BUSINESS AND FINANCE
Sherrese Clarke Soares
FOUNDER/CEO, HARBOURVIEW EQUITY PARTNERS Since launching HarbourView Equity Partners a year ago, Clarke Soares has invested in over 40 music catalogs, providing finance to a wide range of artists in exchange for the rights to collect royalties on their music. Her fast-growing portfolio spans genres from country to Latin but includes stakes in a swelling number of major hip-hop titles, such as Travis Scott’s “5% TINT,” Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones, Pt. II” and “Motorsport” from Migos, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, as well as R&B hits including Usher’s “Caught Up” and TLC’s “Waterfalls.”
Rene McLean PARTNER/FOUNDING ADVISOR, INFLUENCE MEDIA PARTNERS
Influence Media Partners continues to confirm hip-hop and R&B’s value in the marketplace with impressive catalog acquisitions. The company’s latest: hiphop superstar Future, whose eight-figure deal encompasses more than
600 songs from 2004 to 2020. Other major acquisitions include copyrights by hitmaker Tainy (Cardi B’s “I Like It” with Bad Bunny and J Balvin) and The Stereotypes (Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic”). “Hip-hop and R&B finally have a real seat at the table in the increasingly robust music rights marketplace,” says McLean. “We have every intention to double or triple our commitment over the next year.”
Michelle Richburg PRESIDENT/CEO, RICHBURG ENTERPRISES
“Every day I woke up to be the best,” says Richburg. “I did not think about the challenges and the uphill battle. Every day I had to underpromise and overdeliver.” A single Black mother who raised a son while building a company, Richburg has been a leader in the music industry’s lean toward greater inclusion. Richburg Enterprises is the tax firm of record for the $100 million Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund. A member of the Recording Academy since 2021, she also is a faculty member at the WMG Global DEI Institute, which the music group described as “a hub of innovation, learning, growth and action to drive impactful change at WMG and beyond.”