46
SCOTT BORCHETTA, 55
President/CEO, Big Machine Label Group
Last Year’s Rank: 49
FRESH FACES: Big Machine took Brett Young and Carly Pearce to the top of Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart for the first time while fellow newcomers Midland earned a No. 2 debut on the Top Country Albums chart with its first LP for BMLG, On the Rocks.
A SWIFT KICK: BMLG’s current market share grew almost one point to 2.81 percent, thanks to big boosts from Thomas Rhett‘s Billboard 200 No. 1 album, Life Changes, and Taylor Swift‘s Reputation, the top-selling album of 2017. The latter also takes honors for the biggest single sales week of 2017, with 1.2 million copies. “She’s arguably playing on her own field,” says Borchetta, who is extending his reach by partnering with Canada’s Bell Media for 2018 talent-discovery show The Launch. Also coming this year, more from Big Machine’s rock-music joint venture with fashion designer John Varvatos.
BIGGEST ISSUE THE INDUSTRY FACES “Getting paid-tier streaming to scale. There’s a lot of happy dancing going on, but the emperor is not fully dressed.”
