11. BOB PITTMAN, 62
CHAIRMAN/CEO, iHEARTMEDIA
Last year’s rank: 8
The uncertain nature of the radio business doesn’t faze Pittman, the chairman/CEO of a company that reaches 110 million listeners each week. “Plans can lull you into a false sense of security. It’s better to understand the future is unknowable,” says the world traveler and licensed pilot who has logged 6,500 flying hours. That attitude could serve him well in 2016. Revenue dipped only 1.7 percent, to $4.5 billion, through September, but deep debt could reportedly lead to a financial restructuring.
BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING RADIO: “Getting advertising dollars in proportion to the impact we have. Only 75 percent of millennials watch TV. Radio still reaches 93 percent of millennials and adults, yet few advertisers have adjusted their plans.”
12. MICHELE ANTHONY, 59
Executive vp, Universal Music Group
Last year’s rank: 12
BOYD MUIR, 56
Executive vp/cfo, Universal music group
Last year’s rank: 12
UMG maintained its 38.5 percent market share in 2015 while the pair, as Boyd puts it, focused on “helping [chairman/CEO] Lucian [Grainge] execute his vision for the company.” Initiatives by the duo included revising its digital structure, and bringing in Jay Frank to develop a playlist strategy and producers David Blackman and Scott Landis to head its new film, TV and theater arm.
13. STEPHEN COOPER, 69
CEO, Warner Music Group
Last Year’s Rank: 14
“We have done a lot by way of globalizing our business,” says Cooper, who also grew digital revenue 6.3 percent, to $1.3 billion, in calendar year 2015, a year in which overall industry digital sales fell. WMG doesn’t break out streaming revenue, but Cooper says that “it overtook downloads.”
2016 Candidate: “I don’t have a candidate yet, [but] the way the process has been shaken up this year is good for the country. Politicians are beginning to understand that they shouldn’t treat the people who elected them like village idiots.”
14. ROB STRINGER, 53
Chairman/ceo, Columbia Records
Last Year’s Rank: 17
In 2015, Stringer witnessed the fourth-quarter sunset of One Direction and the critically acclaimed fall debut of R&B artist Leon Bridges, but his year was defined by the November release of Adele’s album 25. The married father of two girls says strategizing began last summer “for what we knew was going to be a good run.” It was time well spent: One in 33 albums bought in 2015 was a copy of 25, amounting to 7.4 million units sold. The blockbuster boosted Columbia’s market share two points to 12.5 percent (factoring in releases by its RED distribution arm). Stringer credits the feat to a “process that combines old-school musical touches with a postmodern digital plan.” Or, in other words, “We didn’t f— it up.”