Fearless Leader
A
S THE FINAL HOURS
of the 2010s ticked
away, one piece of
unfinished business
was left on Universal
Music Group chairman/
CEO Sir Lucian Grainge’s plate: finalizing
the deal that would give the Chinese
technology firm Tencent 10% of the
world’s largest record company and pin
its value at over $33 billion.
By New Year’s Eve, Grainge had more
reason than most to pop champagne, as
UMG’s French parent, Vivendi, closed
the sale. The agreement represents a
dramatic step in the music industry’s in-
credible turnaround over the last decade
(global revenue from recorded music
had bottomed out at around $15 billion
in 2014, but rose to $19.1 billion by 2018,
according to the global trade organiza-
tion IFPI). For Grainge, who had made
a series of big bets at UMG — buying
EMI Recorded Music for about $1.9 bil-
lion in 2012, for example — it’s also
personal validation.
“The company that we’ve built is
what attracted them to us,” Grainge tells
Billboard from UMG’s offices in Santa
Monica, Calif., a few days into the new
decade. “It’s going to be great for the
company, it’s going to be great for us,
our artists, our staff, Vivendi, Tencent.”
Grainge, 59, rode into the decade as
the heir apparent of industry legend and
then-UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris.
A fan of punk bands like The Clash and
Sex Pistols, he got his start in the music
publishing business toward the end
of the 1970s, signing The Psychedelic
Furs. He joined Universal Music in 1986,
launching PolyGram Music Publishing
in his native United Kingdom, then rose
through the ranks to chairman/CEO of
UMG’s international division by 2005.
By January 2011, when he took the top
job at UMG, the music business was
in its 12th year of a decline spurred by
digitalization and piracy that threatened
the industry’s existence.
Grainge had a plan, though. During
his first two years in charge, he bucked
conventional wisdom and led UMG
through the ambitious acquisition of
EMI Recorded Music and announced
that the company would be investing
in A&R and developing new artists. His
strategy quickly began to pay off: Vi-
vendi turned down an $8.5 billion offer
from Softbank for UMG in May 2013 as
the company’s valuation began to rise.
“When Lucian believes in something, he
goes for it,” says Morris.
Grainge was also early to embrace the
idea that streaming would transform the
music business and return it to growth.
When he licensed UMG music to Spotify
for its 2011 launch in the United States,
Grainge had already laid the ground-
work to take advantage of the new, more
global music ecosystem.
“Countless times over the past decade,
I have observed Lucian provide leader-
ship that has benefited not only UMG,
but meant renewed growth for the entire
industry,” says Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.
That has come with a continued
dedication to A&R, even at the business’
lowest moments. “Through the years
when the industry was on the ropes, he
always protected A&R and encouraged
me to sign,” says UMG U.K. & Ireland
chairman/CEO David Joseph.
“Businesses, industries and economies
go in cycles, and whatever business cycle
we were in, the passion and the excite-
ment and the cultural impact of music
never changed,” says Grainge. “I learned
from my first boss — the late, great
Maurice Oberstein — something in the
first industry recession of 1981: that you
protect your A&R investment like a dog
protects its owner.”
For Grainge — who received a knight-
hood from Queen Elizabeth in 2016, in
recognition of his accomplishments in
the music industry — early investment
in emerging markets, international
expansion and local-language music also
gave the company an edge that’s still
paying dividends today, boosting UMG’s
global dominance. By the end of 2018, he
wrote in his year-end letter to UMG staff
that the company had grown its market
share to over 40% globally, and with
new offices in Africa and Southeast Asia,
as well as a licensing deal with Tencent
in China, the company was aiming for
even more.
“When I said a few years ago that
I believed reggaetón could go global,
many people told me it would never
happen,” says J Balvin, whose Spanish-
language “Mi Gente” with Willy William
has racked up 1.1 billion U.S. streams
since its release in the summer of 2017,
the same year that Luis Fonsi and Daddy
Yankee’s “Despacito” became the biggest
song in the United States. “But Sir Lucian
and the rest of the Universal team said,
The chairman/CEO of Universal Music Group, SIR LUCIAN GRAINGE, brings the world’s
largest record company into a new decade with more promise than ever
BY DAN RYS PHOTOGRAPHED BY AUSTIN HARGRAVE
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EXECUTIVE OF THE DECADE
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OCATION^USED^BYPERMISSIONOF^THE^J.^PAULGETTYTRUST.76 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020