Women In Music 2015

"The trailblazing women executives who are celebrated in these pages aren't just leading the music industry -- they're transforming it," writes Hillary Clinton in her introduction to Billboard's annual Women In Music issue. The people below are leaders across every facet of the industry; consider Marcie Allen's transformative brand work, Jody Gerson's historic appointment to the top of Universal Music Publishing's C-suite, Michelle Jubelirer's indispensable ears and eyes at the Capitol Tower. Taken together they form the bedrock of the business. Congratulations -- and thanks.

Women In Music 2015: The Billboard Shoot

EMMA BANKS

Co-head of international touring/co-head of CAA Music London, Creative Artists Agency

CAROLE KINZEL

Agent, Creative Artists Agency

MARLENE TSUCHII

Co-head of international touring, Creative Artists Agency

Banks and Tsuchii, based in London and Los Angeles, ­respectively, co-­manage international touring for CAA, an increasingly important part of the agency's business. Banks worked on Katy Perry's Prismatic World Tour and guided up-and-comer Hozierto major festival spots, while Tsuchii is plotting Justin Bieber's 2016 global itinerary, after working in 2015 for such Billboard Boxscore leaders as Foo Fighters and Ariana Grande. Meanwhile, Kinzel helped her client Lana Del Rey set ­multiple venue records on her summer tour of amphitheaters.

SARA NEWKIRK SIMON, 38

Partner/co-head of music department, William Morris Endeavor

SAMANTHA KIRBY YOH

Partner, William Morris Endeavor

New York-based Kirby Yoh (left) and Los Angeles-based Newkirk Simon scout opportunities for their diverse clientele on both coasts. Kirby Yoh, who manages WME's New York music team, cites the recent launch of the M2M fashion channel on Apple TV by WME and its affiliated IMG agency as a new ­exposure opportunity for clients Florence & The Machine, Grimes, FKA Twigs and Alicia Keys. Division co-head Newkirk Simon guides Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams and Selena Gomez with an eye on new career options; client Miguel has just joined the cast of the upcoming crime film Live by Night, starring Ben Affleck.

NATALIA NASTASKIN

Head of U.S. music operations, United Talent Agency

The former CEO of the Agency Group USA spent the ­summer ­negotiating the acquisition of her 2,200-client firm by United Talent Agency. "It's a major game-changer," says the New York-based Nastaskin, who opened a Miami office and created a college and casino booking division for her agency.

 

MARSHA VLASIC

President, Artist Group International

A veteran agent with a loyal client list of superstars and critically acclaimed acts (Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Muse, Regina Spektor, The Strokes,Band of Horses), Vlasic still seeks out additions to her roster. "There's always room for one more, especially when you're a Jewish mother," says the Brooklyn native. Highlights of her year included Young's tour backed by Promise of the Real (the band led by Willie Nelson's son Lukas) and Costello's Detour Tour.

CAROLINE YIM, 37

Concerts agent, ICM Partners

Under Yim's guidance, Kehlani Parrish -- the 20-year-old former America's Got Talent contestant -- embarked on her first solo tour. The Los Angeles native also has orchestrated road runs for Kendrick Lamar (13 intimate shows), The Internet (40 cities domestically), Earl Sweatshirt (62 cities) and duoRae Sremmurd (with 155 dates booked). "This is my music," says the UCLA alumna. "I've been a hip-hopper from day one."

MARCIE ALLEN, 42

President, MAC Presents

Allen flies weekly between her home in Nashville and office in New York, which helps explain why she saw the potential in an airline-artist partnership. Among the deals her team brokered this year were a Southwest Airlines tour ­sponsorship for Imagine Dragons, including an in-flight ­concert. Thanks to diversification with clients like Microsoft Windows, revenue is up 20 percent over 2014 to a record eight ­figures, and Allen will begin 2016 by rolling out a Sundance Film Festival programming ­partnership in January with the venue Park City Live. She also promises a "breakthrough summer ­festival ­strategy" with a major beer brand.

JENNIFER BREITHAUPT, 43

Global head of entertainment, Citi

Selling millions of tickets to its credit-card holders, Citi has partnered with more than 1,400 artists and bands and 11,000 events in 21 ­countries in 2015, including a majority of the year's top tours, says Breithaupt. The brand, which one informed source estimates is working with a $100 ­million budget -- Citi doesn't disclose this ­information -- and has seen double-digit year-to-year growth in ticket sales and U.S. ticket revenue, also is focused on creating opportunities for fans "who may never leave the house," like Yahoo's concert-a-day series, explains Breithaupt. For 2016, she and Citi are ­working on ­technology to identify card holders in venues and give them ­"special access to artists" as the ­ultimate door prize.

