Billboard Canada Power Players is back for a second year, and it comes at a pivotal time for Canadian music. Canadian Content regulations — a principle that built the domestic industry — are up for review for the first time in a generation, with ongoing hearings taking place with the CRTC. The Online Streaming Act, meanwhile, is attempting to regulate major foreign streaming services to contribute to CanCon as the CRTC once did for radio — but companies like Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music aren’t taking it without a fight.

Those issues shadow the industry, which has recently seen both struggles and successes. The country was recently named the 8th largest music market in the world by the IFPI, and Toronto has emerged as a marquee live music market. That’s been reflected in the successes of and investments in new venues by companies like Live Nation Canada, MLSE and Oak View Group, who all appear on the list. 

As top execs at Live Nation Canada, Erik Hoffman, Riley O’Connor and Melissa Bubb-Clarke are orchestrating one of the most ambitious stretches in the company’s history. Together, the trio claims the No. 1 spot on Billboard Canada Power Players 2025. Already the biggest players in the Canadian music business, Live Nation is just getting bigger — and it’s on track for a record-breaking summer.

In the new Billboard Canada cover story, the three talk about their ambitious plans — including the about-to-open Rogers Stadium in Toronto, which will bring Oasis, Coldplay and BLACKPINK to the city this summer and triple the number of stadium shows. 

Derek “Drex” Jancar of OVO Wins the Impact Award

As part of Billboard Canada Power Players, Derek “Drex” Jancar took the No. 1 spot in the Foundations category and accepted the Impact Award at the celebration in Toronto on Wednesday (June 11). 

In the mid-2000s, Drex, Gavin Sheppard and Kehinde Bah co-founded The Remix Project, a community initiative that continues to influence global culture. Now, he’s doing it again as CEO of October’s Very Own (OVO).

On Wednesday night (June 11), Derrick Ross of Slaight Music presented Drex with the Impact Award as part of Billboard Canada Power Players 2025, with a donation to the Remix Project — a testament to the immense influence Drex has had within Canadian music and culture.

In an interview, Drex tells Billboard Canada about the impact of the Toronto community on all the work he does.

“It’s the nucleus of everything. It’s the thing you constantly come back to and think about: ‘Does this represent us, honestly and authentically?’” he says. “It’s where everyone worked on their skills and put blood, sweat and tears into their career paths. We obviously are global thinkers, but we’re always coming from that place. That’s our identity. It’s shaped us and it’s what makes us unique.”

Drex recalls meeting the key figures at OVO at Remix, including Oliver El-Khatib, Future The Prince, Niko Carino and Drake. The dedication that they poured into Drake’s burgeoning career in the late 2000s created a special energy in Toronto. He was already the hottest artist in the city, Drex recalls, but you could feel he was on the verge of becoming a global phenom — all while wearing his local connections on his sleeve.

“You could see what was happening behind the scenes, and it was really special to see everyone rally around and build such an amazing brand around him,” Drex says. “It was a time where you really started to believe in the city and the talent and the potential in the city and you were like, ‘Anyone can do anything from here. This is possible, it’s happening right in front of us.’”

The First Canadian Edition of Managers to Watch

Also this week, Billboard Canada unveiled its first Music Managers to Watch list. 

Managers are the unsung heroes of the music industry. They are the hard-working decision makers behind some of the country’s most beloved artists. They make deals, orchestrate partnerships and make key strategic decisions. And though fans rarely know their names, they are key to the success of Canadian musicians. They don’t do it for personal glory, but to fulfill artistic visions that can break barriers and move millions.

These talented managers on the rise have helped some of the biggest artists tour stadiums, stun at the Met Gala or go gold without any label support. That’s an extra feat in Canada, where managers often have to navigate a tight-knit industry and geographic barriers to breakout success. In the feature, they share their tips for people new to the business and those who want to help introduce their artists to a global audience.

The list includes managers for Kaytranada, Jessie Reyez, Charlotte Cardin, Connor Price and more. 

