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U.S. Music industry - statistics & facts

Publishing companies dominate the market, music streaming is on the rise, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Global revenue of the recorded music industry 1999-2023

Digital Market Outlook: digital music revenue in selected countries 2023

Number of paying online music service subscribers worldwide 2010-2021

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Current statistics on this topic.

Music industry revenue in the U.S. 2009-2023

Music consumption in the U.S. in 2021, by genre & format

U.S. music industry - revenue distribution 2017-2022, by source

Related topics

Recommended.

• Radio Industry
• Online radio
• Digital Music in the United States
• Grammy Awards
• Music in Canada

Recommended statistics

Global market overview.

• Premium Statistic Global revenue of the recorded music industry 1999-2023
• Premium Statistic Global digital music revenue 2004-2022
• Premium Statistic Digital Market Outlook: digital music revenue in selected countries 2023
• Premium Statistic Digital Music revenue in the World 2018-2027, by segment
• Premium Statistic Number of paying online music service subscribers worldwide 2010-2021

Global recorded music revenue from 1999 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Global digital music revenue 2004-2022

Global digital music revenue from 2004 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Digital music revenue in selected countries worldwide in 2023 (in million U.S. dollars)

Digital Music revenue in the World 2018-2027, by segment

Digital Music revenue in the World from 2018 to 2027 (in million U.S. dollar), by segment

Number of paying online music service subscribers worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (in millions)

U.S. market overview

• Premium Statistic Music industry revenue in the U.S. 2009-2023
• Basic Statistic U.S. music industry - revenue distribution 2017-2022, by source
• Basic Statistic Music album shipments in the U.S. 2017-2022, by type
• Basic Statistic Physical album shipments in the U.S. 1999-2022
• Premium Statistic Retail value of music shipments in the U.S. 1999-2022
• Basic Statistic Music streaming revenue in the U.S. 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Change in music sales in the U.S. 2009-2023

Recorded music industry revenue in the United States from 2009 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Distribution of music industry revenue in the United States from 2017 to 2022, by source

Music album shipments in the U.S. 2017-2022, by type

Music album shipments in the United States from 2017 to 2022, by type (in millions)

Physical album shipments in the U.S. 1999-2022

Physical CD shipments in the United States from 1999 to 2022 (in millions)

Retail value of music shipments in the U.S. 1999-2022

Retail value of music shipments in the United States from 1999 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Music streaming revenue in the U.S. 2010-2022

Revenue from music streaming in the United States from 2010 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Change in music sales in the U.S. 2009-2023

Change in music sales in the United States from 2009 to 2023, by category

Digital music sales

• Premium Statistic Digital Market Outlook: digital music revenue in the U.S. 2017-2027, by format
• Basic Statistic Digital music revenue in the U.S. 2008-2022, by type
• Premium Statistic Digital music track sales in the U.S. 2008-2023
• Premium Statistic Digital album sales in the U.S. 2008-2023
• Basic Statistic Mobile music revenue in the U.S. 2005-2022
• Premium Statistic Number of digital music album downloads in the United States 2004-2022
• Premium Statistic Top-selling digital songs in the U.S. 2023
• Premium Statistic Top-selling digital music albums in the U.S. 2021

Digital Market Outlook: digital music revenue in the U.S. 2017-2027, by format

Digital music revenue in the United States from 2017 to 2027, by format (in billion U.S. dollars)

Digital music revenue in the U.S. 2008-2022, by type

Digital music revenue in the United States from 2008 to 2022, by type (in million U.S. dollars)

Digital music track sales in the U.S. 2008-2023

Digital music track sales in the United States from 2008 to 2023 (in million units)

Digital album sales in the U.S. 2008-2023

Digital album sales in the United States from 2008 to 2023 (in millions)

Mobile music revenue in the U.S. 2005-2022

Mobile music revenue in the United States from 2005 to 2022 (in million U.S. dollars)

Number of digital music album downloads in the United States 2004-2022

Number of digital music album downloads in the United States from 2004 to 2022 (in millions)

Top-selling digital songs in the U.S. 2023

Top-selling digital songs in the United States in 2023 (in thousands)

Top-selling digital music albums in the U.S. 2021

Top-selling digital music albums in the United States in 2021 (in 1,000s)

Music streaming

• Premium Statistic Digital Market Outlook: users of digital music in the U.S. 2017-2027, by format
• Premium Statistic Music streaming revenue share in the U.S. 2009-2022
• Premium Statistic Paid streaming music subscribers in the U.S. 2014-2022
• Premium Statistic U.S. on-demand music streams volume 2013-2021

Digital Market Outlook: users of digital music in the U.S. 2017-2027, by format

Number of digital music users in the United States from 2017 to 2027, by format (in millions)

Music streaming revenue share in the U.S. 2009-2022

Share of streaming in total music revenues in the United States from 2009 to 2022

Paid streaming music subscribers in the U.S. 2014-2022

Number of paid music streaming subscribers in the United States from 1st half 2014 to 1st half 2022 (in millions)

U.S. on-demand music streams volume 2013-2021

Number of on-demand music streams in the United States from 2013 to 2021(in billions)

Concert business

• Basic Statistic The most successful music tours in North America in 2023
• Basic Statistic Most successful music tours in North America 2023, based on ticket sales
• Basic Statistic Live Nation Entertainment's concert revenue from 2008 to 2023
• Basic Statistic Number of events promoted by Live Nation from 2008 to 2023

The most successful music tours in North America in 2023

Most successful music tours in North America in 2023, based on gross revenue (in million U.S. dollars)

Most successful music tours in North America 2023, based on ticket sales

Most successful music tours in North America in 2023, based on ticket sales

Live Nation Entertainment's concert revenue from 2008 to 2023

Live Nation Entertainment's concert revenue from 2008 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Number of events promoted by Live Nation from 2008 to 2023

Number of concerts and festivals promoted by Live Nation from 2008 to 2023

Record companies

• Premium Statistic Market share of the largest music publishers worldwide from 2007 to 2022
• Premium Statistic U.S. music publishers - revenue 2005-2022
• Basic Statistic U.S. music publishers - annual expenses 2007-2022
• Basic Statistic Universal Music Group's revenue 2004-2023
• Basic Statistic Universal Music Group: music publishing revenue 2007-2023
• Premium Statistic Revenue of the Warner Music Group 2004-2023
• Premium Statistic Warner Music Group: music publishing revenue 2004-2023
• Premium Statistic Annual revenue of Sony Corporation's music segment 2008-2023
• Premium Statistic Sony Corporation: music revenue source 2019-2023