DEBORAH CURTIS

Vp global sponsorships and experiential marketing, American Express

In 2015, Curtis delivered presale access for American Express card holders to tours by The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Kenny Chesney,Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift. With Swift's team, she created the Emmy-winning Amex Unstaged Taylor Swift Experience app, which included an interactive video of "Blank Space." (One industry insider put the deal at $3 million to $5 million.) Newer acts have received a boost from Amex Unstaged Artists in Residence, which has showcased Børns, Rae Sremmurd and Pia Mia.

SARA CLEMENS, 44

Chief strategy officer, Pandora

Clemens and her team have spent the last year positioning Pandora to better compete in the digital marketplace. In November, the company acquired some of the assets of Rdio for $75 million with the intention of entering the on-demand subscription marketplace with Spotify, Apple and YouTube. In October, it spent $450 million on Ticketfly, which will allow artists to sell concert tickets directly to Pandora listeners. "There was a crew of probably more than 100 people that leaned in to get this done," the New Zealand native says of the deal.

TAMARA HRIVNAK, 39

Director/head of Americas music ­partnerships, Google Play/YouTube

VIVIEN LEWIT

Director/global head of artist ­relations, YouTube/Google Play

HEATHER MOOSNICK, 43

Director/head of label partnerships (Americas), YouTube

Through complementary roles at Google, these three women are driving the tech giant's digital music strategy for YouTube and Google Play. Hrivnak focuses on partnerships with hardware manufacturers, telecommunication firms and retailers, as well as labels and music ­publishers. Lewit prepped the November launches of subscription service YouTube Red and the YouTube Music app. Moosnick, a veteran of digital roles at MTV and Warner Music, secured the label licenses for YouTube Red.

KATIE SCHLOSSER

Senior director of label relations for North America, Spotify

As Spotify has grown from 15 million to 60 million listeners during the past five years, Schlosser, an alumna of the Berklee College of Music, has worked "to generate meaningful artist success stories." This year, for instance, EDM group Major Lazer racked up 38 million streams of its single "Lean On" -- landing it at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- after Spotify orchestrated "a concerted marketing push," she says.

MONICA ESCOBEDO, 38

Entertainment producer, ABC News/Good Morning America

Escobedo did her part in the perpetual  ratings battle for network morning-show supremacy by amping up GMA's summer concert series lineup.Jason Derulo's June 12 gig scored particularly big, attracting 5.1 million viewers -- the highest Nielsen numbers of the series -- and translated to the kind of exposure that's increasingly difficult for an artist to get from a single appearance: Sales of his album Everything Is 4 jumped 20 percent afterward. Escobedo also orchestrated special coverage of One Direction in conjunction with the release of its new album,Made in the A.M. Says the UCLA graduate: "It's all about creating those television moments."

JULIE GUROVITSCH, 33

Talent executive for music, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

LINDSAY SHOOKUS, 35

Producer, Saturday Night Live

When it comes to music, SNL and The Tonight Show are the most influential shows in late night, and Gurovitsch (left) and Shookus are their gatekeepers. Shortly after Gurovitsch booked blues rockers Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats' national TV debut on Aug. 5 at Fallon's request, streaming of the band's single, "S.O.B.," jumped 279 percent to 173,000 plays, according to Nielsen Music. And when Shookus, who leads a team of three other bookers, landed Miley Cyrus for SNL’s fall premiere on Oct. 3, the show saw a 14-percent ratings boost over the 2014 season debut. They make it look easy, but Shookus, who has been an SNL producer since 2010, says, "You get one chance to make the right impression. And people have long memories when you make the wrong one."

DEBRA LEE, 61

Chairman/CEO, BET Networks

Lee acknowledges it has been a tough year, characterized by layoffs and ­restructuring that rocked BET parent company Viacom. "But it hasn't slowed us down," she says. Despite a 1.4 million dip in viewers in 2015, music tentpole the BET Awards still ranks as cable's No. 1 awards telecast. The third annual BET Experience festival was another success: Attendance was up 36 percent (150,000-plus), and the event has been renewed through 2018.

New Songs 2015

Tidal, the streaming service launched by rap mogul Jay Z this past March, has hired veteran digital music executive Jeff Toig to fill the Chief Executive Officer that's been open since the summer. With Toig Tidal gets an executive who knows a thing or two about building young businesses. Before he was SoundCloud's Chief Business Officer, Toig was a founder and svp at Muve Music, Cricket Wireless's innovative music service, and was on the Virgin Mobile USA founding team. Jay Z, who bought Tidal in March, calls him "a leader at the intersection of consumer technology and entertainment for more than two decades."

The hire should also bring some stability after considerable turnover this year. Since its (oft-criticized) big reveal, Tidal has gone through two CEOs -- Andy Chen and interim CEO Peter Tonstad -- as well as Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Geisler, Chief Investment Officer Vania Schlogel and svp of artist and label relations Zena Burns. Adding to the bad optics have been persistent rumors that Jay Z is looking to sell the company or partner with another service -- scenarios that seem unlikely with Toig's hire.

