MUSIC GROUPS GLOBAL

Thomas Coesfeld CFO/CEO-DESIGNATE, BMG Dominique Casimir CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, BMG

As CFO, Coesfeld was key to BMG’s catalog investment strategy — the company spent more than half a billion euros ($545 million) acquiring catalogs and signing artists in 2022 — as well as its decision to upgrade its technology. “BMG is the most active music company — as opposed to an investment vehicle — buying music rights at scale,” Coesfeld says. “We have also doubled our investment in IT infrastructure, migrating systems to the cloud and using [artificial intelligence] tools to maximize income.” Coesfeld is the 33-year-old scion of BMG parent company Bertelmann’s founding family, and in January, he will succeed Hartwig Masuch as BMG’s next chief executive. BMG’s future, he says, will focus “increasingly on the value-add, on our ability via technology to optimize an artist’s work and career.”

Adam Granite

EXECUTIVE VP OF MARKET DEVELOPMENT, UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP

Dickon Stainer

PRESIDENT/CEO OF GLOBAL CLASSICS AND JAZZ, VERVE LABEL GROUP

Granite points to the huge growth in recorded-music revenue industrywide in places like India and Africa, as well as China — which is up 28.4% year over year, pushing into the top five markets for the first time, according to IFPI — as examples of the success of UMG’s global strategy over the past few years, where it has focused on expanding services and launching new labels. Meanwhile, Stainer has continued to guide a global classics and jazz division that has set streaming records, while landing a best new artist win at this year’s Grammys for Samara Joy. That streaming success “illustrates the scale to which these artists connect with a vast and rapidly growing consumer fan base,” Stainer says. “Their appeal transcends demographic and physical boundaries.”

Donny Novakovic

VP OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING, DISNEY MUSIC GROUP

Releasing soundtracks for some of “the biggest movie franchises in the world” has been a major international achievement, says Novakovic, pointing to James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water and Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The latter scored an Academy Award nod for Rihanna and her single “Lift Me Up,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts in November. Disney also “localized” the soundtrack to the 2021 animated smash Encanto, which is now available in 25 languages worldwide.

Jiwon Park

CEO, HYBE

YJ Shin

PRESIDENT, BIG HIT MUSIC Min Hee-jin PRESIDENT, ADOR

HYBE’s increasingly diversified business fired on all cylinders in 2022. Shin’s top act at Big Hit Music, BTS, was No. 1 on the year-end World Albums chart with Proof, while TOMORROW X TOGETHER topped Billboard’s Artist 100 in February with its EP The Name Chapter: Temptation. Park led the development of a video game,

BTS Island: In the SEOM, and launched a non-fungible token platform, Momentica. At HYBE’s ADOR imprint, Min helped the girl group NewJeans score two hits, “OMG” (No. 74) and “Ditto” (No. 82), on the Billboard Hot 100.

Melissa Thomas

EXECUTIVE VP OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING, U.S. REPERTOIRE, SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

Wouter Jansen

SENIOR VP OF DIGITAL AND COMMERCIAL STRATEGY, INTERNATIONAL MARKETING, SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

Jenna Novak

VP OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING, RCA RECORDS

Naoise Ryan

VP OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING,

COLUMBIA RECORDS

Mez Tara

VP OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING,

EPIC RECORDS

Georgina Hilton

DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETING, ARISTA RECORDS

In the past year, Sony has benefited from some of its biggest global stars, including Adele, Beyoncé and Harry Styles, each of whom required coordination and activations in cities and countries around the world. But it wasn’t just those stars propelling the label forward: SZA’s SOS made waves in Asia and Latin America, Chris Brown’s “Under the Influence” went to No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200 and Beach Weather’s “Sex Drugs Etc” exploded out of Eastern Europe to become a worldwide hit. “In the current landscape, global hits can truly break from anywhere in the world, but there is heavy competition in this attention economy,” says Thomas, who guides the efforts of international marketing executives Jansen, Novak, Ryan, Tara and Hilton. “My team prides ourselves on figuring out how to cut through and bring our artists into that local conversation by helping tell their stories in an authentic and compelling way.”

Pieter van Rijn

PRESIDENT OF DOWNTOWN MUSIC,

DOWNTOWN MUSIC HOLDINGS

Ben Patterson

PRESIDENT OF ARTIST AND LABEL SERVICES, DOWNTOWN MUSIC HOLDINGS

Christiaan Kröner

PRESIDENT OF FUGA, DOWNTOWN MUSIC HOLDINGS

Christine Barnum

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER, CD BABY/DOWNTOWN MUSIC HOLDINGS

It has been a heady year for Downtown Music. The company evolved from what was a publishing-focused business in

2019 to a robust home for artist and label services and distribution, with more than 2 million clients in over 145 countries and a catalog of more than 38 million music assets across recorded music and publishing. “The formation of Downtown Music in 2022 was the next natural step in creating a clear offering that empowered our clients,” van Rijn says, “and allowed the businesses in our professional music services divisions to share best practices and fully unlock the potential of the catalog.”

Eric Wong

PRESIDENT/CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER OF RECORDED MUSIC, WARNER MUSIC GROUP Simon Robson

PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL, WARNER MUSIC GROUP

Jessica Keeley-Carter

EXECUTIVE VP OF GLOBAL MARKETING, WARNER MUSIC GROUP

Warner had a major international breakout with British singer PinkPantheress, whose song “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” ricocheted around the world to become her first top 10 on the Hot 100, while peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 6 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. “The incredibly talented artist and her devoted fans were the driving force behind both tracks’ [“Boy’s a Liar” and “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2”] initial social buzz, and our teams around the world put resources and thoughtful investment behind those organic sparks to sustain the momentum,” Wong says. “We fueled the original’s TikTok trend at first in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K., followed by markets we saw bubbling, like the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia — and the second version in places as far as Saudi Arabia and the [United Arab Emirates].”

At HYBE’s ADOR imprint, Min Hee-jin helped the girl group NEWJEANS score two hits, “OMG” and “Ditto,” on the Billboard Hot 100.