Market share of the largest music publishers worldwide from 2007 to 2022

Revenue market share of the largest music publishers worldwide from 2007 to 2022

U.S. music publishers - revenue 2005-2022

Estimated revenue of U.S. music publishers from 2005 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

U.S. music publishers - annual expenses 2007-2022

Estimated expenses of U.S. music publishers from 2007 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Universal Music Group's revenue 2004-2023

Universal Music Group's revenue from 2004 to 2023 (in billion euros)

Universal Music Group: music publishing revenue 2007-2023

Music publishing revenue of the Universal Music Group from 2007 to 2023 (in million euros)

Revenue of the Warner Music Group 2004-2023

Revenue of the Warner Music Group in fiscal years 2004 to 2023 (in million U.S. dollars)

Warner Music Group: music publishing revenue 2004-2023

Music publishing revenue of the Warner Music Group in fiscal years 2004 to 2023 (in million U.S. dollars)

Annual revenue of Sony Corporation's music segment 2008-2023

Annual sales and operating revenue of Sony Corporation's music segment in the fiscal years 2008 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Sony Corporation: music revenue source 2019-2023

Music sales and operating revenue of the Sony Corporation from fiscal 2019 to 2023, by source (in million U.S. dollars)

Consumption

• Premium Statistic Music consumption in the U.S. in 2021, by genre & format
• Premium Statistic Streamed music consumption in the U.S. 2021, by genre
• Premium Statistic Popular online music brands in the U.S. 2023
• Premium Statistic Audio sources in cars in the U.S. 2018-2022

Music consumption in the U.S. in 2021, by genre & format

Distribution of music consumption in the United States in 2021, by genre and format

Streamed music consumption in the U.S. 2021, by genre

Distribution of streamed music consumption in the United States in 2021, by genre

Popular online music brands in the U.S. 2023

Online music services used most frequently in the United States as of January 2023

Audio sources in cars in the U.S. 2018-2022

Most common audio sources used in the car in the United States from 2018 to 2022

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Facts & Research

• 9/10 social media users do music related social media activity
• Americans spend more than 4 hours a day listening to music
• Breaking an artist into a major market can cost $2 million

May 2024 | Sales & Revenue

2021 Year-End Music Industry Revenue Report | RIAA

In 2021, recorded music revenues in the United States grew 23% to $15.0 billion at estimated retail value. All major formats of music grew versus the prior year with the exception of digital downloads. Paid subscriptions continued to be the biggest growth driver, resulting in the sixth consecutive year of growth for music revenues. At wholesale value 2021 revenues were up 22% to $9.8 billion. On a nominal basis, these revenue levels exceed the record high of $14.6 billion reported in 1999, but adjusted for inflation 2021 figures remain 37% below that value level.

More on the 2021 numbers from RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Glazier here .

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE .

Related Research

Year-End 2023 RIAA U.S. Latin Music Revenue Report / Informe de Fin del Año 2023 de RIAA Sobre Ingresos de Música Latina en Estados Unidos

2024 | Sales & Revenue

Latin music in the U.S. has increased in popularity and value over the last eight years, outpacing overall recorded music each year across this period of strong growth. In 2023, the genre hit its highest mark yet at $1.4 billion, representing 16% growth over 2022. Adjusted for inflation, Latin music market revenues in 2023 are now 14% above the previous peak in 2005.

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All Master of Arts in Music Business students complete a culminating experience or thesis project. This experience is meant to be exactly as named: the culmination of your work in the program, the experience through which you synthesize all you have learned. The culminating experience helps to shape your next steps in the music industry and in your career. In short, the culminating experience provides an opportunity for you to complete unique and original professional work. Through the culminating experience, you make a creative contribution to and/or define and solve a problem that exists in the profession. This contribution may take the form of a research project, a creative project, a practical project, and/or another project of your devising. Regardless of the form that the culminating experience takes—whether creative, research-focused, or practical in nature—the culminating experience represents the highest expression of students’ learning at the graduate level.

• Write your culminating experience proposal in the format and style appropriate for your project and submit the proposal for approval by the course faculty member and faculty advisor
• Determine the scope of work you will master in your culminating experience
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• Evaluate statistical approaches and results
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Lesson 1: Preparing for the Culminating Experience

• Requirements and Components of the Culminating Experience
• What Is a Culminating Experience?
• Types of Culminating Experience Projects
• Matching Goals with Culminating Experience Topics and Formats
• The Importance of Independent Learning
• Assignment 1: Identify Two Interesting Culminating Experiences from the Berklee Archives

Lesson 2: Devising a Topic for the Culminating Experience

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• What Is Research?
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• Turning Topics into Questions
• Assignment 2: Identify Three Possible Topics for Your Project, and Create Pitches

Lesson 3: Choosing Your Topic/Formulating Your Thesis Abstract

• Assessing Project Feasibility with Two Essential Questions
• Evaluating Your Research Questions
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• Crafting and Refining a Thesis Statement
• Crafting an Abstract
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Lesson 4: The Literature Review

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• Bibliographic Control
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• Assignment 4: Begin the Literature Review for Culminating Experience

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Lesson 9: Working with People: Research Ethics and Advisors

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Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills Completion of  Music Business Revenue Streams , The Business of Music Marketing , and Data Analytics in the Music Business  or equivalent knowledge and experience is required.

Textbook(s)

• Researching and Writing Dissertations: A Complete Guide for Business and Management Students 2nd Edition  by Roy Horn (CIPD - Kogan Page, 2012)
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Inside the Music Industry’s High-Stakes A.I. Experiments

By John Seabrook

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Sir Lucian Grainge, the chairman and C.E.O. of Universal Music Group, the largest music company in the world, is curious, empathetic, and, if not exactly humble, a master of the humblebrag. His superpower is his humanity. A sixty-three-year-old Englishman, who was knighted in 2016 for his contributions to the music industry and has topped Billboard’s Power 100 list of music-industry players several times in the past decade, Grainge is compact and a bit chubby, with alert eyes behind owlish glasses. He isn’t trying to be noticed. He presides over a public company worth more than fifty billion dollars, but he could be a small-business owner who sells music in a London shop, as did his father, Cecil. On earnings calls, Grainge can sound more like a London taxi dispatcher than a chief executive. But woe to those who mistake his European civility for a lack of competitive fire. “He is so deceptive with that little kind face and those little glasses,” Doug Morris, the previous chairman of UMG, told the Financial Times in 2003, when he was still Grainge’s boss. “Behind them, he is actually a killer shark.” In 2011, Grainge devoured Morris’s job.

