LEN BLAVATNIK, 58
VICE CHAIRMAN/OWNER, WARNER MUSIC GROUP
Last year’s rank: 11
If Len Blavatnik isn’t the most powerful person in music, he can take solace in the fact that he’s the wealthiest: The Ukraine-born industrialist is worth an estimated $17 billion, and his privately held Access Industries claims stakes in Deezer and Spotify, plus ownership of 4,000-employee WMG. Blavatnik cites the 2015 breakthroughs of Twenty One Pilots, England’s Jess Glynne and Germany’s Robin Schulz as signs of Warner’s global prowess, but it’s his First Access Entertainment joint venture with manager Sarah Stennett that exemplifies his synergistic vision. “We need to recapture the true value of music,” he says. “It’s the lifeblood of so many new experiences, technologies and products — and the industry should share more fully in the success it helps to create.” The married father of four lives in London and New York, where, in 2015, he spent a record $77.5 million for a Fifth Avenue co-op.