lucian grainge
Lucian Grainge Says Slowing Ad Market Won’t Shake Universal Music
Universal Music Group on Thursday reported its fifth-straight quarter of revenue gains since its public spinoff from Vivendi last year, increasing revenue 13.3% as its many, varied business divisions helped offset slow-downs in areas sensitive to global economic uncertainty. On a call with analysts, UMG chairman and chief executive Lucian Grainge attributed the company’s strong quarter — coming amid a downturn in the advertising market — to its diversification strategy. Over Grainge’s 17-years at the helm, UMG has built dominant positions in multiple geographic markets and across nearly every major segment in music, making it less susceptible to “the inevitable ebbs and flows in revenue of any particular business,” he said. That helped UMG offset a slowdown in ad-supported streaming revenu...
Lin-Manuel Miranda to Receive NMPA Songwriter Icon Award for 2022
Lin-Manuel Miranda will receive the National Music Publishers’ Association’s (NMPA) Songwriter Icon Award at its 2022 annual meeting, the organization announced Monday (May 23), while the keynote speech will be delivered by Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge. The annual meeting is being held at Lincoln Center on June 15, marking the first in-person iteration of the event since 2019. Manuel’s honor this year feels timely, arriving on the heels of his surprising Hot 100 No. 1 hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto soundtrack. NMPA president and CEO David Israelite says in a statement that the composer possesses “inimitable style and passion [that] continues to enrich our cultural landscape.” As the first-ever theatrically focused Songwriter Icon rec...
Michelle Jubelirer Named First Female CEO In 80-Year History of Capitol Music Group
Music industry executive and power player Michelle Jubelirer has been promoted to Chair and CEO of Capitol Music Group, the first woman to do so in the company’s 80-year history. She will succeed Jeff Vaughn and report to Sir Lucian Grainge, Music Business Worldwide reports. Jubelirer joined Capitol Records as Executive Vice President in May 2013. She was promoted to COO in May 2015 and then president in 2020. She graduated from Fordham University School of Law with her Juris Doctorate in 1999, according to her LinkedIn profile. Prior to Jubelirer joining Capitol Records in May 2013, she was a partner at music business law firm King, Holmes, Paterno and Berliner where she represented electronic music superstars like Avicii, Grimes, and Swedish House Mafia alongside ma...
Lucian Grainge’s Year-End Memo: An ‘Incredibly Difficult’ 2020, Label Successes & His COVID-19 Scare
Taking his time to get to the usual accolades (of which there were plenty for the world’s leading music company), instead he focused on the power of music in trying times, noting, “I want this year-end note to remind each of you of the instrumental part you played in bringing to the world something powerful, inspiring, uplifting, and yes, universal: music. A force for good unlike any other in the world.” Grainge then highlighted other kinds of achievements that his company can tout, taking action during the year’s multitude of crises: “organizing, volunteering, educating, donating,” as he listed off, detailing how Universal responded to the pandemic, the nation’s racial reckoning and the election. Universal donated to a swath of organizations and d...
