In a typical day, Bill Werde ponders everything from Justin Bieber's pot smoking to Robin Thicke's topless women, with hundreds of ear-worms along the way.
The editorial director of Billboard.com joined the company in 2005 and rose quickly to oversee one of the most-visited music-magazine sites on the Internet. The company tracks the best-selling songs and CDs in genres such as rock, pop and classical. A chart-topping song commands prestige for the artist and fuels record sales.
A vegan, Werde spoke about the state of the music business over a tofu lunch.