The Beaches’ manager, Laurie Lee Boutet, was named Manager of the Year. In an interview, she talks about how she helped navigate the Toronto band’s 2023 viral moment into sustained momentum on its way to its first hometown arena tour this fall. 

Sony Music CEO/chairman Rob Stringer spoke to investors on Friday (June 13) about his vision for how generative AI can be integrated into his business, stating that the company is “going to do deals for new music AI products this year with those that want to construct the future with us the right way.”

To date, Stringer says the major music company has “actively engaged with more than 800 companies on ethical product creation, content protection and detection, enhancing metadata and audio tuning and translation amongst many other shared strategies.” He went on to say that he believes “AI will be a powerful tool in creating exciting new music that will be innovative and futuristic. There is no doubt about this,” but later added: “So far, there is too little collaboration, with the exception of a handful of more ethically minded players.”

Stringer’s statements about the emerging tech, which he made at Sony Group’s 2025 Business Segment Presentation, arrived just a week after news broke that Sony — and its competitors Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group — were engaged in talks with generative AI music companies Suno and Udio about creating a music license for their models. Suno and Udio are currently using copyrighted material, including music from the three majors, to train their models without a license. This spurred the trio to file blockbuster lawsuits against Suno and Udio in June 2024, in which they alleged copyright infringement on an “almost unimaginable scale.”

In his remarks on Friday, Stringer likened the current AI revolution to “the shift from ownership to streaming” just over a decade ago. “We will share all revenues with our artists and songwriters, whether from training or related to outputs, so they are appropriately compensated from day one of this new frontier,” he said.

“I do think that what AI is based on, which is learning models and training models based on existing content, means that those people who have paved the way for this technology do have to be fairly treated in terms of how they get recompense for that usage in the training model,” Stringer continued. “We have been pretty clear on this since day one that there is absolutely no backwards view as to what this technology will do. There will be artists, probably there will be young people sitting in bedrooms today, who will end up making the music of tomorrow through AI. But if they use existing content to blend something into something magical, then those original creators have to be fairly compensated. And I think that’s where we are at the moment.”

There are challenges ahead to figure out proper remuneration for musical artists from generative AI, as Billboard recently described in an analysis of the Suno and Udio licensing talks. While the AI license could borrow the streaming licensing model by having AI firms obtain blanket licenses for a company’s full musical catalog in exchange for payment, it remains to be seen how the payments would be divided up from there. On streaming services, it’s simple to determine how often any given song is consumed and to route money to songs based on their popularity. But for generative AI, the calculation would be far more complicated. To date, Suno and Udio do not offer guidance as to which tracks were used in the making of an output, and experts are divided on whether or not the technology needed to figure that out is ready yet.

Also on Friday, Stringer expressed a desire to come to agreements with AI companies in a free market, stating: “With deals being carried out, it will be clear to governments that a functioning marketplace does exist, so there is no need for them to listen to the lobbying from the tech companies so heavily.”

Today, many AI companies don’t believe they need to license music or other copyrights at all, citing a “fair use” defense. But in his statements, Stringer was optimistic that this would change, citing the recent position of the U.S. Copyright Office, which said that “making commercial use of vast troves of copyrighted works, especially where this is accomplished through illegal access, goes beyond established fair use boundaries.” One day after publishing this position about the value of copyrights in the AI age, however, the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, was fired by President Donald Trump. (Perlmutter sued soon after, calling Trump’s move “unlawful and ineffective.”)

“We are between us and the AI tech platforms trying to find common ground,” Stringer continued. “And that common ground is not going to take a minute. It’s going to take a moment, and then it’s going to take the trial and error process, and we are in that era right now.”

Peacock revealed the cast for the fourth season of The Traitors on Friday (June 13), including Donna Kelce, Monet X Change, Eric Nam and more.

In a video posted to social media, host Alan Cumming unveiled the cast by deliciously teasing, “Ah, dear me … what treachery awaits us this season? The fates whisper of betrayal. Backstabbing. And the occasional dagger in the dark. Let us see whose murderous destinies are forever entwined in my castle walls: the cards never lie. People on the other hand? Constantly.”

