On Tuesday (June 9), Billboard honored this year’s Indie Power Players during an event held at the Cutting Room in midtown Manhattan, celebrating many of the independent music industry’s top artists and music executives.
Billboard co-chief content officers Jason Lipshutz and Leila Cobo kicked off the evening, highlighting how indie music’s market sector has continued to expand over recent years.
“Many of the world’s biggest artists are signed to indie labels,” Cobo said. “Some of them are here in the house. And, more importantly, what you do is really fueling creativity and musicianship at a very essential and existential time for music.”
Zena White, COO of Partisan Records, accepted the award for Executive of the Year, which was presented to her by Femi Koleoso, the drummer and leader of British jazz group Ezra Collective. The group has had two top 10 hits on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart with 2019’s You Can’t Steal My Joy and 2024’s Dance No Ones Watching. Partisan is also the label home to Geese, Cigarettes After Sex, Blondshell and Interpol, among many others.
“Your belief and support is allowing us to scale and genuinely compete with established players with much bigger pockets than us,” White said in her acceptance speech. “Art is not a luxury. It’s necessary for us to connect with and understand one another, as well as ourselves. It can be a balm, an escape and in some cases, even a lifesaver.”
Cobo presented Rubén Blades with the Icon Artist award.
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“My decision to come to New York was a product of desperation, not careful planning,” Blades said in his acceptance speech. “My first job was as the only employee in the mailroom finding records at the No. 1 salsa recording label in the world. One of my chores was to label and carry a hefty load of LPs and cassettes to the nearest post office while trying to avoid being run over by a bus, taxi or messenger bicycle. To explain how from there I have ended up here tonight will take a while. So instead, my intention is to let everyone understand that my success also belongs to many other people’s talents.”
Richard Gottehrer, co-founder of The Orchard, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by current Orchard CEO Brad Navin. Gottehrer detailed his early career as a songwriter, creating “My Boyfriend’s Back” along with Jerry Goldstein, who was also in the room. Gottehrer recalled that, during a downturn in his career where his songs weren’t charting, “if you’re not making hits, no one wants to hire you anymore.” He said how his mother wanted him to go to law school, but he found himself on the Lower East Side in Manhattan in front of a storefront on Orchard Street — which became the first office of what is now the biggest indie label distribution company in the world.
“From the beginning, all we cared about was bringing independent music to the world — anywhere in the world, it makes no difference,” Gottenhrer said. “What language you sing makes no difference. Music is a shared culture that breaks down barriers between people. The Orchard stands for that, believes in it.”
Billboard Indie Power Players cover artist RAYE was honored with the Indie Spirit Award. RAYE has had three songs enter the Billboard Hot 100, including 2025’s “Where Is My Husband!” which peaked at No. 11 on the chart. Her most recent album, This Music May Contain Hope, peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200, a career milestone for the wildly talented singer and songwriter whose journey through the major label system to independence has been one of the most intriguing stories in music.
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“[RAYE] is a wildly talented singer and songwriter whose career faced years of trials and tribulations, the product of an imperfect major label system that she eventually rejected,” Lipshutz said while presenting RAYE with the award. “The fact that she has gone on to score huge hits, played to sprawling audiences, and released one of the most ambitious albums of any genre this year all as an independent pop superstar is both a miraculous feat of professional reinvention and a foregone conclusion for an artist bursting with ideas.”
In her own speech, which captivated everyone in the room with its inspirational tone, RAYE was effusive about her indie label, Human ReSources, and its founder J Erving, who believed in her when many in the industry had said her career was over.
“I just want to encourage us to ignore the lies, ignore people that don’t need to have an opinion over what you are, who you can be and what you’re gonna do,” she said. “You get to decide that. So let’s keep deciding to make art that inspires us. Maybe it’s seven minutes long, I don’t care. I like it, I believe in it, and that’s what I want to spend my life doing. I’m so grateful, so grateful, that after 14 years in this industry since I started as a songwriter at 14, I really feel like we’re just doing it now. I’m so grateful to J, Human Re Sources, The Orchard and independent artists, come on, let’s go! Thank you!”
