Insider Profile | Larry Mestel
Founder & CEO [Primary Wave Music]




Lawrence Mestel, Founder & CEO of Primary Wave Music, has been working in the music and entertainment industry for over 30 years. In 2006, Mestel took his extensive experience working at multiple record labels and founded Primary Wave Music, one of the largest independent music publishing, marketing and talent management companies in the USA.

Primary Wave has controlled over 50,000 songs from the catalogs of legendary artists such as Bob Marley, Stevie Nicks, Four Seasons, Smokey Robinson, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Bing Crosby, Burt Bacharach, Prince, Olivia Newton-John, The Doors, Andre 300 of Outkast and many more. Originally founded on music publishing, Mestel has strategically and successfully built the company into a full-service music and entertainment powerhouse offering in-house branding, digital marketing, publicity, TV & Film development and a talent management company.

Mestel was one of the producers behind the critically acclaimed Kurt Cobain documentary film, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck and he was part of the team who produced the Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody distributed by Sony Pictures.

In 2019 Goldman Sachs honored Larry Mestel as one of the “100 most intriguing entrepreneurs” at the annual Goldman Sachs Builders & Inventors summit. In 2020, and then again in 2022 & 2023, Mestel landed on Billboard Magazine’s “Power List” being recognized for his leadership in the music industry. In 2024, Mestel was once again featured on the Billboard Power 100, making the magazine’s “Leaderboard” which recognized the top 40 leaders across the music industry. He also appeared on the Variety 500 twice and has been featured in top press outlets such as New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and Forbes.

Karan Bhatnagar | Hook Music

Primary Wave | Official Website

 

Larry on balancing legacy and modernization with legendary artist catalogs:

“It’s first and foremost protecting legacy. Because we’re partnering with these artists.
We own a partnership interest. So it’s about protecting legacy long term and building value.
And the way you do that...the creative that we roll out, we don’t do it without the artist’s consent or the heir’s consent.”
-Larry Mestel


LISTEN: 

LISTEN: How Does Primary Wave Turn Music Legends Into Global Brands?
Larry Mestel CEO Primary Wave 
[MIP121]

 


TRANSCRIPT | SHOW NOTES 

   

Books mentioned:

📒 All You Need To Know About the Music Business 11th Edition - https://amzn.to/3sdgrja

🎧 Get Audible Free - Your favorite titles anywhere you go. Enjoy a free trial on us! - https://amzn.to/3RB2nu4