The hit reality show will be Mama Kelce’s first TV appearance after she starred in a pair of Hallmark Channel holiday movies in 2024. Meanwhile, Monet X Change will be following in the well-heeled footsteps of fellow RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bob the Drag Queen, who also happens to be his co-host on their popular Sibling Rivalry podcast, and Nam becomes the first K-pop idol to compete on the series.

After (spoiler alert!) being the very first contestant in the castle murdered by Bob and the rest of the Traitors last season, Dorinda Medley will also get a much-deserved second shot to play the game, joining fellow Bravolebrities Lisa Rinna, Candiace Dillard Bassett, Porsha Williams and Caroline Stanbury of the Real Housewives franchise and Top Chef winner-turned-host Kristen Kish.

Of course, there are plenty of other competition show alumni as well, which is sure to set up the now-signature “Gamers vs. Housewives” rivalry in the castle. Gamers to watch out for amid the lochs and highlands this season include Survivor stars Rob Cesternino, Yam Yam Arocho and Natalie Anderson, as well as Big Brother‘s Tiffany Mitchell and Ian Terry.

Meanwhile, Bachelor Nation alum Colton Underwood and Stephen Colletti of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and One Tree Hill fame are both obvious contenders to fill the hunky role in the castle established by Peter Weber and Dylan Efron in past seasons. And Olympic figure skaters Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir will add a dose of athleticism to the show’s endurance-testing physical challenges along with Mark Ballas of Dancing With the Stars.

Other famous faces rounding out the season 4 cast include actor Michael Rapaport, comedian Ron Funches and Rob Rausch and Maura Higgins of Love Island.

While a release date for the upcoming season of The Traitors has yet to be announced, expect the murders, banishments and parade of tartan to begin imminently as the 23 contestants descend on Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Watch Cumming’s full season 4 cast reveal along with a first look at The Traitors‘ famous wall of portraits for the new season below.

Universal Music Group (UMG) and WTSL, an investment firm run by ex-Endeavor executive chairman Patrick Whitesell with backing from Silver Lake, have formed a joint venture to “unlock opportunities” for UMG’s biggest artists across film, TV, fashion, consumer products, branded experiences and more, the companies announced on Thursday (June 12).

This certainly isn’t new ground for UMG, whose chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge called superfandom “the core component of music economics” at the company’s capital markets day last September. Indeed, the music giant has been a force behind projects like ABBA‘s smash hit avatar show; become a major investor in blockbuster artist-led brands including Dr. Dre‘s Apple-acquired company Beats; and even opened a UMusic hotel in Madrid back in 2023. But the joint venture announced on Thursday aims to create fan experiences and artist opportunities on a grander scale than any of those projects, the companies say.

The partnership reflects a shift in how the biggest stars and entertainment companies are approaching monetizing music rights. Home to superstars like Taylor Swift, UMG is looking to bring atypical entrepreneurial opportunities to its biggest artists. In Whitesell, they found an entertainment mogul who is known, as the Financial Times once wrote, for having helped rewrite “the Hollywood script.”

“This is about building the future of artist [intellectual property] with the scale and ambition it deserves,” Whitesell, who co-founded the global talent company WME, said in a statement about the deal.

The joint venture, which serves as WTSL’s debut, did not disclose any projects it currently has in the works. What’s clear is that it aims to leverage UMG’s talent and WTSL’s networks to create commerical opportunities in film, TV, fashion, consumer products, branding and other ventures that rely on music rights to “build long-term enterprises, expanding from one-off licensing into owned, repeatable, and equity-driven ventures,” according to a statement.

“We exist at the center of a vibrant ecosystem of partners from the worlds of technology, brands, retailers and media who recognize the power of our artists to shape culture globally,” Grainge said in a statement. “With this new venture we will be able to leverage Patrick’s deep experience in successfully creating non-traditional business models with world-class IP to accelerate the expansion and monetization of our ecosystem to the benefit of our artists and partners.”