As UMG’s leader, he has solidified the dominance of Universal, the largest of the Big Three label groups, helping it to overtake Warner Music and Sony. More than half of Spotify ’s twenty most streamed artists of all time are signed to UMG. But Grainge is also the consummate music man, with forty-five years of experience on both the publishing and the label sides of the business. He oversees a long list of formerly independent labels, including Interscope, Republic, Capitol, Motown, and Island. “Lucian’s like the league commissioner,” Monte Lipman, who founded Republic with his brother Avery, told me. Don Was, the head of Blue Note, UMG’s storied jazz label, said, “He’s the smartest motherfucker in the music business, period. He can operate in the artistic world, and he can operate in the financial world, which are two very different beasts.”

Grainge lives and works in Los Angeles, but West Coast fitness culture has yet to make a convert of him. He neither skis nor golfs, although he sometimes drives the cart for other golfers, doing business between holes. He doesn’t drink or smoke, and, as for drugs, “I panic when I have to take an aspirin,” he has said. He is a family man whose first wife, Samantha Berg, suffered complications while giving birth to their son, Elliot, in 1993, and spent the remaining years of her life in a coma—a profound loss that has colored his world view as much as any professional experience. In March, 2020, Grainge was among the first wave of people in L.A. to contract COVID , and he nearly died, spending eighteen days on a ventilator. After recovering, he told me in his office last November, he had survivor’s guilt. “Why me?” he kept asking himself.

Grainge’s son, Elliot, now thirty and a record man himself (his label, 10K Projects, signed the Gen Z sensation Ice Spice), told me, “We’re not from Hollywood.” He added, of his father, “He doesn’t put on a show, a façade, like so many people out here do—there’s a total difference of personality. He’s from an insular Jewish community in North London. He has a village mentality.”

Still, music has made Grainge a very rich villager. One British music executive told me, “Winning means more to him than to almost anyone else I have met in the music business”; money is just a way of keeping score. Although Grainge’s annual salary—five million dollars—is relatively modest for his position, he received a hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar bonus for successfully taking UMG public, in 2021. Some shareholders objected to the size of this “transition” compensation, deeming it “excessive.” In the U.K., Grainge’s pay package was even discussed in Parliament, in the context of a proposed bill that was promoting equity in the music business. A Conservative M.P., Esther McVey, said, “It’s shocking that record-label owners are earning more out of artists’ works than the artists themselves.”

Grainge lives in a mansion in Pacific Palisades with his second wife, Caroline, whom he married in 2002, and with whom he has raised a daughter, Alice, and a stepdaughter, Betsy. When he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 2020, Lionel Richie—a longtime Universal artist, and the father of Elliot’s wife, Sofia—honored him at the ceremony. (“That’s a real copyright!” Grainge exclaimed to me approvingly about Richie’s evergreen tune “Hello.” “A wedding and bar-mitzvah song!”) He is highly regarded both by UMG’s artists and by the company’s investors, an extraordinarily difficult twofer to pull off.

His old friend Bono , whose band, U2, is on Island, told me, “Lucian doesn’t do varnish. If you’re looking for varnish from Lucian, you’d better be drinking it. He is exactly as he appears.” He added, “People like us are practiced in the art of dizziness, and the music business can be a dizzy world. But for those of us who like to know where the doors, walls, and windows are, facts are friendly, and they’re more friendly if they don’t come with the kind of back-slapping, white-crowned varnish”—the kind with which music executives often treat artists. Bono did an impression of Grainge for me. “Can’t do it, mate!’’ he barked. “No! Will not. Not gonna happen!” He added that, as a musician, “I feel very comfortable when I know who I’m in the room with, when I don’t have to negotiate with a Janus-faced man.”

Which is not to say that Grainge is always easy to understand. He favors off-the-wall analogies, often involving cars, which he collects. When Grainge first met the English singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum, he declared, “Jamie! You’re like a Formula 1 sausage roll,” an exchange that has been captured for posterity in a cartoon Cullum drew that hangs on a wall outside Grainge’s office. “He talks in riddles, which I find endearing,” Jody Gerson, who runs UMG’s global publishing company, told me. “Weird historical British references, Yiddish things, and every now and then he’ll say, ‘Do you know what I mean?’ And I’m, like, Do I admit that I don’t? He once said to me, ‘Jody, I think like a jazz musician. I don’t always know exactly how I’m getting there, but I know where I’m going to end up.’ Lucian knows what he’s doing at all times, and that’s his process.”

Among investors, Grainge is seen as an executive whose strategic use of technology has reshaped the industry’s business model. At an investor presentation in 2021, Bill Ackman, whose hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, owns ten per cent of UMG, compared Grainge’s impact on the music business to that of Netflix’s Reed Hastings on the TV and film industry; he has also likened Grainge to Walt Disney and Steve Jobs. Irving Azoff, of Full Stop Management, told me that Grainge, who attracted Ackman’s fund and the Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent, which owns twenty per cent of UMG, had created a global investor base to match the company’s roster of global superstars. That, in turn, had enhanced the value of the music industry as a whole, “which had always been traditionally undervalued,” Azoff said.

In the course of Grainge’s forty-five years in the business, everything about the way people create, sell, and consume music has changed. Distribution, once a mainstay—you needed labels to physically get records into stores—has become as easy as hitting an Upload button. Promotion of new music, which labels once controlled by way of radio d.j.s, now occurs on streaming platforms, where algorithms determine playlists. Product lives in the cloud, and revenues, formerly derived from sales of albums and singles, have given way to regular royalty payouts from streaming services. Music executives, who used to come up in the record business, like Grainge and Rob Stringer, the head of Sony Music, are now as likely to be lawyers, private-equity managers, turnaround specialists, or tech leaders—such as Robert Kyncl, the recently appointed C.E.O. of Warner Music Group, who was previously an executive at YouTube.

And yet, unlike print media, television, and film—other creative industries that have struggled to adapt to similar digital transformations—the music industry, after a severe contraction in the first decade of the century, now appears to be more profitable than ever. Streaming revenues alone reportedly surpassed seventeen billion dollars in 2022. It was arguably Grainge who, more than any other executive, defied the grim prognostications of the industry’s imminent demise in the early two-thousands. How did he manage it? After all, even though UMG controls the content, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, et al. own the technology.

