Since being promoted to president and CEO in early 2025, Julie Adam has maintained Universal Music Canada’s position as the strong market share leader among major labels in the country. UMC is home to some of the biggest artists in the world through its international roster, from Taylor Swift to Paul McCartney to Post Malone. Over the last year especially, though, she and UMC’s A&R team have led the label through a noticeable investment in up-and-coming Canadian talent including the signings of Casper TNG, Braden Lam,Kuzi Cee, Ebril and Elysia Biro. The label’s focus on strengthening artist development and investment in the country has included a recent partnership with hit Canadian songwriter Lowell and another with acclaimed DJ Zeds Dead’s label Deadbeats. That’s not to mention breakout artists like country stars Josh Ross and Owen Riegling and pop artist Sofia Camara, who’ve heightened their rise this year. Adam, who is also the chair of the board of Junos facilitator CARAS and its education charity Musicounts, is a high-powered label executive who has also centred on the well-being of its artists and employees in a stressful and precarious industry, including a recent partnership with Amber Health to provide mental health services to North American artists and songwriters and Music Mental Health Alliance to support UMC’s workers.

Eric Wong became the president of Warner Music Canada in 2025 after the departure of Kristen Burke. Based primarily in New York, Wong maintains multiple roles on both sides of the border — also the president of East West Records US and EVP of recorded music at Warner Music Group, overseeing global marketing campaigns and A&R efforts. Since his appointment, he has made efforts to consolidate and strengthen the relationship between the Canadian label and its global operations with what the label calls a “results-first culture.” That’s included a significant reduction in staff alongside an effort to elevate Canadian talent. It’s manifested on both the executive level, through the promotion of new WMC co-GMs Madelaine Napoleone and Julia Hummel, and on the talent level, with global pushes for breakout artists like Jade LeMac, who secured a spot on Hilary Duff’s buzzy comeback tour, and Cameron Whitcomb, who became a mainstay on the Billboard Canada charts and won country album of the year and the breakthrough artist award at the 2026 Junos. The chart performance has been strong in Canada for international artists as well, with Zach Bryan, Don Toliver, Hilary Duff and Bruno Mars all hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Canadian Albums chart in 2026.

The longest-tenured president of a major label in Canada, Shane Carter has seen the evolution of the Canadian industry firsthand. The label continues to develop and grow Canadian artists, including homegrown acts like Aqyila, Tyler Shaw, standout Indigenous acts like Tia Wood and Snotty Nose Rez Kids and rising country artist Sacha, who made her debut last year at Nashville’s storied Grand Ole Opry. He works with legends too, including one of Canada’s biggest global icons, Celine Dion. Carter was an executive producer on last year’s Prime Video documentary I Am: Céline Dion and has worked collaboratively with the Sony Music Canada and global Sony Music team to orchestrate her comeback, including long-awaited new music and a hotly anticipated return to the stage in a Paris residency in 2026 that is sure to be one of the highlights of the year. Also a passionate philanthropist with his support of charities like Canadian Music Therapy Fund, MusiCounts and Unison and the Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation in his birthplace of Jamaica. After nearly two decades at the helm, he continues to lead an eventful and decorated label career.

Create Music Group is making big moves in the Canadian indie label world. In his corporate development and mergers and acquisitions role, Eric Nguyen is a key dealmaker behind the company’s rapid consolidation, aggressive investment and global expansion. In the past year, Create invested $300 million in pioneering Vancouver-based indie label Nettwerk Music Group, buying out existing investors. Create also acquired Monstercat, an influential Canadian-founded electronic label, with a plan to invest over $50 million over two years. That’s in addition to a big previous partnership and catalogue acquisition with deamau5’s mau5trap label. Nguyen has also helped drive deals involving influential dance and electronic labels including CR2 Records and Enhanced Music. The company now oversees more than $400 million in acquisitions and partnerships across labels, catalogues and artist ventures, positioning Create as one of the fastest-growing alternatives to the major label system.

Country music is a hot genre and Joey Moi is at the forefront as a co-founder at Big Loud Records, one of the most influential labels in Nashville. Originally from British Columbia, Moi plays a key role in a roster that includes many notable Canadians, like roster artist Owen Riegling, who recently played his biggest U.S. show at the lauded Grand Ole Opry, as well as MacKenzie Porter, Dallas Smith and TALK. The latter recently signed to Big Loud Rock in the U.S., where Moi serves as president and works with a talented roster including major breakouts HARDY and Dexter and the Moonrocks. Moi arrived in the label world from his work as blockbuster producer, once an architect of the 2000s heights of Nickelback and now a key figure in the rise of chart juggernaut Morgan Wallen, including 2025’s I’m The Problem, which topped the 2025 year-end Billboard Canadian Albums chart. It’s no wonder Moi was named the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 producer of the year. Now, he has his sights set on rock, where he first made his name. As SVP of marketing, Brianne Deslippe is another Canadian playing a crucial global role, leading marketing, digital, creative, media, streaming and international teams.

