The second round of voting is now open for Billboard‘s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players’ Choice Award — a new award honoring the executive in the genres whose peers believe has had the greatest impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to managing and touring and beyond.
The peer-voted award will run alongside Billboard‘s annual R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players list of the genres’ most influential executives. Voting is open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, with one vote per member.
Billboard launched its first Players’ Choice Award with the Power 100 list earlier this year, followed by the Country Power Players’ Choice Award that concluded last month.
The current, second round of voting will narrow down the top 15 nominees into the final five top executives. The 15 semifinalists are:
- Tuma Basa (Director of Black Music & Culture at Youtube)
- Mike Brinkley (Senior VP of Artist Management at Roc Nation)
- Carl Chery (Creative Director, Head of Urban Music at Spotify)
- Gregory Davenport (CEO of Manifest Multimedia Inc)
- Drew De Leon (President of MPR Distribution)
- Robert Gibbs (Partner, Co-Head UTA Atlanta, Head of Music Atlanta)
- Tim Hinshaw (Head of Hip-Hop & R&B at Amazon Music)
- Greg Marella (President of Promotion & Executive VP at Capitol Music Group)
- Faith Newman (Executive VP of A&R and Catalog Development at Reservoir Media Management)
- Jon Platt (Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing)
- Gee Roberson (Co-CEO, The Blueprint Group; Partner, Maverick)
- James Rosemond (CEO at Mastermind Artists)
- Brent Smith (Agent, Wasserman Music)
- Pierre “Pee” Thomas (Co-founder, CEO of Quality Control)
- Ken Wilson (Owner of K.K. Wilson Promo Inc.)
If you are not yet a member of Billboard Pro, you can join here and vote here.
The third round of voting will begin July 10, to select the winner from that list. Voting concludes July 23 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
