Jay-Z, Birdman, Lyor Cohen & More Land On Billboard's Power 100 List

Rap moguls Jay-Z and Birdman are facing off in a numbers game, however, albums are not in consideration as Billboard has included both hip-hop entrepreneurs in its 2012 Power 100 Index list.

Along with Jay and Birdman, former Def Jam president Lyor Cohen is also featured in the Top 50.

1. Irving Azoff 2. Coran Capshaw 3. Lucian Grainge 4. Martin Bandier 5. Doug Morris 6. Michael Rapino 7. Rob Light 8. Len Blavatnik 9. Tim Leiweke 10. Jimmy Iovine 11. Eddy Cue and Robert Kondrk 12. John Hogan 13. Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter & Beyonce Knowles 14. Lyor Cohen 15. Randy Phillips 16. Emmanuel Seuge 17. Frank Cooper 18. Barry Weiss 19. Rob Stringer and Steve Barnett 20. Arthur Fogel 21. Marc Geiger 22. Dan Mason 23. Bob Pittman 24. Roger Faxon 25. Ronald "Slim" Williams and Bryan "Birdman" Williams 26. Rio Caraeff 27. U2 and Paul McGuinness 28. Julie Greenwald and Craig Kallman 29. Daniel Ek 30. Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald 31. Lewis W. Dickey, Jr 32. Peter Grosslight 33. Charles Attal, Charlie Jones and Charlie Walker 34. Robert Greenblatt 35. Van Toffler 36. Monte Lipman 37. Antonio "L.A." Reid 38. Joel Katz 39. Mark Campana and Bob Roux 40. Tim Westergren 41. Peter Edge and Tom Corson 42. Tom Poleman 43. Chip Hooper 44. Hartwig Masuch 45. Rob Cavallo and Todd Moscowitz 46. Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch 47. Nathan Hubbard 48. Jay Brown 49. Evan Lamberg 50. Jon Bon Jovi (Billboard Biz)

The remaining 50 listed industry heads ranged from rapper Lil Wayne's manager Cortez Bryant to Grammy-winning singer Lady Gaga.

51. Lia Vollack 52. Jan Jeffries 53. Steve Bartels 54. Scott Borchetta 55. Blaise D'Sylva 56. Neil Portnow 57. Dennis Arfa 58. Cameron Strang 59. Cortez Bryant/Gee Roberson 60. Sean Parker 61. Steve Moore 62. Paul Rosenberg 63. Tifanie Van Laar 64. Ryan Seacrest 65. Robert Kyncl 66. Lorne Michaels 67. John Butcher 68. Clint Higham 69. Randy Spendlove 70. Rich Lehrfeld 71. Peter Luukko 72. John Branca 73. Melissa Lonner 74. Raul Alarcon, Jr. 75. John Frankenheimer 76. Cary Sherman 77. Larry Marcus 78. Taylor Swift 79. Kevin Mayer 80. PJ Bloom 81. James L. Dolan 82. Jesus Lopez 83. Martin Karl "Max Martin" Sandberg 84. Lady Gaga 85. Mike Dungan 86. Fred Wilson 87. Jon Platt 88. Willard Ahdritz 89. John Ivey and Alex Tear 90. Jody Gerson 91. Chris Tsakalakis 92. Nigel Lythgoe 93. Richard Busch 94. Debra Lee 95. David Israelite 96. Steve Berman 97. Rich Bengloff 98. Gary Overton 99. Daniel Glass 100. Simon Cowell (Billboard Biz)

Following the Billboard honor, Cash Money's Birdman issued a statement accepting the accolade.

"We got so much more we need to do," Birdman says. "We dominate rap, but we need to dominate R&B. We need to dominate pop, gospel, country--we're a brand, so we should be able to put out all these different types of music. We just got to keep grinding." (Statement)

Rather than focusing purely on selling ability, Billboard's Power list centered on business success and power moves.

The Billboard Power 100 list is about more than album and ticket sales; the artists featured are all actively involved in making impactful business decisions for their careers. In the case of Beyonce, she has recently been behind multi-million-dollar branding deals with L'Oreal, Coty and Target, and her clothing line House of Dereon continues to boast an international presence. Meanwhile, Jay-Z is one of the most celebrated artists to make the jump from the stage to the boardroom. He served as CEO of Def Jam Records and, in 2008, brokered a deal with Live Nation (said to be worth $150 million) to create Roc Nation, a management, music and entertainment company with a roster that includes Rihanna, J. Cole, Willow Smith and Ester Dean. His interests outside of music (Rocawear, Translation Advertising and stakes in 40/40 Club and the New Jersey Nets) have also grabbed headlines and helped to feed his bottom line. (Billboard)