Lucian Grainge: Last News

Spotify and Universal Music Group have struck a new multi-year agreement for recorded music and music publishing “focused on growth, innovation and the advancement of artists’ and songwriters’ success.”

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Daniel Nigro, Grammy-winning producer-cowriter for Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo (and Variety’s Hitmakers 2024 producer of the year) has struck an expanded partnership for his Amusement Records label with Universal Music Group. Under the new agreement, Amusement will operate as a central label venture within UMG, with new artist signings able to partner across UMG’s iconic global family of labels, according to the announcement.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer A judge has granted and denied charges brought against Sean “Diddy” Combs in a $30 million lawsuit from former producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones alleging sexual assault. Jones initially filed his suit against Combs in New York in Feb.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square expects to raise $1.4 billion from the sale of a 2.7% stake in Universal Music Group, according to a report in Bloomberg. Ackman announced the sale on social media, but the numbers are from a Bloomberg source citing knowledge of the deal, which reportedly cites “an offering of about 50 million Universal Music shares at €26.60 each.” Ackman wrote about his plans in a post on X on Thursday. While he had some strong words about UMG, in which Pershing currently owns a 7.6% stake, delist from the Euronext in Amsterdam in the wake of terrorist attack in November (and Pershing delisted from the city in January), his comments about the company and its chairman, Lucian Grainge, are a borderline mash note.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In the immediate wake of the news breaking that Universal Music Group Nashville CEO Cindy Mabe was gone from the company’s top role, UMG moved quickly to announce two new appointments, with Mike Harris moving into the Nashville company’s CEO post, along with renowned producer Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell) being named the label group’s chief creative officer. Harris had previously served as Universal Nashville’s COO and EVP, before leaving the company last September, only to rejoin five months later.

Taylor Swift has some famous guests at her table at the 2025 Grammy Awards, but there’s also someone there who you might not recognize.

Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify have announced the striking of a new multi-year deal that will usher in “the next era of streaming innovation” – find out more below.Yesterday (January 26), UMG and Spotify announced their new deal, which will continue their long-running partnership dating back to 2015. In a press release, the two companies shared that the new deal was shaped around recorded music and music publishing that will be focused on “growth, innovation and the advancement of artists’ and songwriters’ success”.Per the deal, both consumers and artists will be able to access “new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content, and a richer audio and visual content catalog”.

Universal Music Group and Amazon have announced an expanded global relationship.The two companies have said that they will be working together closely to “explore new and enhanced product opportunities” that will benefit artists and create better experiences for fans. UMG will also be collaborating with Amazon as they expand in audio, including further innovation in audiobooks, audio and visual programming as well as livestreamed content.In addition, they will be working to address, among other things, unlawful AI-generated content and means of protecting against fraud and misattribution.“We are very excited to advance our long-standing, excellent partnership with Amazon Music that marks a new era in streaming—Streaming 2.0,” said UMG’s chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Universal Music Group and Amazon Music have announced an expanded global relationship that will “enable further innovation, exclusive content with UMG artists, and advancement of artist-centric principles including increased fraud protection,” according to the announcement. While full details were not disclosed, the deal is intended to advance UMG’s “Streaming 2.0” strategy, which focuses less on scale in streaming and instead aims to increase value through different subscription levels and selling merchandise and other products to fans.

Drake‘s father has fired back at Joe Budden after the broadcaster went on a tirade over the rapper’s recent lawsuits against Universal Music Group (UMG).Last month, the Canadian hitmaker filed two lawsuits against his label UMG over ‘Not Like Us’ – a diss track by Kendrick Lamar aimed at Drake which called him “a certified paedophile”. The first alleged the label “artificially inflated” the song’s streaming numbers and the other accused them of allowing the release of a defamatory song targeting one of their signees.When the news broke, Budden swiftly commented on the ongoing cases on his infamous Joe Budden Podcast.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music UPDATED: Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, reported revenue of €2,870 million for the third quarter — an increase of 4.3% year-over-year, or 4.9% in constant currency, although it noted that “excluding a prior-year item affecting comparability,” revenue actually grew 6.3% year-over-year, or 7.0% in constant currency. Top sellers for the quarter included Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Post Malone.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Earlier this year, when TikTok and Universal Music Group locked horns over their licensing agreement — and the world’s largest music company removed nearly all of its artists and songwriters’ work from the platform — UMG faced challenges making its case in the court of public opinion. “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” UMG chairman CEO Lucian Grainge wrote in an open letter dated Jan.

