Music Execs Rising Pay — A $34.6 Million Year for Irving Azoff

This story originally appeared in the May 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter.

Most top music industry executives saw their compensation packages increase in 2011, according to an analysis by THR.

THR looked at recently disclosed compensation for the leadership of publicly traded companies with music tie-ins, from satellite radio to the big record labels. (Warner Music and EMI are private and do not disclose executive pay.) Touring giant Live Nation's chairman Irving Azoff tops the chart with $34.6 million, about 50 times as much as streaming service Pandora's CEO Joe Kennedy made in 2011.

A whopping $25.3 million of Azoff's package came from "all other compensation," driven by the sale of his remaining ownership stake in music management firm Front Line to Live Nation.

Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge saw the biggest pay jump as he added the chairman title in 2011. UMG's revenue was down, but earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation rose, which must be music to the ears of Grainge's bosses at Vivendi.