Golnar Khosrowshahi’s international accolades are undeniable (see Leaderboard), and Hussain “Spek” Yoosuf is another Canadian making Reservoir a hometown success story. A former member of Canadian hip-hop pioneers Dream Warriors (recently inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame), he now has a dual role in A&R for Reservoir and CEO for PopArabia. Those two companies have partnered to grow Reservoir’s catalogue of Arabic music and bolster local music in the Middle East, one of the fastest growing music markets in the world. The board member of CARAS and MusiCounts maintains a connection to Canadian music, while bolstering Reservoir’s influence worldwide.

It’s been a chaotic year for Hipgnosis and its Canadian founder Merck Mercuriadis. The company that has proven the investment value of song catalogues as assets has been part of a bidding war between Concord and Blackstone to take over Hipgnosis Songs Fund, for which Hipgnosis Song Management is the investment advisor. During an embattled time for the company, Mercuriadis stepped down as CEO but is now Chairman. But the bidding war has shown how valuable Hipgnosis’s boasted $3 billion worth of assets are, which includes $400 million in 2023|2024 acquisitions of song catalogues by Justin Bieber, Shakira, Dua Lipa-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. and more – more than 50 No. 1 songs. Hipgnosis controls 22% of songs in Spotify’s Billions Club, including big songs by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Nile Rodgers, and immortal hits like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Though his future might be unclear, Mercuriadis remains at the center of the music business conversation.

Sony Music Publishing's Canadian team is paying attention to artists and genres on the rise. Vice President of Creative David Quilico is putting the company’s support behind the Punjabi Wave — Punjabi is the fastest-growing music language in the country — with signings like hit producer Intense (“Excuses” by AP Dhillon and Gurinder Gill, 1.3 billion streams; “Lover” by Diljit Dosanjh, 191 million streams). SMP’s Canadian roster runs deep across genres, too, representing songwriters like Dax (2023 Juno for Breakthrough Artist); Forest Blakk (800 million streams); River Tiber (sampled by Kendrick Lamar); and Canadian rock stars Billy Talent. SMP Canada songwriters are also garnering international acclaim, with Gerald Eaton picking up a 2024 special Grammy for Best Song for Social Change, honouring K’naan’s “Refugee.”

In just over a year as CEO of Anthem, Jason Klein strengthened the company’s position in the lucrative world of publishing and catalogue acquisitions. Under his leadership, Anthem has signed Nashville-based songwriters Jamie Paulin, Joey Hyde and Conor Matthews, as well as Canadian writers Lauren Gillis and Steve Molella. The company also extended deals with country stars Chris Janson and Meghan Patrick, and secured an administration deal with Canadian rock band Finger Eleven. They’ve also recently acquired catalogues from Jordan Davis, Chantal Kreviazuk and Creative Nation, which include some big hits by artists like Drake, Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears and others. The company has also invested in Timbaland’s BeatClub creator platform and has a co-publishing deal with the super-producer. This year, they also became the sponsor of the 2023 Canada’s Rock of Fame event and MusiCounts’ Teacher of the Year Award.

As President of music rights management company Kilometre Music Group, Rodney Murphy works alongside publishing legend and CEO Michael McCarty, sourcing, negotiating, and acquiring music rights for hits. His track record in this sphere speaks for itself. Kilometre Music Group has an impressive catalogue of over 2,000 songs, including 8 of Spotify’s 20 most-streamed songs of all time (The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and “Starboy” and Drake’s “One Dance” are on that list). Over the past 18 months, Kilometre has welcomed 10 songwriters, producers, and artists collectively amassing over 5 billion streams. Signings include, in May 2023, the catalogue of William Phillip, co-writer of Sam Smith’s mammoth (1.7B Spotify streams) hit “Stay With Me.” Kilometre has recently completed five music deals for a combined $53 million, including stakes in Taylor Swift singles “Lavender Haze” and “Karma,” plus hits by Drake (“Fair Trade”), The Weeknd (“Lost In the Fire” and “Reminder”), Kendrick Lamar, Future and more.

Darryl Ballantyne is celebrating the 20th anniversary of LyricFind, which he co-founded and has led as CEO since its inception. The company operates in a particular niche, but an important and growing one as streaming and social media become the main home for music listening: digital lyric licensing and publishing. This year has been particularly big for the company, as LyricFind acquired Rotor Videos, which uses AI to automatically generate lyric videos. LyricFind now boasts partnerships with over 60,000 publishers, covering more than 200,000 publishing catalogues. Working with platforms like TikTok, Amazon, Google, YouTube and CD Baby makes LyricFind a bridge between music and tech.