Mark Sutherland U.K. record labels have got used to upheaval in recent years, but the industry was still taken aback by recent changes at Universal Music’s British company. There were emotional scenes in the company’s King’s Cross HQ when, in a surprise move, David Joseph – Universal Music U.K.’s long-time and highly respected CEO/chairman – stepped down on September 23 after 26 years at the company, almost 17 of them in the top job.

Mark Ronson, recent Mercury Prize nominee Cat Burns and Jake Bugg.In a press statement, Burns – who was a student at the BRIT School, which is funded by the BRIT Trust – said: “I’m really excited to perform at the MITS. I’m so grateful to the BRIT School for my time there, and the funds raised through the event are vital in helping to find and nurture the next generation of creative talent.”This year’s MITS Award recipient Jason Iley will follow in the footsteps of past recipients Annie Lennox, Kylie Minogue, Rob Stringer, Emma Banks, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Lucian Grainge, Michael Eavis, Pete Tong, Roger Daltrey, Jamal Edwards and last year’s awardee Lucy Dickins among many others.Iley has served as Sony Music UK & Ireland’s chairman for the last decade, making him the longest serving chairman in the company’s history.In 2022, Jamal Edwards became the MITS’ first-ever posthumous recipient after the author, broadcaster and DJ died unexpectedly in February that year.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Warner Music Group has announced dramatic changes in its recorded music operations: Max Lousada (pictured above, left), CEO of recorded music and a 20-year veteran of the company, will step down at the end of the fiscal year (September 30), although he will remain as an advisor through Jan. 31, 2025; At the same time, Julie Greenwald has begun a leadership transition, which will see her take on a new role as chairman of Atlantic Music Group, reporting to Robert Kyncl, WMG CEO, an elevation of her previous role as CEO; Effective October 1, Elliot Grainge (pictured above, right), 10K Projects founder & CEO, will become CEO of Atlantic Music Group, reporting to Kyncl.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music In the wee hours of Thursday — 2:35 a.m, ET, to be precise — Universal Music Group and TikTok announced the settlement of their three-month standoff over royalties, AI policies and other issues. The battle was significantly disruptive to the industry but most of all to artists, thousands of whom suddenly found their music muted on the world’s most powerful platform for discovering and promoting music.

Songs from popular artists like Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Drake will be back on TikTok months after they were suddenly pulled from the platform. Major record label Universal Music Group (UMG) has signed a licensing deal with the social media platform that addresses concerns of pay and the use of A.I.

TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) have announced that they have come to a new licensing agreement.Today (May 2), the social media platform and music label issued a press release announcing the new agreement. It comes after TikTok’s and UMG’s previous agreement expired in late January, with the latter withdrawing its artists’ music from the platform as a result of both parties’ inability to work out a new deal.In late January, UMG claimed that “TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay”, which it says accounts for one per cent of its revenue.Now, however, UMG’s new agreement with TikTok will reportedly “deliver improved remuneration for UMG’s songwriters and artists, new promotional and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs and industry-leading protections with respect to generative AI”, per a press release.Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of UMG, said of their new partnership: “This new chapter in our relationship with TikTok focuses on the value of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the creative community.

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The months-long standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok over royalty payments and AI policies is finally over, at least for the time being, with the announcement that the two entities have struck a deal to bring the label’s music back on the platform. As part of the agreement, the companies stated that they will “deliver improved remuneration for UMG’s songwriters and artists, new promotional and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs and industry-leading protections with respect to generative AI.” UMG’s music will return to the platform imminently, and the companies will collaborate on realizing “new monetization opportunities utilizing TikTok’s growing e-commerce capabilities and will work together on campaigns supporting UMG’s artists across genres and territories globally.” “This new chapter in our relationship with TikTok focuses on the value of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the creative community,” said Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of UMG.

As its public dispute with TikTok continues, Universal Music Group has set an expanded strategic relationship with Spotify.

HYBE, home to K-pop juggernauts BTS, have inked a new 10-year “global alliance” with Universal Music Group (UMG).HYBE – also home to other K-pop groups such as SEVENTEEN, NewJeans and more – announced an expanded agreement with UMG. The new deal will give UMG “exclusive distribution rights” to HYBE releases for the next 10 years, while HYBE’s roster of artists will have access to the former’s “global network”.The new agreement will also see UMG further working with HYBE’s fan platform Weverse, in order to “[bring] more of a direct connection between UMG artists and their fandom[s]”.