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“It’s called a ‘wriggle,’ ” Grainge, in his large sixth-floor corner office, told me on a gray November day. He sat at an oblong table with his back to the window, which faces east toward downtown Santa Monica. A guitar signed by Amy Winehouse was nearby. He held out his hand and wriggled it, his fingers moving like fish nosing through coral. “You’re going to have to figure out if you’re going to go above, beneath, around the side, or through.”

In March, 2023, Neal Mohan, who had just become the C.E.O. of YouTube, received a message from Grainge that said, “Hey Neal, congratulations, when can we meet?” Mohan told me, “It was typical Lucian in that it was warm and friendly, but it was clear that he had real urgency in his request to talk.” The subject was A.I.

A. & R. scouts are said to have ears, and Grainge sports an impressive pair of aural appendages that move up and down the sides of his head when he’s talking. But Grainge uses his nose. “I’ve always been able to smell intuitively what the next scene is,” he said. “Whether it’s punk or New Romantics, I’ve always enjoyed it, picked up on it, and this is my view of technology.” Generative A.I., which can produce novel images, text, and music, smelled to him like the next big scene. “That’s all I am—a talent scout.”

The industry is facing yet another revolution, but what sort isn’t yet clear. Is A.I. a format change in the way music is consumed, like the transition from records and cassettes to CDs, or is it a threat to the business model, as were free downloading and file-sharing? Is generative A.I. a new kind of digital workstation for making music, or is it the new radio—a platform for promoting acts and engaging with fans? Is a new era of musical invention at hand, or will A.I. cripple human creativity?

In April of 2023, an anonymous producer called ghostwriter used A.I. voice replications of Drake and the Weeknd to create a deepfake duet called “ Heart on My Sleeve .” The “Fake Drake” song quickly went viral, sending waves of fear through the industry; Universal’s stock fell by roughly twenty per cent between February and mid-May, over concerns about generative A.I. eroding the value of its copyrights. (The stock has since recovered, and is near an all-time high.) Grainge invited me to imagine an illegitimate version of a Kanye West song featuring Taylor Swift’s voice: “Get your head around that. And then it’s ingested into one of the platforms and someone starts monetizing it.” He added, “I haven’t spent forty-five years in the industry just to have it be a free-for-all where anything goes. Not going to happen while I’m still here!” At the same time, he didn’t want to miss out, in case A.I.-generated material became a new source of revenue for artists—and their labels.

Before Mohan’s appointment, YouTube, which is owned by Google, had developed several key music-related products: paid-subscription services and Content ID, an automated way to detect copyrighted music on the platform. These products dramatically altered YouTube’s relationship with the music industry, turning the lawless wasteland of the early twenty-first century into the industry’s Elysian Fields. Between July, 2021, and June, 2022, YouTube paid more than six billion dollars to rights holders globally.

Last spring, Grainge flew to San Bruno, south of San Francisco, where YouTube is based. This was around the time that people in nearly every content industry were awakening to the fact that Google, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI were scraping material of all kinds from the Internet to use in training their A.I. models. As lawyers in all those content businesses mulled suing for copyright infringement, Grainge’s instinct was to play with the technology. It was the same approach he had taken to music streaming. “He experiments early,” Daniel Ek, a founder of Spotify, told me. “So then the cost isn’t as huge later, because you’re not betting the farm on everything you’re trying to do.”

DeepMind, Google’s artificial-intelligence research lab in London, had been working on generative-A.I. music technology. One model—which Google later dubbed Lyria—was just emerging from the lab, and Mohan and his colleagues were beginning to ponder how to put it to use. He welcomed Grainge’s input. “I remember in one of our first conversations Lucian said we need a constitution,” Mohan recalled. Working with YouTube colleagues, Mohan came up with three “principles”: a commitment to the “responsible” use of A.I. in collaboration with music partners; a pledge to continue refining safety protocols and guardrails; and systems that would help counteract trademark and copyright abuse. Google has created a tool called SynthID, which can watermark and detect synthetically generated content.

Still, it seemed highly likely that music-generating A.I.s had been trained on at least some copyrighted material, without a license. In experimenting with the technology, would Grainge be implicitly endorsing the scraping that UMG’s lawyers could potentially go to court to stop? Grainge told me that the industry’s historical response to engaging with tech companies had been fear. “The lawyers have done what’s necessary to protect us,” he said. “But if a strategy is only seen through the lens of what can go wrong, the people running the business become scared and paralyzed. Well, I don’t do scared.”

“I always say that the music industry chooses you,” Grainge told me. In the nineteen-fifties, his father, Cecil, was the proprietor of GrAInge, a North London record shop and appliance retailer. (The “AI” in the logo was uppercased, a spooky coincidence.) Grainge has an early memory of watching his father shave while he whistled “Hey Jude”: “How is it he’s not cutting himself? He couldn’t stop whistling that melody.” Music was always playing in the house. “I’d get woken up to Neil Diamond, the ‘Radetzky March,’ Fats Domino, lots of Ray Charles,” he said.

“It’s in the blood,” Irving Azoff said of being in a music family; both of his sons are in the industry. “Being around it your whole life, you get a perspective you couldn’t learn in business school.”

Grainge’s half brother Nigel, thirteen years his senior, had begun a career in music that would eventually lead to his signing Sinéad O’Connor, the Waterboys, Thin Lizzy, 10cc, and Bob Geldof’s band, the Boomtown Rats, to his record label, Ensign, which he founded in 1976. He took Lucian, still in his mid-teens, to see the Ramones on their first U.K. tour. Grainge also saw the Sex Pistols and the Stranglers, among other punk acts, and hung out in a derelict house where the Damned rehearsed. He loved it all, including being gobbed on at gigs. “I had a jacket covered with saliva,” he said. “I used to leave it on a heap on the floor.” He also learned to pogo. “Because I was normally the shortest one at the club, people would use me to pogo off,” he said. “When Bob Geldof got smacked in the mouth at the Music Machine”—a venue in Camden Town—“and lost his front teeth, the guy who did it pogoed off my shoulders.” (Geldof, who has also been knighted in the intervening years, recalled the young Grainge as “kind of annoying, in a little brother way,” but clarified that, although his lip was bruised and his nose bloodied that night, no teeth went missing.)