In a conversation with Billboard, Toig talked about why he agreed to join Tidal, why he's optimistic about the service's future and Jay Z's long-term vision for the company.

Other than there being a limited number of these jobs available in the world, what prompted you to take the job?

In terms of why I decided to take it, for me there were really three main reasons. At a high level, this was a great opportunity to do something differentiated here. Jay Z and the artist-owners are deeply committed to Tidal and the vision they have for the business.

Let me break each of those down. As I evaluated the business and the opportunity, Tidal has a really unique set of assets. It has exclusive content, deep connection with the artists -- A-list artists -- live events like Tidal X, and a unique set of assets. It's early in the game, but the seeds have been planted and it creates a really fascinating foundation.

Second, through the interview process I was fortunate to spend quite a lot of time with Jay Z, learning more about his vision for Tidal and why he made such a significant investment in this business. It became clear to me that Jay and the artists behind the company are deeply committed to developing an amazing music experience for fans. I share a belief that this has been lost with many services, and it will be critical as we build Tidal into a leader in this space.

The third thing is the momentum. The company just launched six, seven months ago and it's already grown to over a million subscribers. When you see a business like this gaining that kind of momentum, you start to think there's something quite interesting happening. I've seen this before, and I'm intrigued by the growth and the potential the business has.

You mentioned things like exclusive content and events. Where do you think factors like exclusive content and events come to play versus just the product itself and the user experience? Do you think anything needs to change about the product, or is that not something you come into the company looking to do?

As a foundation, there's a really interesting product there. The service itself includes music, videos, exclusive content, as you mentioned there's a live show component. And that's really interesting. Because you've got exclusives from A-list artists, you have the Tidal Rising artists the company is finding and helping to promote. There's a core consumer experience that's powerful and really compelling. And, on top of it, you have events that really bring music and the connection fans have with artists to life. There are these really interesting connected components of the experience Tidal is trying to present to fans that look different from what other services do because of the artists who are involved in building this business.

When I see the exclusive content and the artists that are most popular on Tidal -- and a good number of the artist-owners -- there's a lot of hip-hop and R&B in there. Do you think that's Tidal's best shot, to go after that market? Do you want to own hip-hop and R&B ,or do you want to branch out and get fans of all different types of genres?

I think practically, if you look at the service, there are a lot of urban artists involved. There are also other owners. Coldplay is involved in the business and gave a really amazing live stream on the service. There are EDM artists doing some interesting things. It's not just an urban focus. In terms of positioning the business moving forward, I don't start until January 4th. I need to get in there, learn more about the business, figure out the best next steps for the company, help shape the strategy of the business... and I'm not sure exactly what that's going to look like.

When you sat down and talked to Jay Z about the job and he hired you, did you two come up with first orders of business, like, "Here's X, Y, Z we want to do first"?

Not yet. I think we have an alignment on how we start to shape something that connects fans with the artists they love in new ways, and do something that's unique and differentiated and doesn't look like other services out there. [Something] that leverages the creativity the artist-owners bring to the business that find their way into the service.

Since Tidal re-launched in March, you now have Apple Music, YouTube Red, Pandora announcing plans to launch a subscription service. What do you think of the market? Do you think it's growing at a good enough rate for all services they get, or do you think everybody's just grabbing share right now? A little of both?

This is my view: There's clearly momentum building around subscription music services generally. The concept is gaining traction with consumers because you have a number of really meaningful companies that are in this space, and that puts a lot of focus and attention on a new idea. I don't think any of us were sure, five years ago, that this business concept would take hold -- but it's taking hold.

If you look at subscription models generally, subscription-based business models make for attractive companies. Video subscription services like Netflix, wireless carriers like Verizon and cable companies like Comcast, they all demonstrate that subscription models with recurring revenues are attractive businesses. We can create music subscription businesses that are also viable and attractive.

Tidal is interesting in that it has the standard price and a higher-priced service for higher-quality audio. But it doesn't have free, or something at a lower price tier -- that's a place where Muve Music had some success. Do you think that needs to be addressed or can be addressed? Or do you think services like Tidal are going to go after the $9.99 consumer and the $19.99 consumer for the time being?

I don't know yet. Until I get into the business and can roll up my sleeves with my team, I don't know exactly how we're going to [determine] the best opportunities for us to chase. I've looked at hi-fi technologies and the impact that's had on the industry. There's something happening there, too. Of [Tidal's] million-plus subscribers, nearly half of them are on the hi-fi offering.

The feeling I get from the music industry about Tidal has been both uncertainty and optimism. What's your message going to be to the music business, when you step in and start talking with them in January?

