Ghazi is the Founder and CEO of EMPIRE, the largest privately held independent record label, distributor and publisher in the U.S. Founded in 2010 in San Francisco, Ghazi has built EMPIRE into a global force, ushering in a new era of thriving independent artists. Over the years, Ghazi has been recognized by various leading music and culture publications for his contributions to the music industry – including No. 30 on the leaderboard for 2024’s Billboard Power 100 list, Variety’s “50 Greatest Hip Hop Executives of All Time,” Billboard Indie Power Players, Billboard Hip Hop Power Players, Rolling Stone Future 25, Variety Dealmakers and many more.
Ghazi provides a unique perspective in music with his grasp of the creative, business and technological aspects of the modern entertainment industry. His background as a studio engineer, work in new media technologies in Silicon Valley and business view from scaling EMPIRE to a global operation in five continents and twenty countries has afforded him opportunities to speak at conferences from SXSW to Bitcoin Conference to Web Summit.
Press Highlights
In a May 2023 profile in Billboard, Ghazi gave an inside look into how his company is approaching the globalization of music in a new, effective way:
“In each new region, EMPIRE is looking to build on the model that worked so well in West Africa, making strategic hires based on partnerships with well-connected industry players in local markets rather than signing artists to fit a sound. And even as that old Digital Music Industry 2.0 has long since drifted away from the Bay, relocating to the likes of L.A. and New York, EMPIRE has remained in San Francisco. ‘We’ve plotted a lot of dots on the map, and I want to plot more dots and create more connectivity, more brainpower,’ says Ghazi.”