2026 Impact 50 Honoree: Jason Owen

JASON OWEN
CEO & Founder
The Sandbox

FAVORITE PLACE FOR AN IN-PERSON MEETING: Sperry’s in Nashville.
BY THE NUMBER: $5 million and 32,856. The gross and tickets for Billie Eilish’s two nights at SF’s Chase Center Nov. 22-23, which wrapped  “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour.”

Jason Owen founded Sandbox Entertainment in 2010 after leaving a senior executive role at Universal Music Group Nashville. Since then, he has expanded the roster – which includes Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini and Little Big Town and in 2025 welcomed Billie Eilish and Finneas – and ushered the artist management company into television, film and career-building entertainment ventures.  

ON MANAGING BILLIE EILISH: “There’s so much to say. Wrapping up the tour last year was a huge highlight. Being part of how much she gives away. Look, I have very generous artists, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an artist so generous to the charities and to the causes that she supports – specifically Support+Feed and all the charities surrounding sustainability. I’ve learned so much from both her and her mother, Maggie [Baird], on how to make our touring for the future more efficient and more green and more right for the world.”

FINNEAS TOO: “What I’ve been the most proud of is being part of his composing. He just composed the score for Beef, which is unbelievable, and he’s working on a few huge movies that haven’t been announced yet as a composer. He’s an absolute genius. But he’s not just a musical genius he is actually a business genius, as far as the music business, and he’s been a great partner to me – not even just with Billie but with my whole company.” 

AND KACEY MUSGRAVES: “What Kacey has done on this new record, Middle of Nowhere, has literally created a cultural zeitgeist. What she does so brilliantly and effortlessly is her creative, not only from the sound and the influence between Mexican culture and obviously country. She never ceases to amaze me.”

LITTLE BIG TOWN: “Little Big Town just made the best record they’ve made since Tornado. … I have no problem saying that it is by far one of their top two or three best albums of their career. I can’t wait for the world to hear it.”