‘How do we help make it happen?’ ”
At the end of 2014, Grainge turned his
attention to broadening the concept of
what a music company could be, keep-
ing an eye to the future beyond quarterly
results. Investments in film and TV led
to projects like the Academy Award-
winning documentary Amy, about Amy
Winehouse, a film spearheaded by
Joseph; while the expansion of mer-
chandising wing Bravado led to a boom
in pop-up shops and direct-to-consumer
sales strategies.
“To me, he’s more than just the head
of Universal,” says Elton John, whose
biopic Rocketman had its soundtrack
released by UMG’s Interscope. “He’s a
loyal and trusted family friend.” Adds
Nick Jonas, “For someone at such a high
level to be as aware of his larger-than-
life roster is incredibly inspiring.”
Now, as Grainge enters his second
decade at the helm of UMG having
redefined both the role and value of the
modern record company, what’s left on
his agenda? “I’m just starting,” he says,
laughing. “Once a punk, always a punk.”
What does the Tencent deal mean
for Universal?
Tencent understands technology and
media, they’ve proven themselves to be
terrific investors, we’ve got an exception-
ally good relationship, and both we and
Vivendi felt that they would be a great fit.
And I’m excited about the commitment
to continue developing the Chinese and
the broader Asian market. It’s an incred-
ibly important market — you can see
how it has started to monetize — and I’m
optimistic about the potential.
At the beginning of the last decade,
UMG announced that you would be
taking over as global CEO. How did
you prepare?
I’d been at the company for over 20 years,
and I was coming from being the head
of international. When you’ve been in an
organization for 22 or 23 years, manag-
ing 60 or 70 countries, you have deep
relationships on both the creative side
and the business side. The relationships
I had with the U.S. labels were incredibly
strong — all the American music came
through the companies that I managed.
So I had relationships with managers,
with artists, with entire creative ecosys-
tems, and it enabled me to slip into this
job, however daunting it felt at the time.
We all had a feel for one another.
You bought EMI’s recorded-music
business at the bottom of the mar-
ket, at a time when the owners had
cut back and some artists were dis-
satisfied. Why did you feel it was the
right move?
I didn’t feel it was — I knew it was, to be
honest. Growing up in the U.K., EMI had
so much influence on British culture and
British music. And I felt that EMI — the
labels, the catalog, the artists — was a
thing of beauty. You look at a Picasso or
a Rembrandt; these things become avail-
able maybe every 20 or 30 years.
If you look at the path EMI was on
at that time, it was one of contraction
— finding synergies, closing labels, etc.
And we did completely the opposite.
I’ve always had the confidence to in-
vest. And when you come out of a down
cycle, that can be the most rewarding
— creatively, culturally, financially. I
started as a talent scout, and the desire
to break barriers and find new artists
never ends. As long as you have the
backing of your boss and/or sharehold-
ers, that’s the only thing you need — and
I’ve been fortunate enough to have that.
You’ve always been open to — even
optimistic about — digital innovation,
even back when a lot of music execu-
tives weren’t. How did you see what
others missed?
I was fortunate because I had a job
managing 60 countries — excluding the
U.S. — and I learned very fast that one
size didn’t fit all. Back then it amazed
me that Belgium could be 50 yards from
Holland, yet the distribution infra-
structure was entirely different and
the consumer was entirely different in
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78 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020