Power 50 - #12: Niko Nordström

BACKGROUND CHECK

Niko Nordström joined Warner Music Finland in 2007 when the company acquired Helsinki Music Company (HMC), a firm that he co-founded with interests in recorded music, merchandising, music publishing and touring. Nordström started off as Managing Director and became Vice President of Warner Music Nordics in 2014, before moving to Sydney to take up his current post. In 2018, Nordström was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emma Gaala, the Finnish equivalent of the Grammy Awards.

THE YEAR THAT WAS

Warner scored a string of #1s on the ARIA Albums Chart in 2018 with Nordström as Australasian President. Ed Sheeran's Perfect came in at #3 on ARIA's Top Singles Of 2018 list (with three other Sheeran singles also making the Top 100: #25 Shape Of You, #75 Happier and #90 Castle On The Hill). Sheeran's ÷ album came in at #2 on ARIA's Top Albums Of 2018 list (behind another Warner release: The Greatest Showman soundtrack) with two other Sheeran albums also scoring Top 25 positions: #10 X, #23 +. The unstoppable Sheeran has followed 2017's year-end #1 album (÷) with a #2 position for this same album the following year (2018), and this also happened with X (#1 in 2014, #2 in 2015) – nuts!

The Greatest Showman soundtrack actually spent all year in the ARIA Albums Chart Top 50, even troubling the Top 10 for 49 of those weeks. Other 2018 #1s on the ARIA Albums Chart for Warner Music Group included Twenty One Pilots (Trench) and Panic! At The Disco (Pray For The Wicked).