Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group

UMG's operational headquarters in Santa Monica, California
Formerly	Decca Records (USA Business) (1934–1971) MCA Records (1971–1989) MCA Music Entertainment Group (1989–1996)
Company type	Private
Industry	Music Entertainment
Founded	September 1934; 90 years ago (1934-09)
Headquarters	Hilversum, Netherlands (corporate) Santa Monica, California , United States (operational)
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Lucian Grainge (Chairman & CEO) Boyd Muir (CFO)
Products	Music and entertainment
Revenue	US$ 7.1 billion (2018)[1]
Owners	Vivendi (80%) Tencent (20%)
Number of employees	8,319 (2018)[2]
Divisions	List of Universal Music Group labels
Website	universalmusic.com

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]

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.^[source?]

1. ↑ Christman, Ed. "Universal Music Group 2018 Earnings: Revenue Tops $7.1B as Streaming Spikes 31 Percent". Billboard. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
2. ↑ "Vivendi Annual Report 2018" (PDF). Vivendi. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
3. ↑ "History". Universal Music Group. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
4. ↑ "Universal Music Group". About.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-08. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
5. ↑ musicandcopyright (2024-04-23). "New market share results reveal the recorded-music and music publishing winners and losers in 2023". Music & Copyright's Blog. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
6. ↑ "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.
7. ↑ "Admission to listing and trading of all ordinary shares on Euronext Amsterdam" (PDF). Universal Music Group N. V. 2021-11-14. pp. 91–114. Retrieved 2025-01-15.