The King of Music Publishing is about to reach yet another milestone.

Sony/ATV chief Marty Bandier will receive the Recording Academy’s President’s Merit Award during Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala at the Beverly Hilton this weekend—becoming the first publishing exec so honored.

Prior recipients of the award include Davis, Ahmet Ertegun, Lucian Grainge, Doug Morris, David Geffen, Berry Gordy, Mo Ostin, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, L.A. Reid and Sir Richard Branson.

The following night, it’s a foregone conclusion that among the Grammys won by Sony/ATV will be the Song of the Year trophy—since the pubco’s writers are involved with every single nominee. The same goes for the Record of the Year candidates, by the way.

Bandier has been offered a brace of honors and tributes in the past, and has largely turned them down; he’s pleased to accept this one, he says, because of his deep ties with the Recording Academy (NARAS chief Neil Portnow is a longtime friend) and the opportunity it presents him to speak out, once more, for songwriters’ rights.

He’s been a particularly passionate defender of those rights, as readers of this site are well aware, playing hardball with digital music services and other entities that failed to pay what Bandier considered reasonable royalty rates.

Portnow declared Bandier “a luminary whose passion, vision and innovation, combined with his championing some of the world's greatest songwriters and his tireless work to maximize the value of musical compositions, has helped to shape our musical landscape for decades."

The cigar-chomping icon took over Sony/ATV in 2007, and in 2011 oversaw its acquisition of the EMI catalog—a treasure trove he had built himself during his 17-year tenure at the latter company. The deal made Sony/ATV the world’s biggest publishing company.

Sony/ATV’s catalog includes such artists as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Hank Williams, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Queen, Sting, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, P!nk, Lady Gaga and countless other hitmakers.

Bandier began his career in 1975, co-founding The Entertainment Company, which enjoyed hits with Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Glen Campbell and more. In 1984 he co-launched Entertainment Music Company and the Entertainment Television Company; during this period, ironically, he attempted to purchase ATV, which had the Beatles catalogue, but lost the bidding derby to Michael Jackson.

1986 saw him co-founding (with Charles Koppelman) SBK Entertainment World, where Bandier redefined the value of publishing libraries with his $125 million purchase of CBS Music Publishing. Meanwhile, he helped set the standard for the exploitation of those libraries—aggressively placing songs in movies, commercials, TV shows and stage productions.

When Thorn EMI purchased SBK’s publishing assets for about $337 million in 1989, Bandier became its head and piloted it from fourth place to the status of #1 publisher, acquiring the Jobete/Motown catalogue, among other jewels. He simultaneously remained prexy/COO of SBK Records Group, which scored big with acts like Wilson Phillips and Vanilla Ice.

In 2003, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as a Patron of the Arts. He’s won publisher of the year honors countless times and in 2007 won the Nashville “triple crown” as publisher of the year at the ASCAP, BMI and SESAC Country awards. In 2014 Sony/ATV won the Pop publisher honor at the ASCAP and BMI.

In addition to cultivating the pubco’s legendary catalogue, he helped groom the next generation of leaders, including Big Jon Platt (now prexy North America of Warner/Chappell) and Jody Gerson (the new chief of UMPG).

His philanthropic endeavors include serving on the board of City of Hope, as a trustee of the T.J. Martell Foundation and as a MusiCares Director.

And he looks damn good smoking a Cohiba.