Power 100
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Bad Bunny was all smiles and nerves while presenting his longtime manager, Noah Assad, with the Executive of the Year award at Billboard‘s 2023 Power 100 event on Wednesday (Feb. 2) at Goya Studios.
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After being introduced by Leila Cobo, Billboard‘s Chief Content Officer Latin/Español, the global sensation, who typically opts to publicly speak in Spanish, decided to give English a try, lightheartedly joking with the crowd, “Tonight is a special night not because my friend is winning this award, it’s more because I’m making my first English speech ever.” He was met with supportive applause and cheers, with a handful of attendees encouraging him to speak in Spanish anyway. Nevertheless, El Conejo Malo found middle ground, sharing a heartfelt speech in a mix of both languages.
“I know my man doesn’t like this kind of thing — this attention, the speech, this corny s–t,” he said amidst laughter from the crowd. “This award means a lot to me, the same way that my own awards mean a lot for him. It’s because this award is the proof that I’m not working alone, that dreams come true, but it’s never only by yourself. It’s always about team work.”
Together, the dynamic Puerto Rican pair have achieved unprecedented heights in Spanish and English markets, including Bad Bunny’s first of two tours in 2022, El Último Tour del Mundo, boasting the top sales day for any tour on Ticketmaster (since Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run II tour went on sale in 2018), selling out nearly half a million tickets in less than a week. Four months after the tour closed, Bad Bunny commenced his World’s Hottest Tour stadium run, which made him the first artist to ever achieve separate $100 million-plus tours in the same calendar year. The global pop star’s 81 concerts in 2022 grossed $434.9 million, which marked the highest calendar-year total for any artist since the launching of Billboard Boxscore in the 1980s, posing it to become the biggest Latin tour ever.
“I came from a family of three brothers, I’m the oldest one,” Bad Bunny continued. “I never felt what it was like to have a big brother. So I want to thank Noah for being a friend, a partner and being like a big brother to me. I know that it’s tough, no soy facil, but I want to thank him for believing in me from the first day. Not just believing, but making those dreams and that vision real.”
Toward the end of his speech, the Puerto Rican phenomenon appeared to choke up under his sunshine-yellow New York Yankees fitted cap. “I want to thank him for inspiring me to dream bigger, to be a better person. To be more like you,” he directed to Assad. “There’s no big Bad Bunny superstar without Noah Assad. So if you ask me what it feels like to be the number one artist in the world, I have to say, I’m not. Noah is. We are the best. Lo mas hijo de p–a from Puerto Rico.”
As Bad Bunny foreshadowed in his sweet speech, Assad was a man of few words, more comfortable in the “big brother” role as Benito described it: in the wings cheering on his superstar friend. The pair shared a warm embrace before Bad Bunny playfully took the mic with him off stage to spare Assad the public speaking. “He had me crying in the corner,” Assad began. In the end, the mega exec offered a few profound words, shouting out his and Benito’s hometown of Carolina, Puerto Rico, and showering the rapper with praise, as the artist had just done for Assad.
“Everything we do, we do it to Puerto Rico, to the world. I’m honored to be the first Latin [to win this award] even though I don’t look like it,” he joked. “I want to thank Billboard. Billboard has always covered Latin. They never undervalue us in any way. They treat us as equal as the global American market. We have to be very grateful for that. At the end of the day, me and Bunny are products of thousands of people who work very hard on our island. All those walls they had to break down. There are a lot more stories to be told. This is only chapter one.”
Thanking his team back in Puerto Rico who couldn’t be at the event, Assad was brought to tears. “No one wins championships alone,” he says. “It kills me that [my team] isn’t here today. They’re everything.”
In 2023, Billboard introduces the Power Players’ Choice Award, a peer-voted honor chosen by Billboard Pro members to honor the executive they believe has had the most impact across the music business in the past year. After more than 1,500 votes cast across three rounds of voting, Pro members selected Brandon Silverstein, founder/CEO of S10 Entertainment, for this year’s award.
As a manager, Silverstein has helped build Anitta’s and Normani’s breakout careers, while moving S10 into publishing, recorded music and film/TV. Since expanding S10’s publishing venture with Avex USA last year, the company — Brandon Silverstein Publishing — now represents songwriters-producers-composers HARV (Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”) and Grammy winner Jasper Harris (Jack Harlow’s “First Class”), among others.
“Being recognized by the music industry as one of the most powerful and impactful executives is an absolute honor,” says Silverstein, who is a previous honoree on Billboard’s Latin Power Players and 40 Under 40 lists. “I’m proud of what we’ve built with S10 on a global level and the trust our artists and creatives have in me and my team.”
This story will appear in the Feb. 4, 2023, issue of Billboard.
