22
SCOTT BORCHETTA, 53
President/CEO, Big Machine Label Group
Last Year’s Rank: 23
Borchetta says he wrapped up 2015 with four goals accomplished: Getting Taylor Swift five No. 1 Mainstream Top 40 singles off 1989 (a sixth is now being promoted), landing her key Grammy nods (she has seven), breaking Thomas Rhett bigger at radio — latest single “Die a Happy Man” is the first to log six weeks atop the Country Airplay chart since Swift’s “Our Song” did in 2008 — and securing Cheap Trick a 2016 entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The year ahead will see Big Machine release a new Cheap Trick album in April and, possibly, new music from Swift, although Borchetta says the decision is entirely in her hands. “Whatever the call is — ‘Hey, I’ve got a new record,’ or ‘Hey, I’m going to take a year off’ — will be completely acceptable,” he says. “She’ll know.” Whether she has a high profile in 2016 or not, Borchetta will: He’s reprising his role as American Idol‘s mogul/mentor for the show’s final season.