When Grainge was seventeen, a talent agent in Soho hired him as a sandwich guy, the lowliest gofer. He balanced work with study at Queen Elizabeth’s School, a venerable institution for boys in North London, established in 1573. His mother, Marion, a certified public accountant, was keen for her son to go to university; Grainge didn’t see the point. He agreed to take his A-level exams, but during one of the tests a proctor admonished him for wearing red shoes instead of black ones, which Grainge was said to have been “really fucked off” about. He walked out of the exam and later that day signed a producer to the agency he worked for. His mother was livid; his father, who had left school at age fourteen, didn’t care. (Years later, when Elliot told his father that he wasn’t planning on attending college, Grainge wouldn’t hear of it. Elliot graduated from Northeastern.)

In 1979, Maurice Oberstein, an American record man who helped build CBS Records U.K. into a powerhouse in the late seventies, hired Grainge as an A. & R. scout on the publishing side. A towering figure in the British music industry, Obie, as Oberstein was called, appeared to enjoy making visitors uncomfortable by behaving eccentrically, bringing his dog to meetings and pretending that he was listening to the canine’s advice. “Obie was one of the most brilliant record executives I ever met,” Grainge told me. “He absolutely terrified me and most of the people around him.” (Grainge has been known to have a similar effect at times. “It’s how he tests you,” John Janick, the head of Interscope, told me.)

In 1979, Grainge signed the Psychedelic Furs to a writing contract, mainly because of their song “Sister Europe,” which hadn’t yet been released. He spent a decade in publishing, traditionally the more conservative wing of the business: while the labels focus on breaking new acts, publishing favors a measured approach, building long-term value in evergreens. As a “song guy,” Grainge acted as a consultant to writer-performers he signed, and developed material for established artists who didn’t write. In 1982, he became the director of R.C.A.’s publishing arm, where he signed the Eurythmics. Grainge told me, of signing acts in those days, “All I needed was a Walkman, a park bench, and a checkbook. The rest is bullshit.” Mike Caren, a longtime record executive formerly at Warner, told me, “Working with artists and songwriters is the closest you can be to the creative process.”

Grainge’s early years in the business were a fertile time in music. Punk taught him about the power of a “scene,” Grainge’s shorthand for the way a musical subculture can fuse with fashion, art, media, and politics to change mainstream culture. As hip-hop, one such scene, emerged in the U.S., Grainge observed how technology, in the form of early samplers and drum machines, could enfranchise artists who lacked access to instruments, music lessons, and studios. The rise of New Wave bands, which eclipsed punk, schooled Grainge in how transient scenes can be. One minute he was getting spit on by lads in ripped tees, “and then I wake up and I’m with Steve Strange”—the dandyish front man of the band Visage—“and all the guys look like girls. And the saliva is gone.” That’s why he wasn’t alarmed, years later, when streaming disrupted the industry. “I feel exactly the same with music in the cloud. Everything’s disruption, disruption, change, change. I’m used to disruption.”

By the early eighties, formerly independent labels that were run by their founders—such as Chris Blackwell’s Island and Ahmet Ertegun’s Atlantic—had begun to attract Wall Street interest, thanks in part to the enormous success of records like Peter Frampton’s double album “Frampton Comes Alive!,” on A&M. Labels began merging, to increase market share, offset distribution costs, and spread risk. In 1986, Grainge joined PolyGram, a Dutch-German entertainment company that had expanded into the U.S. and the U.K., to launch a publishing division. He acquired the rights to the catalogues of artists like Elton John, recognizing how valuable copyrights would be in the burgeoning CD era, with the repackaging of older work. That acumen would prove crucial in the streaming age, as catalogues replaced new hits as the primary source of income; one report showed that catalogues represented about seventy per cent of the U.S. music market in 2021.

Toward the end of his publishing career, Grainge was involved in one of the most renowned catalogue rejuvenations ever. In 1992, PolyGram released “ABBA Gold,” a greatest-hits collection. After the band split up, in 1982, “we thought it was finished,” Björn Ulvaeus, who wrote the Swedish foursome’s songs with Benny Andersson, told me. “I really believed that. Oh, they might play the odd song, with a reference to the seventies, perhaps, but that’s it.” Grainge, working with his colleagues John Kennedy and David Hockman, was instrumental in rebranding the band for a new generation. “It became a huge hit,” Ulvaeus said of “ABBA Gold.” “I have to thank those guys. They saw something else.”

The following January, Grainge moved over to the label side, becoming the head of A. & R. and business affairs at Polydor, a PolyGram label. It had done well with the Bee Gees in the seventies but now had a roster of waning artists. Grainge helped turn things around by signing acts like the Cure, Take That, the Cardigans, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But it was when he was at Polydor that Grainge’s private life was torn apart, after his wife, Samantha Berg, suffered an amniotic-fluid embolism while giving birth to Elliot. “In the space of an hour, I lost my wife and became a father for the first time,” he told me. “It’s the worst thing that could happen to someone. I had a son to raise, and that became my priority. I became braver. In my professional life, I suppose it enabled me to confront challenges as well as risk with a different mindset, in a way I might not otherwise have had.”

In 1997, he became the managing director, a job transition that Grainge now considers the most daunting in his career. At the time, CD sales were driving the industry to new heights, and record companies were growing ever larger. In 1995, the Canadian conglomerate Seagram, led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr., an heir to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, had acquired the MCA Music Entertainment Group, and the following year renamed the company Universal Music Group. Two years later, Seagram bought PolyGram. In 2000, Seagram was sold to the French media company Vivendi. Grainge rode this merry-go-round of mergers and acquisitions to greater power. Bronfman appointed him head of Universal Music U.K. in 2001, and he took over UMG International in 2005. Unfortunately, his ascendancy came just as the industry that he had grown up with was facing extinction.

In the fifteen years after the pioneering file-sharing service Napster launched, in 1999, worldwide music revenues declined more than forty per cent. Thousands of people lost their jobs. In 2004, Grainge assembled his senior executives in the company’s boardroom in London. He sat in silence until they all were seated, and then he got up and switched off the lights. “This is what’s going to happen to the company unless you get some hits and fucking fix file-sharing,” he said, and walked out. (Bono, who had heard about this famous meeting, did his Grainge impersonation when he gave his account: “Roight! Get used to the dahk!”)

