The Top 10 Billionaire Backers of Music Companies
From Phil Anschutz to Warren Buffett, a rundown of the richest music investors who have come from outside the industry.
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A billionaire in the music business usually doesn’t start out in the music business. They begin in less glamorous industries until, with a large enough bank account, they can buy a record label, music venue or concert promoter and earn entry into the world of media moguls. Or the billionaire joins the equally exclusive fraternity of professional sports team owners. Some do both music and sports.
Charles Dolan, the patriarch of the Dolan family, majority owners of MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Group —not to mention a few sports teams —began with a closed-circuit service that sent tourist information into New York City hotel rooms. Ron Burkle got his start working for a grocery store before turning into a grocery M&A titan. Len Blavatnik, whose Access Industries holding company owns most of Warner Music Group, earned his fortune buying aluminum smelters after the breakup of the Soviet Union. For Vicent Bolloré, maritime freight and paper manufacturing were the pathway to media and entertainment. For Phil Anschutz, it was oil. For Hassan Khosrowshahi, it was consumer electronics.
In a few instances, billionaires came to the music business through Wall Street. Two celebrity hedge fund kings, Bill Ackman (Pershing Square Holdings) and Steve Cohen (Point72), have purchased stakes in public music companies. Ackman acquired 10% of Universal Music Group (UMG) before its 2021 initial public offering, becoming a helpful cheerleader for UMG — and music assets in general — as more institutional investors put money into a growing slate of public and private music companies. Cohen, owner of the New York Mets, quietly has small stakes in two of the Dolan family’s companies, MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Co.
Warren Buffet is an outsider here. Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Holdings looks for undervalued companies with competitive advantages — think insurance companies and railroads. A media mogul he isn’t. Buffet has a reputation for investing in boring companies with good management and avoiding the crowds that drive up prices. “Price is what you pay; value is what you get,” he once said. Berkshire Hathaway owns a considerable stake in a radio company, SiriusXM, that is trying to keep satellite radio relevant in an era of high-flying streaming services. But SiriusXM, which represents just a small part of Berkshire’s portfolio, isn’t an entryway to glitz and glamour.
For this list, Billboard is highlighting ten billionaires — some well-known, others less so — who have built music companies or invested in them but didn’t originally build their fortunes in the music business. Billboard excluded CEOs or musicians. According to Forbes, Jay-Z is worth $2.5 billion, Rihanna is worth $1.4 billion and Taylor Swift is worth $1.1 billion. Two founder/CEO billionaires, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, are also excluded.
