As the red carpet for the 2014 ARIA Awards gets underway in Sydney, a new list of Australia’s music hot shots shines a spotlight on who really runs the local industry.

While there are a couple of household names on the list from the Australian Music Industry Directory (AMID), the total number of actual powerful musicians who made the cut is four. Yes, four.

· Rock stars and pop idols hit red carpet for ARIAs
· Australia’s new music power brokers

Nick Cave, Iggy Azalea, John Butler and Sia Furler were the four representative artists on AMID’s list, which was compiled by editors of themusic.com.au and consisted mostly of touring and record company big wigs.

Nick Cave made it onto the list in 37th place place. Photo: AAP

Mushroom Group founder, Michael Gudinski, was named No.1, followed by Michael Chugg from Chugg Entertainment.

Furler, who is nominated for six ARIA Awards tonight for her album 1000 Forms of Fear, which featured the worldwide No. 1 hit Chandelier, was the No. 3 most influential person – and one of only eight women.

The internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter will not attend the 2014 ARIA Awards, which has Katy Perry and One Direction as its headline guests.

Both Gudinski and Chugg have had a massive year, with Mushroom Group bringing out music legends Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones (twice) and Chugg Entertainment promoting John Mayer, Robbie Williams and Keith Urban’s tours.

“It’s a great pride to be number one,” Gudinski told themusic.com.au

“It [holds] great significance, because we’re an independent group which gives me more power to make decisions myself.”

Triple J head of music Richard Kingsmill and Sounds Australia’s executive producer Millie Millgate rounded out the top 10.

The full list:

1. Michael Gudinski – Mushroom Group

2. Michael Chugg – Chugg Entertainment

3. Sia Furler – artist

4. George Ash – Universal Music Group

5. Jessica Ducrou/Paul Piticco – Splendour In The Grass

6. Denis Handlin – Sony Music Entertainment

7. AJ Maddah – Soundwave

8. Nathan McLay/Chad Gillard – Future Classic

9. Richard Kingsmill – triple j

10. Millie Millgate – Sounds Australia

11. Danny Rogers – Lunatic Entertainment

12. Nick O’Byrne – BIGSOUND

13. Colin Daniels/Ashley Sellers – Inertia

14. Jaddan Comerford – Unified

15. Michael Coppel – Live Nation

16. Brett Murrihy – Artist Voice

17. Peter Noble – Bluesfest

18. Jodie Regan – Spinning Top Music

19. Dror Erez – Totem Onelove Group

20. Tony Harlow – Warner Music Australia

21. Matt Gudinski – Mushroom Group

22. Dan Rosen – ARIA & PPCA

23. Sebastian Chase – MGM

24. Paul Dainty – Dainty Group

25. Harvey Lister – AEG Ogden

26. Stephen Halpin/Rodney Little – Groovin The Moo

27. Chris Scaddan – triple j

28. Claire Collins – Bossy Music

29. John Wardle – National Live Music Office

30. Tim Levinson – Elefant Traks

31. Matt Tanner/Jaime Gough – Native Tongue

32. John Butler – artist

33. Brett Cottle – APRA AMCOS

34. Eric J Dubowsky – producer

35. Matt Emsell – Wonder Management

36. Steve McPherson – Hillsong

37. Nick Cave – artist

38. Johann Ponniah – I OH YOU

39. Liam Mazzucchelli – Boomtick

40. David Walsh/Brian Ritchie – MONA

41. Brad Mellen – Mellen Events

42. Mardi Caught – Atlantic Records

43. Ben Turnbull – Staple Group

44. Denise Foley – QMusic

45. Ian James – Mushroom Music Publishing

46. Iggy Azalea – artist

47. Neil Ackland – Sound Alliance

48. Richard Moffat – festival programmer

49. Adrian Basso – Community Broadcasting Association Of Australia

50. Patrick Donovan – Music Victoria