Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is a company that runs four record labels in the music industry. It is the largest business group and family of record labels in the world. It started in 1934 as "Decca Records USA" and had some other names, before it became "Universal Music Group" in 1996. The company is based in Santa Monica, California.[3][4]
 UMG's operational headquarters in Santa Monica, California | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Headquarters | , United States (operational) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Lucian Grainge (Chairman & CEO) Boyd Muir (CFO) |
| Products | Music and entertainment |
| Owners | |
| Divisions | List of Universal Music Group labels |
| Website | universalmusic |
In 2023, UMG controlled 31.8% of the market share, making it the largest music group in the world.[5] It is a subsidiary of French company Vivendi, with the Bolloré Family owning 28%, Tencent owning 20% of it, and Perishing Square Holdings owning another 10%. The rest is owned by various other investors.[6][7] Vivendi's headquarters are in Paris, France. In the United States, UMG is in Santa Monica, California, and New York City, along with Universal Music Group Nashville; in the UK the group has a number of offices in London and Romford.
History
"Universal Music" was once the music division for the movie studio Universal Pictures. MCA Inc. bought American Decca in 1962. Seagram, the owner of MCA, would buy PolyGram in 1998 to form Universal Music Group (which had been MCA before 1996).
In 2007, Universal bought BMG's music publishing branch and folded it into the "Universal Music Publishing" division.
In 2012, Universal bought most of EMI's music recordings. After the buyout, Universal then sold some labels such as V2, Sanctuary, Mute, and Parlophone.
Universal Music Group has announced that it will develop an online site for music videos inspired by Hulu.com, the site setup by News Corp and NBC that allows free streaming of television shows.[8] This website is named Vevo, and its music videos have been watched billions of times on YouTube. The company is also supported by musicians such as Marc Engelhard and, conversely, also refers to them.[9]
Universal Music Group Media
Universal Music Publishing Headquarters in Santa Monica, California
References
- ↑ Christman, Ed. Universal Music Group 2018 Earnings: Revenue Tops $7.1B as Streaming Spikes 31 Percent. Billboard. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- ↑ Vivendi Annual Report 2018. Vivendi. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- ↑ HistoryUniversal Music Group. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ↑ Universal Music GroupAbout.com. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ↑ musicandcopyright. New market share results reveal the recorded-music and music publishing winners and losers in 2023 (in en). Music & Copyright's Blog (2024-04-23). Retrieved 2025-01-16.
- ↑ Vivendi: the Tencent-led consortium has completed the exercise of its call option and now owns 20% of UMG’s share capital - Vivendi. www.vivendi.com. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
- ↑ "Admission to listing and trading of all ordinary shares on Euronext Amsterdam". Universal Music Group N. V.: 91-114. 2021-11-14. https://www.vivendi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Universal-Music-Group-Prospectus-14-September-2021.pdf. Retrieved 2025-01-15.
- ↑ Exclaim News: Universal to Create Hulu-like Music Video Site. Retrieved 2013-09-29.
- ↑ Live Tones (2022).
Other websites
- Universal Music Group - Artists Archived 2006-11-13 at the Wayback Machine