Read on for Billboard's inaugural (and anonymous) survey of A-list music-business professionals.

Ever wonder what the music industry really thinks of its leading superstar, Taylor Swift? To learn the answer to that question and more, Billboard polled the top executives in music on a broad range of temperature-taking topics, from the artists they covet most (congrats, Ms. Swift) to whether the business treats its artists fairly. The results, culled from 50-plus anonymous responses to a wide variety of questions, reveal a strong faith in Lady Gaga, respect for Jimmy Iovine and a hankering to work at Spotify or Apple.

Uh, fuck those guys.

1. More T Swift butt kissing, I see. Surprised to see Gaga on the poll, much less ranked at #2. Adele is kind of a weird choice. All in all not much diversity (and I'll address that later).

2. More T Swift butt kissing.

3. John Mayer?? Really? And didn't Mariah's attempted comeback last year crash and burn?

4. I can agree with this one.

5. Not surprising but still rubs me the wrong way.

6. Whatever.

7. Eh... whatever.

8. Whatever.

9. For the love of money.

10. Plausible.

And these idiots are supposed to be industry professionals? For the most part, the only thing they've gotten with the times on is worshipping Taylor Swift.

Who wants to hear Nick Jonas attempting to sing R&B???

kitbradley said:

Who wants to hear Nick Jonas attempting to sing R&B???

Right? That got me too

Just like how JT is no MJ, Nick is no JT.

LOL at Nick Jonas.

He can barely get through a pop tune.

Do agree on John Mayer. No ones waiting for it, but I think a comeback would be welcome. Nice songwriting and musicianship.

FASCINATING! Mariah's album should have come out AT THE PEAK of "Beautiful's" chart rise and it would have been HUGE. They REALLY effed THAT ONE up! I'd still like 2c Paula Abdul make a comeback where her last two joints with Randy were SLAMMIN'! Rap being the most despised genre certainly hits home with ME. Rap destroyed R&B and Pop and NEVER should have been interwoven with EITHER. It's WAY OVER as is Autotune. Otherwise, Swift isn't so swift at all in my opinon (She kinda SUCKS and Shania Twain worked the same strategy back in the day and had BETTER looks AND musicality.) Thoughts on a Wednesday from work. Hope everyone's well 2day.

whitechocolatebrotha said:

FASCINATING! Mariah's album should have come out AT THE PEAK of "Beautiful's" chart rise and it would have been HUGE. They REALLY effed THAT ONE up! I'd still like 2c Paula Abdul make a comeback where her last two joints with Randy were SLAMMIN'! Rap being the most despised genre certainly hits home with ME. Rap destroyed R&B and Pop and NEVER should have been interwoven with EITHER. It's WAY OVER as is Autotune. Otherwise, Swift isn't so swift at all in my opinon (She kinda SUCKS and Shania Twain worked the same strategy back in the day and had BETTER looks AND musicality.) Thoughts on a Wednesday from work. Hope everyone's well 2day.

Mariah is a done deal now because she has no clue, she is reaching for sales so she lets anyone on her records to sell and honestly the music coming from her, is subpar to say the least and I loved her day one, but to me she is the biggest let down of an aspiring artist this century. Rap is despised like they despised hair metal in the 80's when shit isn't selling for them they HATE IT. Notice how they are a taylor swift loving fool, i'm sure 15 years ago they were sluts to Britney too, and Im sure katy Perry too. THE Questions are BS, they should ask these fools, were did YOU GUYS go wrong, number one, how you market now, singles and to kids only. I don't get the John Mayer thing because he was at a time when Norah Jones blew up and Alicia Blew up and then everyone stop caring except loyal fans and that was it, I hate the term comeback, they are still here, you came back they didnt.

MotownSubdivision said:

Also, do you have a link to this TC?

its from BILLBOARD go to the site

They neglected to mention Nelly Furtado.

Her career has had extreme ups and downs but she has the stuff.

Can definitely see her back on the radio.

getxxxx said:

kitbradley said:

laurarichardson said:

kitbradley said:

Who wants to hear Nick Jonas attempting to sing R&B???

/-- I get from this comment that people in the music industry look their nose down on RnB music. They see it as the kiss of death for white artist and lately it appears that they do not want RnB artist performing RnB music.

That actually started happening in the 80's when a lot of R&B artists were forced by their labels into recording more Pop/Rock material and then, often times, only promoting it at black radio - which often rejected the songs, especially if it was a female artist.

i think the language use in this article is poor and beneath Billboard. the article reeks of privilege and cultural bias. did an actual 14 year old conceptualize and write it?