Per Sundin, a record executive in Sweden, recalled meeting Grainge in 2009: “I said, ‘We’re firing people like crazy, and there’s no upside coming.’ And Lucian was totally positive. His confidence—about music, songs, and songwriters, but also about the future—was contagious. This is a guy who doesn’t fear anyone.”

In 2007, Grainge and Nokia made one of the first “all you can eat” music deals: buy the phone and download as much UMG music as you want for a year. Such deals are now the norm. “The fact is that much of the industry was scared to make the shift to an access model,” he told me. “And I understand why. When your whole existence has been based on a wholesale retail-transaction model, a fundamental shift like that can be terrifying.”

Daniel Ek, of Spotify, met Grainge the same year. “A lot of people at that time were trying to protect their jobs,” Ek told me. “But Lucian’s view was, How do I protect music, regardless of what happens to me?” Ek believed that a free, ad-supported model for music streaming would act as a “funnel” to bring in users and then convert them to paying subscribers, through premium features. But free music was a non-starter for Edgar Bronfman, who by then was C.E.O. of Warner Music Group. (In 2004, Bronfman had led a group of investors who acquired WMG from Time Warner.) “Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry, and, as far as Warner Music is concerned, will not be licensed,” he said at the time.

Grainge didn’t love the idea of free music, either. Yet he supported Ek’s vision, and was instrumental in getting Spotify licensed in the U.S., in 2011. But the free tier remained contentious (and still is). Ek recalled a particularly difficult negotiation a few years later over renewing the license, which was set to expire. “I was running up against the clock, both sides were threatening each other, and I was kind of getting stressed out,” Ek told me. His partner, Sofia Levander, was about to give birth to their first child. “Lucian called me up,” he went on. “I was expecting him to scream at me, ‘You’ve got twenty-four hours!’ But what he actually said was, ‘I just heard that you’re about to become a father. I’ve been in this situation myself, where it was really difficult in my professional career. You know what, I’m just going to renew the existing deal as is for two months. Go have your baby, take it easy, we will sort it out somehow.’ He had no financial reason for doing that. In fact, it would probably have been better for him to wear me out while I was going through a lot of hardship.” He added, “And when I came back we sat together and worked it out.”

Bronfman recently described the tough stance that he took with Ek in the early days of streaming. “I said, ‘Look, Daniel, you will have people on the free tier forever—that’s just not right,’ ” he told me. But, he added, “Lucian was more the leader and I was the outlier.” Grainge’s approach to A.I. today, Bronfman believes, is “very consistent” with his initial approach to streaming. “He has always wanted to enable technologies,” Bronfman said. “He doesn’t want to shut them down, but he doesn’t want to give them entirely free rein until he has a better understanding of their potential, either to grow or harm the industry.”

In 2011, Grainge became the head of global UMG, which was based in New York, after spending six months as co-C.E.O. with Doug Morris. He decided to relocate the company to L.A., in part to be closer to Silicon Valley, and in part to establish a new power base away from New York and Morris’s loyalists. Although the unique cultures of the formerly independent labels had mostly disappeared by the twenty-first century, Grainge, like Morris before him, sought to revive the entrepreneurial spirit that made them successful in the first place, encouraging UMG label heads to compete not only with outside labels but with one another. He told me that he had learned from Obie the importance of “surrounding oneself with brilliant creative executives,” and that “they needed to be treated like artists themselves.” Interscope’s John Janick, whom Grainge helped bring in to succeed Jimmy Iovine, told me, “I’m an employee here, but he makes me feel like I’m building the company I run.”

Eleven months into his tenure as UMG’s chairman, Grainge made a huge wager on the future of music and on his own career. EMI, the British music conglomerate—home to the Beatles and Queen—had gone bankrupt after a disastrous sale of its assets to Guy Hands, a British private-equity investor who thought that he knew how to run a record company.

In what could now be called one of the biggest bargains of all time, Grainge bought the company from Citibank for $1.9 billion. Competitors raised antitrust concerns; Congress held a hearing, where Bronfman said that the merger would create “one innovation-stifling dominant player”; and the European Commission issued a two-hundred-page statement of objection. Citibank sold EMI’s publishing arm to Sony. Grainge sold some of the labels, including Ensign, his brother Nigel’s former label, to appease the regulators. (Nigel died in 2017, at the age of seventy, owing to complications from surgery.)

“I would take ‘innovation stifling’ out,” Bronfman said, when I asked him how he felt about his testimony today.

UMG’s larger market share enhanced Grainge’s leverage with the tech companies. When it comes to a wriggle, scale matters. “I’m negotiating with companies whose value runs into the trillions,” Grainge told me. “In that sense, we’re a minnow.” He forged the first licensing deal between a major record company and a social platform, when he entered into an agreement with Facebook, in 2017. In the past decade, YouTube, Snapchat, Amazon, Peloton, and any number of gaming companies, fitness apps, and purveyors of online karaoke have come to Grainge seeking licensing deals. “I was around for some of that,” Neil Jacobson, a former president of Geffen Records, which is part of Interscope, told me. “It’s the greatest negotiation in the history of the music business. He knew how to play one against the other.” Azoff observed, “He deserves full credit for knocking down these walls and making them start dealing with us, but he would be the first to say the fight’s far from over.”

Grainge starts each year with a memo to the UMG staff—the music-industry equivalent of Warren Buffett’s annual letter to his shareholders. His January, 2023, epistle to UMG’s ten thousand employees began with chest thumping over the company’s domination of the charts, with tracks by Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, Feid, Karol G, Lana Del Rey, Morgan Wallen, Olivia Rodrigo, the Rolling Stones, and Drake, who on the 2021 Migos song “Having Our Way” dropped the chairman’s name:

Shit done changed Billionaires talk to me different When they see my paystub from Lucian Grainge.

Then Grainge turned to “content oversupply,” as he referred to it. In spite of the popularity of the company’s superstars (several of the most followed people on social media are Universal artists), UMG’s over-all share of the streaming market is declining, as is that of the other label groups. A decade ago, according to a study published by Bank of America, major labels were responsible for about ninety per cent of the content on streaming platforms; today, their share is roughly ten per cent. YouTube and TikTok have allowed emerging artists to monetize their careers without major-label help. Ice Spice, Jack Harlow, and Lil Nas X, for instance, owe their ascendancy to social media.

