Alessandra Alarcón

President of entertainment

SBS formed an alliance last year with venue developer/operator Oak View Group that Alarcón says will expand SBS Entertainment’s presence in growing Hispanic markets. It also rebranded and relaunched the Calibash festival as Calibash MX, which debuted in Los Angeles in January with a lineup including Grupo Frontera and Yahritza y Su Esencia. “MX is focused on música mexicana,” Alarcón says, “a genre that has undoubtedly taken the music world by storm and one that I believe will dominate for years to come.”

Mary Berner

President/CEO

Under Berner’s leadership, Cumulus Media has “advanced past competitors on balance sheet strength, cash-flow generation, liquidity, stock price performance and … is priming to emerge from the advertising downturn as the industry’s strongest performer,” according to the company. Cumulus Media reaches 250 million people monthly through its 403 owned radio broadcast stations and the Westwood One audio network, according to Cumulus, and grew its market share year over year by double digits in active music formats in the largest markets led by country, adult contemporary and classic hits. The Music Partnerships division also partnered with labels to premiere song and album releases with campaigns for acts including Taylor Swift, Luke Combs, Metallica, Foo Fighters and blink-182.

Leslie Fram

Senior vp of music and talent

CMT’s Next Women of Country capped its first decade in 2023 with its largest class to date and a yearlong celebration of female voices. The program has welcomed more than 125 artists since its inception, including Lainey Wilson, Morgan Wade, Madeline Edwards and Ingrid Andress, who all teamed up with Alanis Morissette for a performance of “You Oughta Know” at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. Other highlights for Fram include Megan Thee Stallion presenting Shania Twain as the Equal Play honoree, Maren Morris’ CMT Crossroads episode with Hozier and the launches of the female-focused docuseries CMT Defining and CMT Smashing Glass, a new tentpole event celebrating groundbreaking women in music. “Women dominated our stages and screens this year,” Fram says. “While our work is far from done, I’m always proud CMT continues to be a leading and vocal advocate for women and underrepresented voices in our format.”

Tracy Gardner

Global head of label licensing and partnerships

Isabel Quinteros Annous

Global lead of music partnerships

Rachel Dunham

Artist partnerships lead for North America

The experience of instant gratification for TikTok users expanded as the platform launched its new Add to Music App. The feature gives music fans the ability to capture songs in the moment of discovery on TikTok and save them to their playlists on the streaming services of their choice including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Add to Music App “harnesses the power of music discovery to directly drive full-length music consumption on music streaming services,” Gardner says, which is “further connecting artists with their fans and generating even greater value for artists and rights holders.” (In a licensing dispute with TikTok, Universal Music Group on Jan. 30 began removing its recorded music from the platform, to be followed in February by songs in which Universal Music Publishing Group has an interest. TikTok says UMG’s actions do not serve the interests of its artists and songwriters.)

Ingrid Graham

Senior vp of business operations and strategy

Graham highlights Telemundo’s 2023 partnership with Billboard “to serve music fans more premium Latin music content” with the inaugural edition in 2023 of Latin Women in Music, which recognized superstars including Shakira as Woman of the Year, as well as Thalia, Ana Gabriel, Maria Becerra, Emilia, Goyo and Evaluna. The two-hour music special co-hosted by Ivy Queen aired on Telemundo in May. “I am proud to be part of an event that honors Latin women and their outstanding contributions and impact on Latin music and the industry,” Graham says.

Zeina Grenier

Director of North America music publishing

Alyssa Talovic Garcia

Director of music label partnerships

Nicole Johnson

Artist partnerships

“Throughout the past year, Meta partnered with the music industry to create meaningful moments of artist and fan connection,” Talovic Garcia says. Such collaborations have led to virtual reality concerts in Meta Horizon Worlds from acts including Doja Cat and Blackpink; enabled “millions of tracks to be available to make Reels and Stories on Facebook and Instagram,” Grenier says; and driven discovery and engagement across Meta’s platforms in multifaceted campaigns with Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion and more. Partnerships have also helped artists make a direct impact in their communities through causes they care about including Johnson’s work with Ciara to nominate 10 Black-owned businesses to participate in a specialized version of the Elevate Mentorship Circles Program.

