Lucian Grainge: Last News

Thania Garcia YouTube has published a set of AI music principles and launched a new AI initiative with co-signs from artists, songwriters, and producers from Universal Music Group. Dubbed the AI Music Incubator, artists such as Anitta, Björn Ulvaeus, Juanes, Max Richter, Rosanne Cash, Ryan Tedder, Yo Gotti, and the Estate of Frank Sinatra, have been tapped to give their input.

Alisa Finkelstein is a vice president and Clayton Durant is director of emerging media & platforms at MikeWorldWide. As you’ve probably read many times in recent months, Artificial Intelligence is creating a Napster-like moment in the recorded music business.

“Eras Tour” has attracted enough fans to help boost hotel and restaurant revenue in cities across the world, and even contribute to concert ticket inflation, a phenomenon that some economists have termed “Swiftflation.”“Recently, Taylor Swift became the very first woman in history to have four albums in the top 10 simultaneously, including this week’s number one,” the company’s chief executive, Lucian Grainge, told analysts on a conference call.Universal Music’s merchandising revenue grew 12% to 157 million euros ($173.77 million) in the April-June period, also fueled by a strong performance from Swift, the group said.This more than offset a decline in Universal Music Group’s touring revenue from the outsized growth recorded in 2022 as COVID-19 touring bans were lifted, it added.Total revenue was 2.7 billion euros in the quarter, while its margin on adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at 21.9%, the company reported.Universal Music expects recent price increases at Spotify to boost revenue starting from the fourth quarter and into 2024, its chief financial officer, Boyd Muir, said on the conference call.Spotify had on Monday raised prices for its premium plans across several countries including the US and Britain.Major labels like Universal Music grab the overwhelming majority of Spotify’s revenue and are the main beneficiaries of the streaming firm’s strong user growth.Apart from Swift, other top sellers in the second quarter were South Korean boy band Seventeen, King & Prince, Morgan Wallen, and Stray Kids, Universal Music said.

. That is, until she launched her TikTok account the same weekend as her star-studded wedding in the south of France to British music executive Elliot Grainge.Since then, her profile has exploded. All anyone can talk about on the platform is Richie: , her , her , the exact set of  she wore in one of her “get ready with me” videos, , barefoot, to Good Charlotte (her brother-in-law’s band) performing live at her wedding reception. “In all of the fame of my life, she was so famous that day," Lionel Richie, Sofia's singer-songwriter father, told  a couple days after the celebration.

LABELS & PUBLISHERSUniversal Music shareholders have agreed a new pay package for boss man Lucian Grainge, which will see his basic wage reduced by more than two thirds to $5 million. He will, however, be eligible for an annual performance bonus of $10 million, and is set to receive new stock options. So, you know, he’s not going to starve.

Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl has echoed comments by his Universal counterpart Lucian Grainge on the need to restructure the way streaming royalties are paid out. Speaking on the major label’s Q2 earning’s call yesterday, he said that “it can’t be that [an] Ed Sheeran stream is worth exactly the same thing than a stream of rain falling on the roof”.The former YouTube exec’s comments came as he announced disappointing results for the record label, with revenues showing almost no growth year-on-year.

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Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Driven by big releases from Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift, Tomorrow X Together, Drake and others, Universal Music Group saw its revenues rise 11.5% year over year to $2.71 billion in the first quarter of 2023. But the company’s earnings call on Wednesday was just as newsworthy for the company doubling down on the strong remarks it has made about the fast-rising presence of — some would say threat from — AI in the music world, which hit UMG in the form of “Heart on My Sleeve,” a song using AI-generated soundalikes of two of the company’s biggest artists, Drake and the Weeknd.  “The recent explosive development in generative AI will, if left unchecked, both increase the flood of unwanted content hosted on platforms, and create rights issues with respect to existing copyright law, in the U.S. and other countries, as well as laws governing trademark, name and likeness, voice impersonation, and right of publicity,” chairman-CEO Lucian Grainge said on the call. 

