Alisa Coleman

COO

Board chair

While ABKCO controls publishing and recording catalogs of legends such as Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones and Bobby Womack, the company is firmly focused on the future, particularly concerning the rights of artists, songwriters, publishers and labels. Advocacy efforts include “ongoing legal endeavors, exemplified by the current Anthropic case addressing unauthorized use of song lyrics in the AI domain,” Coleman says. And, she notes, the label keeps updating its gold mine of classics, highlighting “spatial audio releases [and] revitalized recordings, propelling them back onto the Billboard charts.”

Elizabeth Collins

Co-president

Collins is co-president of The Azoff Company with Susan Genco and credits the vision of CEO Irving Azoff for the company’s growth across multiple divisions. They include performance rights organization Global Music Rights, venue owner/operator Oak View Group, Full Stop Management, legacy rights management company Iconic Artists Group and, most recently, Giant Records. “I am proud that each of our companies continues to fulfill Irving’s promise of building great businesses that put artists first,” Collins says. “In particular, I am excited about the launch of our new record label, Giant Music. FendiDa Rappa gave us a fantastic start with her Hot 100 hit ‘Point Me 2’ [a collaboration with Cardi B]. We are still a young company, so there is much to look forward to.”

Rose Cook

Senior vp of operations

With SESAC Music Group implementing a reorganization in 2023 that created four divisions — performing rights, church music resources, audiovisual music and music services — Cook took command of that effort for the lattermost business line. In her role, she has shaped the operations process and shared platform for the six individual companies that operate independently in that music services division (Rumblefish, Audiam, MINT/SESAC and Harry Fox Agency) and SESAC’s 2023 acquisitions of Audio Salad and Music Services. “I was able to oversee the plan to realign and relaunch the music services client platform, which now provides an integrated suite of services to support record labels, music publishers and music users,” Cook says. “This new structure allows SESAC Music Group to support the needs of our clients and continue growing the business through a global, multiline music strategy.”

Tina Davis

President

Stacy Cunningham-Moreland

Director of strategic events

Although EMPIRE once again enjoyed significant wins in hip-hop with Larry June’s The Great Escape and 310Babii’s Hot 100 hit “Soak City,” the company’s achievements go beyond North America. The success of Nigerian artists Olamide, Asake and Fireboy DML has strengthened EMPIRE’s presence in Africa and the Afrobeats genre. “We’re proud of the work we’ve done across the African continent, not only in West Africa but our growing success in South Africa, East Africa and North Africa,” Davis says. “The music and culture are unmatched, and we’re thrilled to see global support start to rise for these incredible artists.”

Sarah Francus

Artist management

Making history never gets easier. Few know that better than Rihanna and Christina Aguilera. Thanks to Francus and her Roc Nation artist management team, the two stalwart superstars were able to surprise and amaze their fan bases by breaking new ground after more than 20 years at the top of their games. For Rihanna, it was headlining the Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, giving fans longing for a new album something to latch on to. And for Aguilera, it was returning to Las Vegas for another 10-date residency — only this time her show was at the Voltaire Belle de Nuit at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, which opened New Year’s Eve weekend, with the theater designed to look like a cabaret.

Jessica Kelm

Vp of marketing and digital operations

In 2023, annual consumption of APG releases tripled thanks to a series of well-placed projects, according to the company. The official soundtrack for Fast X — APG’s first film soundtrack — scored massive streaming gains following its release. Meanwhile, APG-developed artists earned career firsts: Odetari surpassed 1 billion streams, while other acts like Lay Bankz and bludnymph landed on Spotify’s 2024 Artists To Watch list. “The past year has truly been a transformative chapter for APG,” Kelm says, “and I’m beyond excited for all that’s to come.”

Melissa Mahood

GM/artist manager

Adéllyn Holl Polomski

Artist manager

Early in 2024, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” — which dethroned Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” to become the No. 1 Hot 100 hit of all time in 2021 — “broke the Spotify record for the most streams for a song in the platform’s history at over 4 billion,” Mahood says. Last year, he became the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners and is currently the No. 1 artist on the platform with over 117 million monthly listeners. Last year, Bebe Rexha earned her fourth song that crossed Spotify’s 1 billion streams mark with her and David Guetta’s “I’m Good (Blue),” which spent 55 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and also topped Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay.

