They influence the song you wake up to and the tune you whistle as you walk to work – you may not necessarily know their names but they are the among the most important music trendsetters in the country.
Today the Guardian reveals its Music Power 100 list: the most influential people creating, promoting, managing and making money from music.
Topping the list is Team Adele, an astonishing achievement for the 23-year-old singer and the crack squad behind her. Adele, the girl from London with a big voice, has rewritten the music rule book this year with the stratospheric success of her second album, 21. It has topped the US album charts seven times and has spent 15 of the last 17 weeks at number one in the UK. In an industry that increasingly struggles to sell its physical product, Adele has managed to shift no fewer than 6m copies for independent record label XL.
Label founder Richard Russell said Adele was a "special artist" who had conquered the world with talent alone. "The whole message with her is, it's just music. There's no gimmicks, there's no selling of sexuality," he said.
The choice of Team Adele – which includes manager Jonathan Dickins, publisher Paul Connolly and radio plugger Brad Hunner – to head the chart was unanimous, said Cerne Canning, part of the list's voting panel, which included experts from the music industry.
"Adele is the most powerful force in music at the moment," he said. "It is very refreshing to see something so successful done in such a sensitive way."
Showing that the traditional major record label is not dead, Lucian Grainge and David Joseph, CEOs of Universal Music Group and Universal Music UK respectively – home of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and the Rolling Stones – came in at second place. The dark lord of commercial pop, Simon Cowell, is number three, while BBC Radio 1 music policy executive Nigel Harding is at four.
Artists to make it into the list include will.i.am (11), Lady Gaga (18), Damon Albarn (24), Team Dizzee Rascal (28), Jay-Z (38), N-Dubz (62), Mumford & Sons and Laura Marling (74), David Guetta (86) and Plan B (88).
The list reflects the bullishness of the independent market, with godfather of indie Martin Mills, chairman of Beggars Group – which encompasses XL, 4AD and Rough Trade and is home to acts such as the White Stripes, the National and Jarvis Cocker – at 22; Laurence Bell, founder of Domino Records, at 64; and Lohan Presencer, club promoter and label executive at Ministry of Sound, at 60.
Geoff Travis (at number 58), co-partner in Rough Trade records and another expert on the voter panel, said: "This shows that major labels may still dominate the market but they do not dominate quality music."He regretted that there weren't more women in the list - reserving special praise for Alison Howe, the producer of Later … With Jools Holland (43). "We wanted there to be more women, but I think it is just a sad reflection of how few women there are in position of power in the music industry."
Reflecting the digital revolution that has transformed the music industry in the past decade, the list includes Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, co-founders of Google, (8), Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (13), Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify (27), the co-founders of Twitter (37), Steve Purdham, founder and CEO of We7 (68) and SoundCloud founder Eric Wahlforss (72). Youtube, which five years ago would undoubtedly have been higher up the list, crept in at 100. Reflecting the digital revolution that has transformed the industry in the past decade, the list includes Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, founders of YouTube (6); Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, co-founders of Google, (8); Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (13); Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify (27); the co-founders of Twitter (37); Steve Purdham, founder and CEO of We7 (68); and SoundCloud founder Eric Wahlforss (72). YouTube, which five years ago would undoubtedly have been higher up the list, crept in at 100.
The sales outlets that have changed the way people buy their music also make a strong showing in the top 100, with iTunes UK at five and Jeff Bezos, president and CEO of Amazon.com, at 10.
Paul Scaife, managing director of industry newsletter Record of the Day and a judge on the expert panel, said the choices reflected the fragmentation of the music business. "The list reflects how there is no centralised way of finding music anymore – the old monopoly has gone."
Film and music supplement guardian.co.uk/music-power-10
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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