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When tickets for Bad Bunny’s El Último Tour del Mundo arena tour went on presale in April 2021, his manager, Noah Assad, was cautiously optimistic.
“I thought we would do well, because it was post-pandemic and everyone wanted to go out, but we went on sale without really knowing — and we did it a year out for that very reason,” says Assad.
For Assad, “doing well” has become synonymous with breaking some sort of record. But even he wasn’t expecting Bad Bunny to have one of the most historic, record-setting runs for an artist in the history of the Billboard charts. El Último Tour del Mundo’s presale date became the top sales day for any tour on Ticketmaster since Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run II tour went on sale in 2018, and the run sold out 480,000 tickets in less than a week.
Four months after El Último Tour del Mundo wrapped in April 2022, Bad Bunny embarked on his World’s Hottest Tour stadium run, becoming the first artist to ever mount separate $100 million-plus tours in the same calendar year. Ultimately, his 81 concerts in 2022 grossed $434.9 million, the highest calendar-year total for an artist since Billboard Boxscore launched in the late 1980s. The tour broke local revenue records in 13 North American markets en route to becoming the biggest Latin tour ever.
Bad Bunny’s chart dominance made him Billboard’s top artist of the year, by the numbers, the first Latin act and the first artist who records in a language other than English to earn the distinction. His album Un Verano Sin Ti, released in May on Assad’s independent label, Rimas Entertainment, and distributed by The Orchard, became the first non-English set to ever top the year-end Billboard 200 Albums ranking and the first all-Spanish release nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards, one of Bad Bunny’s three nods.
“I was very proud about that one, especially because it was 100% a Spanish-language album,” says Assad. “It doesn’t have even a verse in English.”
On top of that, in April, Bad Bunny will become the first Latin act to headline Coachella. And, Assad, 32, is realizing some milestones of his own, including being named Billboard’s youngest-ever Executive of the Year and the first Latino to secure the honor.
His achievement underscores not only the growing worldwide popularity and profitability of Latin music, but also shines a light on what an upstart independent can do — regardless of genre or the backing of a legacy company — when armed with guts, hustle, deep musical knowledge, loyalty and the confidence to break rules and create new ones.
Bad Bunny is signed to Assad’s label, Rimas Entertainment, which originated in 2014 as a digital marketing and distribution company. It has evolved to become a 100-plus-person operation with distribution from The Orchard, with a roster ranging from veterans (Arcángel, Jowell & Randy) to promising newcomers (Mora, Eladio Carrión), many of whom are signed to 360 deals. Rimas ended 2022 at No. 7 on Billboard’s year-end Top Labels chart and at No. 1 on the year-end Top Latin Labels chart, with 23 charting albums by seven artists besides Bad Bunny.
Assad also launched RSM Publishing, which is administered by Universal Music Publishing Group and was No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Hot Latin Songs Publishers list. And while Bad Bunny is his most visible management client, Assad also started managing Karol G 18 months ago with his new management firm, Habibi, with stellar results. Her 2022 $trip Love tour, promoted by AEG Presents, grossed $69.9 million with 410,000 tickets sold across 33 arena shows in North America — the highest-earning U.S tour ever by a female Latin act, according to Billboard Boxscore.
“Noah has an unmatched understanding of his artists,” says Jody Gerson, chairman/CEO of UMPG. “His instincts about how to market and promote them, as he has done so well with Bad Bunny and Karol G, are among the best I’ve ever seen in the business. As an executive, Noah is loyal, honest, innovative and smart, and these are just some of the many traits that make him a fantastic partner.”
Though only 32, Assad considers himself a “semi-vet. I may be ‘new’ to a lot of people, but I’ve been at this for 12 years,” he says with a laugh. A self-professed reggaetón nerd with long blonde hair that matches his laid-back surfer vibe, Assad — born to a Lebanese father and a mother from St. Croix — grew up in Puerto Rico, and since seventh grade has been “consumed with reggaetón culture.” By 16, he was promoting house parties, booking the likes of Farruko before he became a big name and cultivating relationships with already established acts like Plan B’s Chencho Corleone. “Chencho was the first established artist to simply say yes to me,” says Assad, a favor that has paid dividends for Corleone; “Me Porto Bonito,” his smash collaboration on Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, became the first all-Spanish song to top Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart. That full-circle moment highlights Assad’s reputation for cultivating relationships with contacts to whom he stays loyal. “We work with everybody; we are always coexisting,” he told Billboard last year. Witness his deals with opposing teams at The Orchard and Universal, while his top touring acts — Bad Bunny and Karol G — work with Live Nation and AEG, respectively.
“Noah is similar to Bad Bunny in that he’s also a unicorn,” says Henry Cárdenas, the veteran promoter and founder of CMN, which produced and promoted Bad Bunny’s last two tours, including the stadium tour in partnership with Live Nation. “The guy’s going to create an empire, and he’s a man of his word. I compare him to the old managers, where we closed business with a handshake, and he’s appreciative. Where I’m concerned, he has continued to take me into account, and it harks back to the fact that I worked with him from the very beginning.”
