MUSIC’S MOST COMPENSATED
Universal, Spotify, HYBE and SiriusXM founders and executives lead Billboard’s inaugural ranking of top earners and shareholders
KANG HYO-WON isn’t a household name. The South Korean music producer is better known as Pdogg, the studio wizard behind hits by K-pop supergroup BTS and other acts on the roster of Korean entertainment company HYBE. Because Kang played a key role in HYBE’s success, his employer gave him 128,000 stock options in 2016 that turned into about $35 million when Kang exercised them. (All currency conversions to U.S. dollars in this story are based on the average
2021 exchange rate.) That made Kang the secondhighest-paid music industry executive last year among those whose earnings are publicly disclosed.
Yoon Seok-jun and Kim Shin-gyu, co-CEO of HYBE America and chief artist management officer, respectively, also benefited from HYBE going public. Yoon netted nearly $34 million and Kim gained
$24 million from the 2021 sale of stock options — thanks to the common corporate practice of tying top employees’ compensation to the valuation of its common stock.
“HYBE grants stock options to members who have contributed to the establishment and management of the company, overseas sales or innovation in accordance with the Commercial Act and the articles of incorporation,” the company said in a statement to Billboard. “The members of HYBE, who are granted stock options, are diverse, including creators, management and key personnel.” The practice also extends to key artists. HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk even gave the seven members of BTS shares equal to a 1.4% stake in the company.
HYBE may be an extreme example of equitybased wealth in the music business, but it’s hardly unique. As the industry has grown since the mid2010s, a few companies have tapped into investor interest by going public. That has turned some founders into billionaires and enriched executives who helped build the biggest corporations.
Billboard’s inaugural breakdown of stock ownership and executive compensation shows who is most handsomely rewarded for founding and leading the publicly traded companies that made the modern music business appealing to investors. They are not always the obvious music business names, either.
For the most part, 2021’s top shareholders founded the companies behind the industry’s renaissance. No. 1 and No. 2 are Spotify co-founders Daniel Ek ($3.7 billion) and Martin Lorentzon ($2.4 billion). The third, Klaus-Peter Schulenberg ($2.2 billion), the CEO of German promoter and ticketing company CTS Eventim, acquired an early incarnation of the company in 1996 and took it public four years later. Next is Bang ($1.8 billion), who founded Big Hit Entertainment, since renamed HYBE. No. 7, Denis Ladegaillerie ($116 million), is founder and CEO of French music company (and TuneCore owner) Believe, which he formed in 2005 and took public in 2020.
Other names on the list are executives who often spent over a decade building corporate giants. Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge would have topped the compensation list with only his $48.4 million standard salary and performance bonuses. But in 2021, Grainge earned
Timbaland
and Swizz
Beatz sued Triller for
$28 million they claim they’re still owed for last year’s
Verzuz sale. Beloved Grease actress and singer Olivia Newton-John died at the age of 73.
several one-off bonuses from UMG’s former parent company, Vivendi: $230.5 million for guiding the company to its September 2021 listing on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange and two bonuses worth a combined
$45.4 million related to investments from a consortium led by Tencent Holdings and Pershing Square Capital. Vivendi got a fantastic return on its investment under Grainge’s leadership. It passed on an $8.5 billion takeover bid in 2013 and entrusted Grainge to guide the company through the postCD doldrums and into a streamingfocused golden age. UMG’s valuation when it finally went public? $55 billion. UMG didn’t have a stock incentive plan at the time, so Vivendi paid Grainge in cash.
SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz, the top female on the best-compensated executives list, was promoted from president of sales, marketing and operations in January 2021 after Jim Meyer stepped down. Witz has held various senior finance and operations roles with the company since she joined in 2002.
Michael Rapino became Live Nation president/CEO just before it went public in December 2005 and has led the company through its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster, as well as countless acquisitions of promoters, festivals, management firms and ticketing companies. In 2005, Live Nation traded at $13 and had an annual revenue of $3.7 billion. Now, with revenue on pace to easily surpass the $11.6 billion reached in pre-pandemic 2019 and
Live Nation shares trading at nearly $100, he lands on both lists, along with Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper, who led the major from an annual revenue of $2.9 billion in 2011 to $5.3 billion in its latest fiscal year.
The information for these charts came from publicly available company financial releases, such as proxy statements, annual reports and Form 4 filings that reveal executives’ recent stock transactions. The executive compensation table contains only named executive officers. Conglomerates that own numerous companies — such as labels and music publishers — disclose compensation for corporate-level officers only, not, for example, well-paid label heads.