Ron Perry (music)

Ron Perry is an American music executive. Since January 2018, Perry serves as the Chairman & CEO of Columbia Records. Columbia Records is home to Adele, Beyoncé, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Daft Punk, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, AC/DC, Harry Styles, Pharrell, John Mayer, Tyler, the Creator and many of the world's most iconic artists.

Under Perry's leadership, Columbia has signed Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X, Rosalía, BTS (via Big Hit Entertainment), Halsey, Central Cee, The Kid LAROI, Baby Keem, Blink-182, Labrinth, Lil Peep, Polo G, Dominic Fike and many others.

Since 2019, Columbia artists have spent over 100 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The most by any record label during that time period.

Some of these chart highlights include:

In 2023, Miley Cyrus's "Flowers" spent 8 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the fastest song in music history to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify.

In 2022, Harry Styles' "As It Was" emerged as his longest-running solo #1 by a male artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 as it reached the #1 spot for 15 weeks.

In 2022, Beyoncé's "BREAK MY SOUL" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2022, Adele's "Easy On Me" spent 10 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2021, "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" and "Industry Baby" by Lil Nas X both hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2021, The Kid LAROI's "Stay" feat. Justin Bieber reached #1 for 8 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has since sold over 50M units worldwide.

In 2021, BTS' "Butter" (co-produced and written by Perry) reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks.

In 2019, Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" became the longest running #1 single of all time on the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 consecutive weeks.

In 2020, Perry was named Music Executive of the year by Variety.

In 2021, Columbia was named label of the year by Variety.

2004-2017 
Prior to his role at Columbia Records, Perry served as the President & Partner of SONGS Music Publishing. SONGS was originally founded by Matt Pincus.

During his tenure, Perry signed and championed the early careers of The Weeknd, XXXTentacion, Lorde, DJ Mustard, & Diplo, among others.

Some of his achievements during that time included:

The Diamond selling "Starboy" and the 7x Platinum "I Feel It Coming" for The Weeknd and Daft Punk, a collaboration introduced by Perry.

He is also credited as A&R on Lorde's second album Melodrama, which debuted at No. 1 on the [[Billboard 200|Billboard Top 200]] and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.

This led to the company achieving 5% of the US publishing market share and was the #1 independent music publisher of its time.

In December 2017, SONGS was sold to Kobalt Music Publishing, as Perry moved to his role at Columbia Records.

 Support of The BLM Movement 

According to Variety, On May 28, 2020, as demonstrations over the death of George Floyd took place in Minneapolis, Columbia Records & Ron Perry were the first major music company & Chairman/CEO to post in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, stating:

"We stand together with the Black community against all forms of racism, bigotry, and violence. Now, more than ever we must use our voices to speak up and challenge the injustices all around us."

Subsequently, other major record and publishing companies adopted the same course of action and aligned with the sentiment.

 Appearance in South Park 

In 2014, Perry was depicted as himself in three episodes of South Park's 18th season ("The Cissy," "#Rehash," and "#HappyHolograms").

In one of the episodes, Perry engages in verbal altercation with Cartman, as Cartman refers to Perry as a "40 year old with a Justin Bieber haircut."

 Live Performances 

Known for being a musician and an avid fan of Nirvana, Perry played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on guitar alongside Miley Cyrus, and separately, "Lithium" on stage with Post Malone at Coachella 2016.

In 2019, Perry performed various 90's covers on guitar alongside John Mayer, at his 40th birthday celebration held at The Troubadour in Los Angeles.

 Various Press Recognitions 

 2022 Billboard Power List: No. 17
 2021 Variety’s Label of the Year
 2020 Variety's Hitmakers Executive of the Year 2020 Billboard's inaugural Breakthrough Award 
 2020 Billboard's Power 100
 2019 Billboard's Power 100: No. 34
 2018 Variety’s "New Power of New York" list
 2018 Billboard’s Power 100: No. 28
 2017 Variety's 2017 Hitmakers
 2017 Billboard’s Power 100
 2016 Billboard’s inaugural A&R Power Players list
 2014-2016 Billboard’s 40 Under 40 
 2013 The Hollywood Reporter's'' Top 35 Hitmakers in Music list

References 

1979 births
American music industry executives
Living people