María Fernández as executive of the year and U.S. Representatives Veronica Escobar and María Elvira Salazar as policymakers of the year. “The night once again proved how the RIAA connects music and policy,” Ballantyne says, “strengthening both to support creators and protect their rights.”
Paul Morigi/Getty Images
During the 2023 RIAA Honors at the trade group’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, Latin music superstar Gloria Estefan was recognized as an icon at an event that acknowledged the explosive growth of the Latin music genre.
Lisa Hresko
GM
American Association of Independent Music
As GM of A2IM, Hresko is proud of the many legislative initiatives the company pushed for that protect artists, copyright holders and fans of music. These include pressing for copyright protection amid the rise of AI, advocating for Copyright Royalty Board reform and reintroducing the Protect Working Musicians Act, in collaboration with the Artist Rights Alliance. A2IM has also worked closely with the Recording Academy on the Help Independent Tracks Succeed Act and backed the Fans First Act, a bipartisan ticketing bill to reform the ticketing marketplaces by increasing transparency, banning speculative sales, tackling bots, enhancing consumer protections and establishing enforcement mechanisms for violations.
Graham Flack
Frances Moore
Former CEO
Rawan Al-Dabbas
Regional director for Middle East and North Africa
Elena Blobel
Director of global litigation
Kristina Janušauskaitė
Director of European legal affairs
Melissa Morgia
Director of global content protection and enforcement
Angela Ndambuki
Regional director for Sub-Saharan Africa
Adriana Restrepo
Regional director for Latin America and Caribbean
IFPI
When former IFPI CEO Frances Moore got to the international recorded-music trade association in 1994, there weren’t many women in leadership positions there. “That was the state of the world,” remembers Moore, who retired at the end of 2023. During her time as CEO, “there was never a point of saying, ‘I’m going to recruit a woman,’ ” Moore notes. “You can only put together an A-level team if you choose the best candidates.”
Many of those have been women, though, including three of the organization’s top legal executives — Blobel, Janušauskaitė and Morgia — as well as three of its six regional directors. Restrepo took the top IFPI job in the Latin world in February 2023, and the first regional directors for the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa — two parts of the world where the recorded-music business is growing the fastest — are both women.
“There’s a perception” about women in the region, says Al-Dabbas, who’s based in the United Arab Emirates, “and this has been a great opportunity to break that stereotype.” Besides her work trying to set up a neighboring rights collecting society for the region, where business grew 23.8% in 2022, according to IFPI, compared with the previous year, Al-Dabbas is part of a women-in-music networking group. It has grown “from five people to 120,” she says, evidence that the region is changing.
Ndambuki works with a range of countries from her office in Nairobi, Kenya, but she says, “We had to prioritize some markets” — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana and Nigeria. The global success of the African music business, in terms of both talent and revenue growth — the latter increased 34.7% in 2022 — makes her job a bit easier, though. “Having the mindset that this is actually a trade issue” changed the outlook on copyright, she says. “Now in Kenya the new president is prioritizing the creative economy. I believe the growth is just beginning.” —Robert Levine
Kelley Purcell
Vp of membership and industry relations
Recording Academy
Purcell is “incredibly proud” of the strides the academy has made in growing and diversifying its membership. “We’re now 98% of the way to our goal of adding 2,500 women voting members by 2025,” she says. “The demographics of our 2023 new member class captured the countless hours our membership team dedicated to fostering relationships with individuals of all music backgrounds. We also hosted our first-ever New Member Welcome Week to strengthen those relationships right off the bat. I can’t wait to see what our growing community accomplishes together.”
Portia Sabin
President
Music Business Association
Under Sabin, the association has created a fraud task force comprising multiple industry stakeholders to fight the rise of false and misleading music data, “a problem that costs the music industry an estimated $2 billion a year,” she says. The Music Business Association is also spearheading the creation of a new sales reporting tool for physical sales at independent retailers to capture more accurate data. “Physical sales are strong,” she says, “and supporting the retailers, labels, distributors and their partners who have been the backbone of our association for 65 years remains a priority.”
Charlotte Sellmyer
Senior vp of external affairs
National Music Publishers’ Association
In her multifaceted role at the NMPA, Sellmyer in October helped the association launch its Gold & Platinum Club, whose members include all songwriters whose compositions appear on records that have achieved gold, platinum or multiplatinum certifications from the RIAA. At an Oct. 25 event in Nashville, president/CEO David Israelite announced the club’s co-chairs, songwriting powerhouses Liz Rose and Ryan Tedder. Sellmyer calls the club “a game-changer for songwriters. We’ve created the most elite organization of writers in the country, and their power in terms of advocacy will be unmatched,” she says. “As we face myriad challenges and opportunities from AI, their voices will be more important than ever.”
Sarah Trahern
CEO
Country Music Association
Country music had a record-setting year on the Billboard charts in 2023, and Trahern plans to “fully embrace this momentum.” “We’ve focused on pipeline development initiatives, giving those working in our industry the tools they need to continue being successful, while also guiding the newcomers through mentorship and resource-sharing,” she says. “Whether it’s CMA’s Women’s Leadership Academy, our partnership with Discovery Education, CMA EDU or any of our other programs, our hope is to strengthen the foundation of our business while preparing the next generation for its future.”
Contributors
Trevor Anderson, Rania Aniftos, Jim Asker, Nefertiti Austin, Katie Bain, Dave Brooks, Pamela Bustios, Anna Chan, Ed Christman, Leila Cobo, Janine Coveney, Stephen Daw, Kyle Denis, Bill Donahue, Thom Duffy, Chris Eggertsen, Eric Frankenberg, Griselda Flores, Josh Glicksman, Paul Grein, Raquelle “Rocki” Harris, Lyndsey Havens, Rylee Johnston, Gil Kaufman, Steve Knopper, Carl Lamarre, Elias Leight, Robert Levine, Joe Lynch, Heran Mamo, Taylor Mims, Gail Mitchell, Latifah Muhammad, Melinda Newman, Jessica Nicholson, Glenn Peoples, Sigal Ratner-Arias, Isabela Raygoza, Kristin Robinson, Jessica Roiz, Dan Rys, Damien Scott, Crystal Shepeard, Andrew Unterberger, Christine Werthman
Methodology
Nominations for Billboard’s industry-sourced executive lists open no less than 150 days in advance of publication, and a submission link is sent by request before the nomination period. (Please email [email protected] for inclusion on the email list for nomination links and for how to obtain an editorial calendar.) Billboard’s 2024 Women in Music honorees were chosen by editors based on factors including 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, social media impressions and radio audiences reached, using data available as of Dec. 31, 2023. Career trajectory and momentum were 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 and Billboard’s quarterly top 10 publisher rankings. Companies whose nominees were chosen for the 2024 Women in Music list reflected the company choices made for the 2024 Power 100. 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.