Grainge grew up in an industry in which labels were the only game in town. Now the platforms are clogged with aspiring musicians, hoping that an algorithm will notice them. In a report last year, the research company Luminate said that, of the hundred and eighty-four million tracks available on streaming platforms, 86.2 per cent received fewer than a thousand plays, and 24.8 per cent—45.6 million tracks—had zero plays. It seems that Spotify, which in many ways could be considered the Netflix of music, has also become something like Friendster: a place for amateurs to post homemade work for friends.

In Grainge’s view, this oversupply is “getting in the way of real talent and real songwriters,” he told me. Many of the hundred and twenty thousand new tracks flooding into streaming platforms each day aren’t songs at all; they’re “functional music” designed for exercising, concentrating, or sleeping, including such bangers as “Baby White Noise” and “Rain on Windshield.” Endel, a prominent functional-music company, has estimated that there are as many as fifteen billion streams of these tracks a month. In our conversations, Grainge pointed to a vacuum sound that had recently risen to No. 7 on the Swiss music charts. A.I. was likely to vastly increase what he called the “sea of noise.” (In May, 2023, in another kind of wriggle, Grainge himself entered the market, when UMG announced a partnership with Endel that would allow UMG artists to use A.I. to make functional versions of their songs.)

The payment system that was being used by Spotify and other platforms—a pro-rata model that Grainge helped create—paid a share of the aggregate royalties to labels based on the percentage of the total that their artists’ streams represented. The labels were then responsible for paying out the artists’ share. It galled Grainge that all streams were valued the same, whether it was Drake or a dripping faucet. A pro-rata model also didn’t account for the added value of major acts, which drive people to pay, and stay subscribed to, premium streaming services. As Monte Lipman put it to me, “With these superstar artists, when they set a release date, you see these sharp spikes in the streaming space, and you don’t necessarily see that with rainwater hitting the windshield.”

In his letter, Grainge called for a new “artist-centric” model that would value legitimate artists at a higher rate. It is a measure of his clout that by the time his 2024 letter came out, in early January, Spotify and several other platforms were adopting key aspects of this model. The French streaming service Deezer, for example, now counts an instance of someone searching for and listening to a song—rather than listening after it has been served up by an algorithm—as two streams. On Spotify, tracks must have a thousand plays in a year before they can start generating revenue. “Is it fair?” Daniel Glass, who heads the indie label Glassnote, said. “No. But Lucian did the right thing for the music industry.”

I asked Grainge how he could be sure that one of those hundred and twenty thousand new songs that crop up every day might not be the next hit.

“How are you going to find that?” he said. “There’s too much stuff! And it is just stuff.”

In June of 2023, Mohan arranged for a demonstration of the nascent Lyria for Grainge and several members of his team, at Grainge’s home. Prompted by a text command, Lyria generated an instrumental version of the melody of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” in the style of John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things.” It was impressive, but Grainge wasn’t surprised. He had seen this kind of thing before, back in the early eighties, when synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines became especially popular. “Everyone said it was the end back then,” he observed.

Michael Nash, UMG’s chief digital officer, and Will Tanous, the chief administrative officer, attended the meeting. “I don’t mean to be a wet blanket,” Tanous said after the demo ended, “but there’s a huge section of the artist community that won’t be down with this.” Musicians were growing anxious about what A.I. might do to their careers.

YouTube and UMG discussed the idea of an “artist incubator.” Songwriters, performers, producers, and rights holders would experiment with the technology and give Google feedback, including any concerns. By August, the incubator was up and running. Participants included Don Was, Björn Ulvaeus, the artist Rosanne Cash, the composer Max Richter, the rapper Yo Gotti, the OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder, and representatives of the estate of Frank Sinatra.

In October, Don Was told me about his session with Lyria. He prompted the model with the name of a famous artist, a legendary singer-songwriter he had worked with in the past, asking for a song about his first car. The DeepMind team suggested adding the command “produced by Don Was.” The A.I. generated four different fragments of songs about cars, all with lyrics, melodies, and orchestration, and sung in the A.I.-generated voice of the artist, which had been learned from YouTube videos. Was described the experience as “a combination of awe and terror simultaneously.” His first thought was “This is better than anything I could have done.” His second was “I could collaborate with myself on my very best day.” For that reason, he told himself, “the songwriters are going to like this more than anybody, as long as you can’t steal from them.” He imagines an A.I. that has been trained on an artist’s complete works, and which other songwriters could collaborate with, for a fee. The songwriter, he mused, “gets paid, and he can put his name on the song if he likes it, take it off if he doesn’t.”

DeepMind representatives met with Ulvaeus in Stockholm; he later spent a day at DeepMind, in London. “I can only describe it as an extension of my mind,” Ulvaeus told me. I quoted Was’s line about writing with yourself on your “very best day.” “Exactly,” Ulvaeus replied. He talked about hearing the Beatles on the radio as a young man. “We kind of trained on that,” he said. “And, when we started writing, all of those references—we used them for inspiration.” But the A.I. would be able to reference so much more than he had. “Every songwriter in the world would subscribe to that service if it was good enough,” he said. He’d also started to think about monetization. “The A.I. models would have a heap of money like Spotify does, and that money could be distributed back to songwriters and labels according to consumption,” he suggested, adding, “It’s a blunt instrument, but that’s one way of doing it.”

It’s possible that questions over copyright and monetization could take years to sort out. By that point, the A.I. version of an artist might not need her anymore, once it has learned everything there is to learn about her style. And who would own the output: the prompter of the A.I. or the artist whose style was the inspiration? “I have to accept that the prompter gets a copyright,” Ulvaeus said. “It sounds radical, but I see no other way.”

But why was training a song-generating A.I. like Lyria any different from the way that he and Benny Andersson had drawn on their memories of listening to the Beatles in making their hits? Because, as Ulvaeus pointed out to me, the Beatles music that they heard was licensed and paid for.

When I asked Grainge whether licensing the music used for training A.I.s was the way forward, he offered an automobile analogy. “If only it were as simple as buying a car: ‘This is what the manufacturing cost is, this is what the taxes are,’ ” he said. “This is more like building a car, so it’s far too early for me to discuss business models.” He added, “But it’s in my bones to try and be ahead.”

When I met with Grainge in California, YouTube was about to announce an experimental venture called Dream Track. A select group of a hundred YouTube creators would get to use the A.I.-generated voices and songwriting styles of nine well-known singer-songwriters, three of them from UMG—John Legend, Demi Lovato, and Troye Sivan—to create YouTube Shorts of up to thirty seconds. Four Warner artists would also be involved: Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, and Sia. And T-Pain and the rapper Papoose rounded out the group. As Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global music head, explained in a blog post about the experiment, the creators would simply have to type an idea into the creation prompt and select one of the artists from a carrousel in order to produce a unique soundtrack for their Shorts.

