Larry Mestel, Primary Wave’s Founder and CEO, was listed in Variety’s 500 Entertainment Leaders and Icons! See below and HERE for the full feature.

Larry Mestel

FOUNDER / CEO / PARTNER

Mestel’s mighty independent publisher shows no signs of slowing its aggressive growth, as deals and partnerships forged in 2023 added more than $500 million in value to the company’s assets. Among the more notable signings were affiliations with the Doors, Steven Van Zandt, the estates of Isaac Hayes and Kool & the Gang’s George Brown and a significant investment in India’s Times Music. A fun project this year for Primary’s branding team was a Mattel deal to create Stevie Nicks’ Barbie doll, long a hope of the singer. And in a year when the world lost beloved songwriter Burt Bacharach, Primary Wave — which took over marketing and administering his catalog in 2020 — enabled his first No. 1 hit in almost 20 years, as a sample on Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” earned him a writer’s credit on the record that topped both the Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200.