Cindy Hill

Vp of content and industry relations

El Bueno, la Mala y el Feo Fest, which is part of TelevisaUnivision’s Uforia Music Series, celebrated its 10th anniversary in November with a sold-out event in Dallas that had a star-studded lineup. Featuring performances by regional Mexican stars such as Grupo Frontera, Fuerza Regida and Pepe Aguilar (as well as his children Ángela and Leonardo), the festival’s “success marked a significant milestone,” Hill says. “It showcased our commitment to delivering top-notch content and memorable experiences to our audience, underlining our dedication to providing unparalleled entertainment and cultural enrichment.”

Angela Leus

Senior vp of film music

The diversity of its culture helped Universal Pictures become the highest-grossing movie studio of 2023, Leus says. The company racked up nearly $5 billion worldwide in ticket sales from hits like Oppenheimer, Cocaine Bear and M3gan, according to box-office reports. “It is [Universal’s] commitment to diversity and inclusion that attracts storytellers like Jordan Peele, the Daniels, Elizabeth Banks and Will Packer, but also employees like myself who have been at the company for over a decade,” Leus says. “There is diversity personified in the talented [females and Black, Indigenous and people of color] in leadership roles, in the composers our music team hires and offers opportunities for career development.”

Thea Mitchem

Executive vp of programming/executive vp of hip-hop and R&B programming, iHeartMedia; program director, WWPR (Power 105.1) New York

Alissa Pollack

Executive vp of global music marketing and strategy

Marissa Morris

Senior vp of artist relations

Since iHeartMedia launched Can’t Cancel Pride, an event that recognizes the LGBTQ+ community, in 2020, there have been countless attempts to cancel Pride through legislation (such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill) and pressure campaigns (Bud Light, Target, North Face). The need couldn’t be greater for the $14.1 million that Can’t Cancel Pride has raised to benefit such organizations as CenterLink, GLAAD and National Black Justice Coalition. “In 2023,” Pollack says, “the on-air promotion running across 206 iHeartRadio stations garnered over 357 million gross on-air impressions throughout the month of June.”

Connie Orlando

Executive vp of specials, music programming and music strategy

BET remained the source of culture-defining moments over the past 12 months, including the network’s celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. “We honored our hip-hop icons and chart-topping talent across our prominent stages, including the BET Hip Hop Awards and [TV series] Welcome to Rap City,” Orlando says. According to her, the 2023 BET Awards were also the No. 1 special for Black viewers on cable. “We are immensely proud,” Orlando adds, “to be part of the fabric of hip-hop’s evolution, diversity and global impact.”

Lori Silfen

Head of MGM Music

Silfen worked on the Netflix series Wednesday, which garnered an Emmy for outstanding original main title theme music and a Grammy Award nomination for best arrangement, earned for its version of the Rolling Stones song “Paint It Black.” The series went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms for its iconic dance scene synched to the 1981 song “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps, inspiring users to re-create the moment online. In 2023, Silfen also worked closely with director Michael B. Jordan, Interscope Records and Dreamville Records on the music for Creed III and with Snoop Dogg on Underdoggs.

Jennifer Witz

CEO

Last year was a transformational one for SiriusXM, which Witz says yielded growth in its global footprint. SiriusXM launched a technology platform and app to provide listeners with a more personalized, modern and seamless experience and also introduced new branding and programming that leans into its human-first approach. The company added more distribution partners, and Witz says there is still more to come. “We are truly just getting started as we continue to reimagine radio across both SiriusXM and Pandora, bringing music fans closer to what they already love and helping them discover their next passion,” she says. (In February, SiriusXM cut 3% of its workforce to become “even more efficient, agile and flexible,” Witz says, “as the competitive landscape evolves.”)