Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world’s largest label by revenue, reporting €2,628 million for the first half of 2018, a +6.8% change year-on-year. UMG is home to Capitol Music Group, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Polydor, Verve, Republic Records, and more. The company announced their plans to sell off up to half of the share capital of the label group within the next 18 months.
At this point the potential suitor list is all speculation and I’m not playing whack a mole other than to point out the obvious—deep pockets are requirement numero uno and while I hope for diversity and a more musician-centric approach, this is the music business.
It’s also worth noting that Spotify is now offering contracts to musicians and indie labels for licensing their music directly to the streaming giant. While Spotify CEO Daniel Ek claims this does make Spotify a label, if it walks like a duck…
