universal music group
The Ledger: Inside Universal Music’s 2021 Annual Report
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Universal Music Group’s first-ever annual report, released Thursday, offers an exhaustive look at the company’s finances and operations as well as environmental, social and governance initiatives. If you want to know how many metric tons of paper was purchased for internal use (24) or the number of megawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources (7,982), it’s in there. In terms of dollars and cents behind investments and catalogs, the annual report has a few things worth highlighting. UMG sold Alamo Records for 102 million euros ($112.7 million) for a gain of 98 million euros ($108.3 million). Sony Music reportedly...
UMG’s Music Health Alliance Partnership Is Literally Saving Musicians’ Lives
John Dufilho hadn’t had a routine physical in 10 years when the email from Universal Music Publishing Group arrived last fall. The film/TV composer and frontman of indie rock band The Deathray Davies worked as an independent contractor and could not afford health insurance. That changed when Dufilho, 52, learned from the email that UMPG, which handles his publishing, and parent company Universal Music Group (UMG) had partnered with Music Health Alliance (MHA), a Nashville-based nonprofit that since 2013 has saved 18,000 musicians, industry workers and their families an estimated $85 million in health care costs by helping them find insurance and navigate other healthcare issues, including counseling for survivors of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting. Its services are free. D...
Inside Track: Labels’ Back-to-Office Plans Include Massages, Mediation, Free Lunch & Concerts
As COVID-19 restrictions ease, music companies are welcoming back employees with a wide range of healthy perks to lessen the stress of returning to the office after two years of working from home. Warner Music Group and publishing arm Warner Chappell offer staffers massages, reiki sessions and even sound baths in their Los Angeles, New York and Nashville offices, as well as complimentary lunches and smoothies. Baristas also man coffee stations to encourage face-to-face conversation and collaboration among returning workers who may have only seen each other over Zoom for months. There is also a full slate of virtual programs ranging from yoga, wellness classes and meditation. WMG’s recorded music division began welcoming staffers back in late February, while the publishing company and corpo...
Nat King Cole Recordings Sold to Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group quietly acquired about 200 recordings by Nat King Cole from the iconic singer’s estate in January 2021, the company revealed Thursday (March 17), bringing all of his recordings under UMG ownership. The songs, recorded between 1961 and 1964, were previously licensed to Capitol Records — now owned by UMG — under a deal Cole negotiated following his rise to fame. His earlier recordings, also of about 200 songs, were all originally released on Capitol Records as well. The agreement was first reported by Forbes to be in the range of $10 to $20 million – a price range Billboard confirmed with a source familiar with the deal. Recordings included in the acquisition include such iconic songs as “Nature Boy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Unforgettable,” “The Christmas Song (Merry Christm...
After Months Declining, Music Stocks Tick Up as Fed Raises Interest Rate
Music stocks that had been pummeled in recent months received a respite on Wednesday (March 16) after the Federal Reserve moved to combat inflation and soaring economy by raising the federal funds rate from 0.25% to 0.50%. The federal fund rate is the benchmark rate for inter-bank loans and borrowing costs for credit cards, mortgages and auto loans. Shares of Universal Music Group rose 5.0% on the day to 21.96 euros while Spotify improved 7.9% to $133.58 and Warner Music Group climbed 1.4% to $35.47. The Fed’s move had been expected since its first announced its intention to do so on Dec. 15, 2021. By raising the federal funds rate, the Fed will make borrowing money more costly, reducing businesses and consumer spending to rein in inflation. The Fed stated on Wednesday it “anticipates that...
The Ledger: The Major’s $25B in Revenue in 2021 Is Just the Start
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Six years into the global music industry’s recovery, the largest labels and publishers are growing by leaps and bounds. The three major music groups — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group — had combined revenues of $25.4 billion in calendar 2021, up 19.8% from calendar 2020, according to Billboard‘s calculations. That annual growth rate was more than a four-fold improvement from the companies’ 4.7% revenue growth in 2020 after a slowdown in physical goods sales during the pandemic. Combined, the companies had an operating profit was $4.1 billion in 2021, a 44.3% increase, with...
Virgin Music President Jacqueline Saturn on Navigating COVID, a Rebrand & the Distribution Craze
Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Caroline Distribution staffers were able to renovate their floor of the famed Capitol Tower to meet their particular needs: open floor plan, no offices, a collaborative environment where sharing ideas freely became paramount. So when office life shut down, president Jacqueline Saturn did what she could to try to preserve some of that open-air feel in which her team had begun to thrive: she invited the staff to her back yard, where a friend had a banner made with the division’s logo that hung above an area where her team could work outside. “People really needed a safe space, so that’s how it started — we could have people spaced here, people could wear their mask and be six feet apart and that was the beginning of it,” she tells Bill...
UMG Teams With Tribeca Enterprises for Music-Driven Event Series
Universal Music Group for Brands (UMGB) is partnering with Tribeca Enterprises for a series of music-driven events to take place throughout 2022, it was announced Tuesday (Mar. 1). The forthcoming series will include six exclusive events based around new film, TV and podcast projects from UMG’s Mercury Studios, Polygram Entertainment and UMG record labels. It kicks off with the world premiere of Mercury Studios’ feature documentary Mixtape, slated for Thursday, Apr. 7 at the United Palace theater in New York City. Presented by Rémy Martin, the premiere will feature a live performance from Jadakiss. Co-produced by Saboteur Media in association with Def Jam Recordings, Mixtape is directed by Omar Acosta and will feature music icons including Funkmaster Flex, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and “mixtape k...
Universal Music Group Partners With Curio for Future NFT Projects
Universal Music Group and NFT platform Curio will partner together on future NFT projects from UMG’s labels, subsidiaries and artists worldwide, the companies announced Thursday (Feb. 17). Curio, which has released over 75,000 NFTs since last February, will launch its first project through the agreement with Capitol Records artist Calum Scott in March. “With Curio, our labels will have a secure and dedicated platform to host these premium projects and provide new opportunities for collectors and fans from around the world to acquire unique pieces, inspired by their favorite artists and labels,” said Michael Nash, UMG executive vp digital strategy, in a statement. “UMG is focused on developing new opportunities in this space that place our artists and labels at the forefront, working to ens...
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...
Matt Young Named President of UMG’s Bravado Merch Company
In his work at WMG, Young was a leading force in developing consumer engagement, marketing execution and revenue generation for the company’s artists. He brings over 20 years of industry experience in brand-building and artist services to UMG, with a focus on merchandising, e-commerce, retail, consumer product licensing, ticketing and customer relationship management. Prior to WMG Young worked at Bandmerch, where he served as GM of the New York office and as head of retail and A&R. Before that, he served in roles at Blue Grape Merchandising and indie labels Bush League Records and Earache Records. “I’m stoked to lead Bravado at this pivotal time and to build on the company’s reputation as the leader in our industry,” said Young in a statement. “Bravado is known for creating innovative ...
Beatles Royalties & Family Conflicts: We Read UMG’s 300-Page Prospectus. Here’s What We Found
In order to become a publicly traded, stand-alone company, Vivendi had to do an internal reorganization in 2020 to align the parameters of what would become Universal Music Group. As part of that, some of the liabilities directly assumed by Vivendi had to be transferred to UMG for the latter company to have control of all the music assets. It also had to assume the obligations and liabilities that came with them. One such Vivendi obligation that UMG had to take on was to provide security for royalty payments capped at $100 million euros to the Beatles, Yoko Ono and certain Apple entities. But that’s not surprising considering that the ownership of EMI, acquired in 2012, was directly under Vivendi, not UMG, so they had to do some internal asset a...