Deborah Mannis-Gardner

Owner/president

Before last year, if fans wanted to listen to one of De La Soul’s critically acclaimed albums from the ’90s, eBay or torrent sites were their best bets. Now, thanks to Mannis-Gardner, fans simply have to open their streaming service of choice. The “queen of sample clearances” — who also worked on Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé this past year — connected with Reservoir to detangle and clear the thicket of samples used on the legendary New York group’s first four albums. “This is a key part of hip-hop history that younger generations simply did not have access to for far too long,” Mannis-Gardner says. “And it’s fitting that we were able to fill that void on the 50th anniversary of the genre.”

Molly Neuman

Chief marketing officer

Emily Stephenson

President of publishing

Thanks to a series of new partnerships and clients, Downtown Music has “cemented its position” as an industry leader, Stephenson says. She points to recent signings to the organization’s publishing division including Colbie Caillat and The National, as well as new agreements with other music companies like Outer Voice, Spirit Music and Next Era as recent triumphs. Downtown was also successful in securing global neighboring rights deals with the estates of Meat Loaf and Miles Davis. “Through it all,” she says, “we have worked hard to prioritize and reorganize our business and leadership team to prepare for future growth.”

Justina Omokhua

Senior vp

Entertainment, which she founded in 2010, handles every aspect of Beyoncé Inc. And the woman in charge of that enterprise — besides Ms. Knowles herself — is Omokhua. A former tech and entertainment marketing executive, Omokhua joined Parkwood in 2022 and immediately helped the company ramp up for the release of Beyoncé’s acclaimed seventh album, Renaissance. As if that wasn’t enough, Omokhua oversaw the production of Beyoncé’s historic Renaissance world tour and the accompanying blockbuster, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, which the company unveiled in Salvador, Brazil, including an unannounced visit to a party christened as Club Renaissance in Bahia. “Parkwood remains at the forefront of the ‘never been done,’ ” Omokhua says. “We pride ourselves on bringing projects to life that are new and unique. Our company represents a sliver of the vastness that is the mind of our creative genius, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.”

Luana Pagani

Principal

After 12 years at Seitrack US, Pagani kicked off 2024 announcing her own agency. Fairwinds Entertainment will focus on “the development in the U.S. and international markets of new and ­established artists, which is and has always been my passion,” she says. Looking back, Pagani describes 2023 at Seitrack US as “a year of milestones and decisions for me.” She highlights three U.S. tours that were all headlined by women: Ha*Ash’s Mi Salida Contigo trek selling out 18 shows, Yuridia’s Pa’Luego es Tarde USA tour selling out 17 shows and Mexican act María José making a splash in the U.S. market by selling out four of her six first dates in the country. Pagani still works with Seitrack US as a consultant.

Farhana Pargac

Vp of strategy/head of brands

As it becomes increasingly risky for artists to rely on siloed revenue sources, Firebird Music Holdings — which has been investing in music management companies and independent labels since its 2022 launch — aims to “empower artists and their reps with actionable intelligence across all business areas,” Pargac says. She’s excited about Firebird’s “groundbreaking” data science team and what it can provide for artists and their representatives. “These tools can guide decision-making on ­everything from ticket pricing to growing their fan bases to how to best merchandise and market e-commerce stores,” she explains, “as well as ­provide opportunities to build outside an artist’s core music activities.”

Hildi Snodgrass

COO

The past year marked significant growth for Iconic Artists Group, the legacy rights management company that The Azoff Company launched in 2022. “Our Iconic roster grew with additions such as Cher and Graham Nash,” Snodgrass says, noting that new signings will soon be announced. “Our revenue, streaming volume and audience metrics all reached new heights with double-digit growth. And as the year closed out, I was so proud that all our efforts, along with our partners, culminated in both the Beach Boys and Nat ‘King’ Cole [recording] catalogs crossing the 1 billion global audio streams mark in 2023 for the first time.”