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CRAIG KALLMAN, 52
Chairman/CEO, Atlantic Records
JULIE GREENWALD
Chairman/COO, Atlantic Records
Last Year’s Rank: 15
LABEL OF THE YEAR
BRAGGING RIGHTS: Atlantic released 2017’s biggest album in terms of overall consumption: Ed Sheeran‘s ÷ (Divide), with sales equivalents exceeding 2.8 million units. It also scored the first Hot 100 No. 1 from a solo female rapper in 19 years with Cardi B‘s “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” as well as five of 2017’s 10 most-streamed songs. They’re just a few of the wins that led Atlantic to be named Billboard‘s 2017 Label of the Year in December (based on combined Hot 100 and Billboard 200 chart performance) and lofted the label to an unparalleled 12.4 percent current market share for 2017, 1.4 percentage points over the prior year.
MONEY MOVES: Kallman and Greenwald’s biggest cultural coup may have been fostering hip-hop’s two biggest breakthroughs: Cardi B and Lil Uzi Vert, whose “XO TOUR Llif3” was the year’s third most-streamed song (933 million). But it was hardly a foregone conclusion that Sheeran and Bruno Mars would have such triumphant years with their respective LPs (Mars’ 24K Magic arrived in late 2016). “Third albums aren’t the easiest because everyone’s getting older,” says Greenwald. “But they both smashed it.” 24K Magic yielded six Grammy nominations for Mars.