I think first and foremost we're aligned with major labels and publishers. We're trying to do something that forwards their interests, something that's going to help the artists, the writers and the creative community. We're deeply committed to this business and we're focused on building a scaled, sustainable, successful business that's going to be here for a long time.

The subscription service marketplace is expanding and its consolidating a bit at the same time. Did you have any conversations with Jay Z that gave you any indication of how long he's willing to put in to create the kind of service you're talking about?

I spent a lot of time with Jay during the interview process and he's an incredibly talented and visionary businessman and he is deeply committed to Tidal. This isn't a short-term play. This is a long-term investment.

New Voice

One artist was eliminated on The Voice tonight, with the top nine contestants advancing to next week’s live semifinals. Eight of those semifinalists automatically advanced, and one was selected by the audience instant Twitter save. Seven of the artists broke into the iTunes top 10 this week.

Adam Levine kicked off the night with a performance of “Locked Away” with R. City. Then it was time for the first round of results. America voted to save Blake Shelton’s young bluegrass singer Emily Ann Roberts and Team Adam’s Jordan Smith. Roberts and Smith both had very strong performances last night -- as did just about everyone. Smith’s performance of “Hallelujah” was particularly a knockout, solidifying Smith as the most versatile artist in the competition. It’s hard to envision a finale without him in it.

'The Voice' Recap: Top 10 Fight for Spots in the Semifinal

In the next round of results, Carson Daly announced that Gwen Stefani’s Jeffery Austin and Team Blake’s Barrett Baber are automatically advancing to the semifinals. Austin set the bar very high last night as the first performer, and Baber closed out the night with an equally moving and technically sound performance.

Daly asked the youngest artist in the competition, Braiden Sunshine, what it means to him to be here, and Sunshine replied that he never thought he would make it to this stage. “I thought it was a waste of gas money to go to the audition,” Sunshine joked. “I’m forever grateful,” he added.

America also voted to save Team Pharrell’s Madi Davis and Team Adam’s Amy Vachal. Davis is the last remaining artist on Pharrell’s team and his only hope at winning it all, but she definitely has what it takes to be crowned the champion when season nine concludes. And Vachal’s streak of impressively original performances also makes her a strong contender for this season’s finale.

After Sia gave an enthralling performance of her newest single “Alive,” Daly returned to the results. America voted to save Team Blake’s Zach Seabaugh, which meant all of Shelton’s remaining artists automatically advanced to the semifinals. America also saved Team Adam’s Shelby Brown, whose emotional performance of “Go Rest High on That Mountain” by Vince Gill last night was her best performance of the season.

For the very first time, Sunshine found himself in the bottom two, and for the third time in a row, Korin Bukowski joined him in having to sing for the instant audience save. The veteran went first. Bukowski sang “Try” by Colbie Caillat an unfortunately forgot some of her lyrics toward the beginning of the song, and even though she covered it pretty well, it must have messed with her confidence, because Bukowski forgot her lyrics again and even stopped singing for a moment.

The performance definitely wasn’t representative of her talents as an artist. But it also just doesn’t make sense that Bukowski has found herself in this position yet again, especially after her performance last night which really felt like a turning point for the artist. The coaches encouraged her to keep her head up despite the mistakes. “You deserve to be in this competition,” Shelton said. “That girl right there is deep,” Stefani said, urging viewers to understand that the mistakes came from a place of emotional honesty.

'The Voice': Top 11 Sing for America's Vote

Sunshine exploded out onto the stage next with his performance of “Harder To Breathe” byMaroon 5. He had an incredible strong start, but the pressure started to get to him, too. He also forgot some of his lyrics but kept plowing through and managed to nail the ending. Levine, naturally, was a fan of the song choice. But the coaches unanimously praised the performance.

While waiting for the results to come in, Stefani got emotional about having to lose one of her artists. Ultimately, America instantly saved Sunshine, and the vote finally didn’t go Bukowski’s way. What did you think of tonight’s results?

Latest New Songs

Ariana Grande has scrapped four upcoming international shows for reasons she hasn’t yet shared. 

The pop singer’s Honeymoon Tour was due to pull in at the Du Arena in Abu Dhabi (Dec. 3), she was then booked to perform at Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball at The O2 in London (Dec. 5), before wrapping things up with two shows at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City, Japan (Dec. 8 and 9).  Her touring schedule, however, has now been wiped clean. 

Ariana Grande: The Billboard Cover Shoot

Grande, who recently dropped "Focus," a single lifted from her upcoming albumMoonlight, tweeted that the dates would be rescheduled for next year. 

She wrote, “babies, I'm so sad I won't be able to make it abroad this December but I can't wait to see u & reschedule for next year.i love you so much.”

Due to her latest canceled shows, Grande's tour effectively finished on Oct. 25 in Sao