Lionel Richie is one happy dad.

Lionel Richie couldn't be happier for his little girl and her new husband.The judge spoke with ET's Matt Cohen in Hollywood on Monday, after the season's first live show, and the legendary singer opened up about walking daughter Sofia Richie down the aisle this past weekend, in her wedding to Elliot Grainge.«This is [my] baby girl,» a beaming Lionel said of the deep significance of the event. «All I can say to you is, for every dad that's ever been this way or getting ready to experience it, it is a humbling time in your life. Because you're handing one of the loves of your life away.»«But really, I'll tell you a story, I've known Elliot since he was 9,» Lionel explained.

, 24, is a model and social media personality, and the daughter of 73-year-old R&B legend . The British-born Grainge, 29, is the founder of 10K Projects, an L.A.-based record label whose current artists Ice Spice, Between Friends, Internet Money, and Natalie Jane. Grainge is also the son of Sir Lucian Grainge, current chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group.

Just married! Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge are officially married after tying the knot in a ceremony held on the French Riviera.

Ready to say “I do!” Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge kicked off their wedding weekend on Friday, April 21.

Sofia Richie and her fiance Elliot Grainge are rumored to be getting married any day now and he just made some rare comments about their relationship!

Sofia Richie and her fiancé Elliot Grainge are having some fun in the sun ahead of their big day!

Sofia Richie converted to Judaism.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Universal Music Group announced on Wednesday that its Board of Directors has extended the contract of Lucian Grainge, the company’s chairman and CEO, until May 1, 2028. According to the announcement, the “extended and amended” agreement transitions Grainge from an all-cash compensation package to one that is a combination of equity and cash and includes an equity compensation program with “a broad set of performance-based objectives aligned with shareholders’ interest and corresponding to the company’s long-term growth strategy. To assure the compensation program is aligned with shareholders’ interest, the majority of the compensation package’s economic value will be paid in UMG equity and UMG performance-based stock options.” Grainge’s annual salary under the new agreement will be reduced by more than two-thirds from his current salary, to $5 million, the announcement continues. Subject to the achievement of performance criteria, he will be eligible for an annual bonus with a target of $10 million. The EBITA bonus from his prior employment agreement has been eliminated and Grainge will only be entitled to the contingent bonus under his prior employment agreement on a pro rata basis until March 31, 2023. The equity components of the program include annual grants of $20 million, comprised of as much as 50% Performance Share Units (PSUs) — with annual PSU goals set by the Board of Directors — and the remainder comprised of Restricted Share Units (RSUs). 

Hundreds of celebs were in attendance at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party, making it one of the most star-studded events of the year!

ABBA‘s Voyage virtual concert experience could be making its way around the world.Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge revealed in a company earnings call per Variety on Thursday (March 2): “Plans are now in development to take ‘ABBA Voyage’ around the world”. No other information – including targetted cities, venues and dates – has been announced.ABBA’s Voyage experience debuted at the ABBA Arena in London in May 2022.

ABBA’s heading across the world!

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ virtual concert — which opened in a specially built London arena last May and has sold more than 1 million tickets — will go on a global tour, Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge confirmed during the company’s earnings call on Thursday. “Plans are now in development to take ‘ABBA Voyage’ around the world,” Grainge said on the call. Presumably, that means the show will be playing in specially modified arenas in major cities across the globe. Contacted by Variety, reps for ABBA and Universal, the group’s label, did not immediately have further information. While details are slim and the news is not a shock, it is the first official confirmation that the show — a multi-multi-million-dollar project, nearly six years in the making, that saw George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic using motion-capture technology to create “ABBA-tars” of the group as they looked in 1979 playing a 90-minute concert of their most-loved songs — will play somewhere besides the London theater. While technically not a hologram show, “Voyage” represents a new peak in that type of technology — the four bandmembers, who are now in their seventies, spent many hours performing for the motion-capture cameras to appear as lifelike as possible. It has received rave reviews nearly across the board.