MotownSubdivision said:

getxxxx said:

its from BILLBOARD go to the site

I did. Link please. [Edited 8/26/15 18:02pm]

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/reality-check/6677558/billboard-music-executive-survey

datdude said:

i think the language use in this article is poor and beneath Billboard. the article reeks of privilege and cultural bias. did an actual 14 year old conceptualize and write it?

.

Yes. And he wants to work at Apple too, just like the music industry.

HAPPYPERSON said:

In 2015, I despise rap too.

Cinny said:

In 2015, I despise rap too.

Well damn.... where did it all go wrong.?

Top music execs's jobs are to make money. Every answer they give will be based around this. They are way more about marketing than music. Any answers here should be taken with a grain of salt.

Example: Why would they give up their job for a similar paying position at Apple or Spotify? Because its a revolving door in their field. Music execs are in and out all of the time. Apple is a much more solid career move than being a music executive. Pick one or two artists that fail and you're out. Put too much money behind an artist that doesn't create a return and you're out. Over-budget a tour of a successful artist - on the fence. Do it again - out.

[Edited 8/27/15 12:30pm]

TD3 said:

Cinny said:

In 2015, I despise rap too.

Well damn.... where did it all go wrong.?

When hip hop was based on turntablism and creative sampling, and words had positive power to them, it was awesome.

All major labels acquired and collapsed into a tiny few. No more black music A&R departments to discover or develop talent. Songs with ONE sample in them still have to give away a big amount of publishing where twenty years ago it was only up to 50%. Now everyone has to make spa salon synth reverb beats with the same wack royalty-free drum kits. Rappers are discouraged from saying anything empowering, including female rappers, now promoting drugs, fighting, or degrading ideas.

Even indie artists (always the supposed alternative) compete with an increasingly negative image and sound, with even less of a budget for sample based beats.

Hate to say it, but when the main way of going viral is a VIDEO, looks are everything, so there are good-looking "sexy" but terrrrible artists breaking the mainstream.

Cinny said:

TD3 said:

Well damn.... where did it all go wrong.?

When hip hop was based on turntablism and creative sampling, and words had positive power to them, it was awesome.

All major labels acquired and collapsed into a tiny few. No more black music A&R departments to discover or develop talent. Songs with ONE sample in them still have to give away a big amount of publishing where twenty years ago it was only up to 50%. Now everyone has to make spa salon synth reverb beats with the same wack royalty-free drum kits. Rappers are discouraged from saying anything empowering, including female rappers, now promoting drugs, fighting, or degrading ideas.

Even indie artists (always the supposed alternative) compete with an increasingly negative image and sound, with even less of a budget for sample based beats.

Hate to say it, but when the main way of going viral is a VIDEO, looks are everything, so there are good-looking "sexy" but terrrrible artists breaking the mainstream.

>

I recall during a popular hip hop documentary (I forget which one but it was on VH1 I believe) when a famous turntablist mentioned that sampling got so out of hand in terms of clearance that Bjork and her producers side stepped the issue by creating thier own "samples" that sounded like they could be sampled from old records.

Just thought it was clever and wondered why more producers didn't follow suit.

CynicKill said:

Cinny said:

When hip hop was based on turntablism and creative sampling, and words had positive power to them, it was awesome.

All major labels acquired and collapsed into a tiny few. No more black music A&R departments to discover or develop talent. Songs with ONE sample in them still have to give away a big amount of publishing where twenty years ago it was only up to 50%. Now everyone has to make spa salon synth reverb beats with the same wack royalty-free drum kits. Rappers are discouraged from saying anything empowering, including female rappers, now promoting drugs, fighting, or degrading ideas.

Even indie artists (always the supposed alternative) compete with an increasingly negative image and sound, with even less of a budget for sample based beats.

Hate to say it, but when the main way of going viral is a VIDEO, looks are everything, so there are good-looking "sexy" but terrrrible artists breaking the mainstream.

>

I recall during a popular hip hop documentary (I forget which one but it was on VH1 I believe) when a famous turntablist mentioned that sampling got so out of hand in terms of clearance that Bjork and her producers side stepped the issue by creating thier own "samples" that sounded like they could be sampled from old records.

Just thought it was clever and wondered why more producers didn't follow suit.

Maybe Bjork and Portishead had that kind of budget once upon a time, but I don't think either of them do anymore. Look what happens when Pharrell even attempts the "feel" of an older song without sampling. The whole game is fucked now.