Bryan Columbus is part of a growing class of executives reshaping the power and perception of independent labels in Canada. Since joining BMG in 2024 to lead the strategy and promotion of BMG’s recorded roster in Canada, Columbus has artists compete at a major-label level by leaning into fan culture, streaming behaviour and artist development rather than traditional blockbuster infrastructure. It’s led to big successes for breakout Canadian artists like yung kai, whose single “blue” hit a billion streams and went gold, Sum 41, who reached new heights during their 2024/2025 farewell tour, as well as big bands like PUP and Spiritbox. It’s also led to Canadian success of international artists like Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Lily Allen and many more. His influence is set to grow even further following BMG’s global merger with Concord (where Columbus once worked), which will create one of the largest music companies outside the major-label system.

This year marked a major turning point for the Vancouver-founded Nettwerk Music Group when Create Music Group invested more than $300 million to support a management buyout and strategic partnership with Nettwerk, one of the biggest independent music deals involving a Canadian company in recent years. The deal allows Nettwerk to retain its independent leadership while gaining access to Create’s global infrastructure, distribution and capital. Terry McBride, who co-founded the company 40 years ago and famously played a big role in the development of artists like Sarah McLachlan and Skinny Puppy, increased his ownership stake while continuing his day-to-day role. Simon Mortimer-Lamb, meanwhile, has been appointed co-CEO, helping lead a new audience-development initiatives inside the company, including a “Black Box” team focused on navigating rapidly changing social and DSP algorithms in an increasingly crowded, AI-driven music landscape. The company it’s grown its active artists’ audience by 20% over the year across streaming and social platforms, reaching an audience of over 100 million.

Chris Moncada was named COO of MNRK Music Group in 2024, but has spent almost a decade at the organization through its many transformations first through its Last Gang label imprint — a notable imprint acquired by MNRK (then Entertainment One) in 2016. Now, he is responsible for developing and executing key business strategies (A&R, marketing, sales/consumption) as MNRK shifts from a distribution-heavy model toward a label-first strategy that has resulted in growth including over two dozen new artist signings both Canadian and international, including folk-rock giants The Lumineers and social media star Bella Poarch. He’s one of a small handful of influential Canadian executives in the C-suite at U.S.-based global indie labels, and he’s responsible for a staff of nearly 50 from Toronto to New York, London and Nashville.

In an era in which authenticity has become more important than ever, Justin West, president and CEO of Secret City Records, continues to drive independent artists to new heights and represent artists’ rights in the age of AI. The label celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, coinciding with a record tour from its longtime artist Patrick Watson, who will headline major festivals like the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) this summer. His biggest hit « Je te laisserai des mots » received a major sync placement in The Summer I Turned Pretty last fall, after becoming the first-ever French language song to reach a billion Spotify streams in 2024. West has helped Secret City thrive on an independent level as artists like Alexandra Stréliski, Jeremy Dutcher achieve impressive numbers and accolades, and he’s also become a major advocate for the independent sector as a whole. He’s on the boards of CIMA and global digital rights licensing collective Merlin, where he was re-elected last fall and he’s a founding member of indie label collective ORCA.

Jonathan Simkin has one of the most fascinating and multifaceted careers in the Canadian music industry. After starting as a criminal and refugee lawyer, he started a relationship with Nickelback leader Chad Kroeger, first acting as their lawyer then joining up to co-found Vancouver’s 604 Records, which has become one of the country’s leading indie labels. Now, he’s instrumental in label operations, artist management, comedy, catalogue growth, audiovisual production and even podcasting, with I Hate Simkin, one of the rare few no-BS music industry podcasts. This has been a good year for both developing and established talent, with rising act Fionn topping the Billboard Canada Modern Rock Airplay chart for multiple weeks in 2025 and The Organ winning the Polaris Heritage Prize for their influential cult classic Grab That Gun. He even worked a Nickelback song again, helping usher the band to No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart with their 2026 Wrestlemania theme song “Bones For The Crows” being released independently. Things have a funny way of coming full circle.

As an artist-executive guiding other artists, J. Spencer Mussellam is a key figure at Believe Canada, part of the French-born global artist development company, digital-first distribution services and label that operates in 50 countries worldwide. The company, which boasts a $1.05 billion annual global revenue, is making a big push in North America with a recent launch in the U.S. In Canada, the company is attached to Quebec chart mainstays and legends like Cœur de pirate, Ginette Reno and Les Cowboys Fringants. With hands-on experience in recording, engineering, tour managing and more, Mussellam helps leverage Believe’s global data and tech to scale indie artists like Traitrs, driving measurable growth in streaming and fan engagement.