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SCOTT BORCHETTA, 55
Founder/president/CEO, Big Machine Label Group
882 MILLION STREAMS FOR FGL: Borchetta, a prime mover in country’s colonization of the pop charts, saw the Bebe Rexha–Florida Georgia Line duet “Meant to Be” go to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and set a record as the longest-running No. 1 in the history of the Hot Country Songs chart — 50 weeks — as well as generate 882 million U.S. streams. “This past year, for the first time, streaming was 60 percent of our revenue,” he says. “When we have the right track, the whole catalog moves.” That includes Taylor Swift, who moved to Republic in November but leaves behind six Big Machine albums, which generated a combined 2 billion-plus streams in 2018. “When her Netflix special started on New Year’s Eve, everything just skyrocketed,” says Borchetta. “All that music is Big Machine Records.”
FORGET POWER SUITS, HE WEARS… “Power scarves. Thanks, Steven Tyler!”