While Assad’s success feels very of the moment — in keeping with his young acts, the relatively recent mainstream success of reggaetón and Bad Bunny’s fondness for releasing music with little or no notice — he’s actually a planner; like his famous client, he takes a long view on success. It wasn’t always this way. As a young promoter, Assad recalls struggling mightily to make a buck (and often getting “hustled”) in what he half-jokingly refers to as “the reggaetón depression era” of 2009-2016, when the music was largely consumed for free and money came almost solely from live shows.
“YouTube was the outlet that turned it into a commercial business,” says Assad, who says he struck an early deal with the platform to monetize the millions of views the music generated for many independent artists and eventually for his own — including a 22-year-old who called himself Bad Bunny. “I didn’t have the privilege to work with an artist who was already established, but I was very fortunate to have Bunny trust me and work with me. Bunny makes me look good,” he says. Alongside his artist, Assad began thinking long term, and even when his actions seem improvised, they are anything but. Take the one-two punch of back-to-back tours with a hit album in between, conceived after ticket prices to Bad Bunny’s arena tour started soaring just after they went on sale in 2021.
“We started getting the heat, but we didn’t think of stadiums until the summer,” says Assad, pointing out that Bad Bunny already had plans to release a new album when the arena tour wrapped. By October, a plan had been made: arenas in February, an album in May and a stadium tour in June to be announced in January with a series of humorous videos featuring Bad Bunny’s girlfriend, Gabriela Berlingari, and Spanish actor Mario Casas. “There’s a lot of pivoting along the way, but we still follow the plan,” says Assad. “And everything we do has to make sense. If it doesn’t make sense, even if it’s beautiful, we pass.”
“Noah is singular in his sense of the moment, commitment to a vision and fearlessness,” says UTA agent Jbeau Lewis, who books Bad Bunny and Karol G. “Noah understands his artists, he always plays the long game, and he’s unafraid to say no.”
Bad Bunny has said repeatedly that he plans to take a break after Coachella, from both recording and touring. But for Assad, the work of growing his business never slows. Last year, in partnership with The Orchard, he launched Sonar, a label for developing acts that already has deals with over 50 artists from around the world, including non-Latin acts. Assad also began a strategic alliance with Live Nation to develop new businesses outside of touring, including Gekko, the restaurant Bad Bunny opened in Miami in August with hospitality entrepreneur David Grutman. Most recently, he announced the launch of Rimas Sports, a stand-alone management company (name notwithstanding, it is not a division of Rimas Entertainment) whose client list already includes the Toronto Blue Jays’ Santiago Espinal and Diego Cartaya, a top prospect for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Assad says his biggest goal for 2023 has nothing to do with business, however. “I want to fly less, enjoy more and spend as much time as I can in Puerto Rico,” he says. “That’s my goal. People look at me and think that because of the hair I’m from Mississippi or something. But I’m just a kid from Carolina, Puerto Rico, who loves reggaetón.”
This story will appear in the Feb. 4, 2023, issue of Billboard.
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Billboard‘s signature Power 100 event is returning this year to celebrate the industry’s most influential executives.
For the 2023 edition of the event, Billboard revealed on Monday (Jan. 23) that the event is presented by leading global wealth manager UBS. Featured awards include Executive of the Year, Label of the Year and the Clive Davis Award.
As previously announced, for the first time ever, Billboard introduced a peer-voted award to the Power 100 ranking. The new Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive whose peers believe has had the most impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to touring. Voting for the honor closed on Jan. 17.
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“We’re thrilled to be honoring music’s crème de la crème on our definitive industry power list, which we pared back this year to its original 100 coveted slots after several years publishing an expanded version,” Hannah Karp, Editorial Director of Billboard, said in a statement. “As the music industry continues to grow, earning recognition on Billboard’s Power 100 has become more competitive than ever, as has the race for our featured awards, which celebrate the crowning achievements of this incredibly elite and impactful group.”
The Power 100 event presented by UBS will take place at Goya Studios in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2023. Other sponsors include HarbourView and EMPIRE.
For the first time ever, Billboard is introducing a peer-voted award to its annual Power 100 ranking of the music industry’s most influential executives. This new Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive whose peers believe has the most impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to touring.
Voting is open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, with one vote per member.
The first round of voting is now open and will run through Jan. 10 with an open call for nominees. Vote below.
The second round of voting will begin Jan. 11, in order to narrow down the top 20 nominees into the final five top executives.
The third round of voting will begin Jan. 13, to select the winner from that list. Voting concludes Jan. 17.