For Grainge, Dream Track represented an unusually bold collaboration between a content colossus and a tech superpower, in an effort to determine how to monetize synthetic vocals. Among other possible applications, Grainge was curious how the technology could be used to create new iterations of hit songs which would be sung in different languages by A.I.-generated versions of the artists’ voices. In the U.S., artists own their voices and likenesses, which are protected not by copyright but by the “right of publicity.” After Fake Drake appeared, last April, people were using services like Voicify to flood streaming platforms with tracks that replicated artists’ voices and songwriting styles without permission. UMG issued thousands of takedown notices, but efforts were complicated because right-of-publicity statutes exist only at the state level. UMG has lobbied Congress for a federal right of publicity, and a recent bipartisan bill, the No AI Fraud Act, aims to protect artists’ voices under federal intellectual-property law. “I personally think legislation is critical,” Grainge told me. He sees the unlicensed use of A.I.-generated voices and styles “as a form of identity theft.” It’s “immoral,” he said.

One day, Grainge invited me to tag along to a meeting with his “creative SWAT team” to discuss both Dream Track and the artist incubator. In a conference room called ABBA—each meeting room in the building is named for a famous UMG artist or act—seven men and one woman were waiting at a long table, with the empty chair at the head reserved for Grainge. He began by noting that this was a limited experiment. Rigid controls were in place so that the users couldn’t, say, prompt the John Legend A.I. to sing a hymn to terrorists. The output is closely monitored by YouTube and watermarked using SynthID.

“Sometimes you need a Snickers bar to get to the filet mignon, to stop you from driving into a concrete pillar and killing yourself along the way,” Grainge remarked, in a typically tortured analogy. He was particularly concerned that a superstar artist might object to UMG’s involvement in a generative-A.I. experiment with Google. Bad Bunny had recently declared, to fans listening to an unauthorized deepfake track that used his voice, “You don’t deserve to be my friends.”

Grainge went on, “I can just hear it—‘I don’t fuck with A.I.!’ ” He added, “We have to be ready. Let’s not be afraid. Let’s just be prepared.”

The discussion turned to the incubator. Dickon Stainer, UMG’s global head of classical music and jazz, who was joining the meeting by Zoom from London, reported that his artist Max Richter was delighted to be invited into the incubator. “He’s been through all the format changes, from albums to CDs, CDs to downloads, downloads to streaming, and he feels he was powerless to affect any of that,” Stainer said. “And all of a sudden he feels like he can be in the middle of the conversation.”

It was late in London. “Do you have your p.j.’s on under that shirt, Dickon?” Grainge called out, with a laugh. “The ones with the little animals on them?”

“I’ve been out to a gig!” Stainer replied.

Grainge wrapped up the meeting with a couple more metaphors. “I don’t think this will be plain sailing,” he said. “It’s like going to the dentist. ‘If you experience any pain, let me know and I’ll stop immediately.’ That’s what this is.”

The larger question of whether copyrighted material can be used as training data for A.I. is far from settled. In October, Universal Music Publishing Group and other prominent publishers sued the A.I. company Anthropic—the creator of Claude, a “next generation AI assistant for your tasks, no matter the scale”—for systematic and widespread infringement of copyrighted material in the training of Claude and in its potential output. Both sides submitted written responses to the U.S. Copyright Office on several topics, including fair use and copyright. Anthropic maintains that its A.I. uses a vast body of work, of which lyrics are one small element, to build a statistical model of the way language functions.

In reference to the overarching challenges posed by generative A.I., UMG argued in its submission to the Copyright Office that “the wholesale appropriation of UMG’s enormous catalog of copyright-protected sound recordings and musical compositions to build multibillion commercial enterprises . . . is simply theft on an unprecedented scale.” Jonathan King, a copyright lawyer who worked on the submission, told me, “One of the principles of fair use is that authors ought to be allowed to build upon the work of other authors in some circumstances. But that’s not how A.I. works. A.I. uses copyrighted materials to emulate human authorship. The machine is not an author, in the traditional sense of a creative and expressive human being, because it is just synthesizing an imitation of human content, derived from algorithms that study and try to sound like human authors.”

Grainge wasn’t waiting for the courts to decide what constitutes fair use. Recalling the first decade of file-sharing, he said, “If we had waited for the tech companies to finish innovating, we would have ended up as roadkill.”

“I ’m never really apprehensive about anything,” Grainge told me of his exploratory A.I. ventures. I had raised the question of whether he could really trust Google, since the company’s long-term interests may lie in giving its users the tools to close the gap between wannabes and real artists by making it possible for anyone to create a fully orchestrated song by typing in a prompt or even whistling a melody. A tsunami of noise could be coming.

Grainge doesn’t indulge in such existential fears. “The things that make me apprehensive,” he said, “are when people can’t see around the corners and the bends.” He made the swimming motion with his hand again. “Technology has served the industry very well,” he went on. “From sheet music to upright pianos to big bands and the huge CBS radio network in the U.S. that was going to destroy fledging shellac sales. In the eighties, Linn drum machines, 808s, the Fairlight synthesizer—we’ve always been served very well.” In any case, he added, there was no point in fighting generative A.I. “What are we going to do?” When a company the size of Google is “making an investment in developing products and tools,” he said, “my view is, as an industry, we need to be the hostess with the mostest.”

Grainge mentioned new health-and-wellness projects that UMG was pursuing with a couple of startups, according to research on how music affects the brain. “If you’ve ever been in a ward with brain-injury patients, as I have, unfortunately,” Grainge said, pausing for a second before continuing, “the music-therapy person is like the guy in a Mexican restaurant who goes around and plays at your table. I thought, How can we use the technology—headphones, earbuds, and software—to program inaudible frequencies into the music for the region of the frontal lobes that affects pain and reduce stress? And I think we’ve got it. I believe that we’ve got a product that over a twelve-minute period will be as effective as a valium.” He added, “It’s brilliant for catalogue—that’s the businessman in me. But it also shows the importance of music to the world. It is emotionally healing as well as physically healing.”

Had Grainge’s brush with death at the beginning of the pandemic informed his view of life, work, or the threat of A.I.? Had he answered the question “Why me?” “I’m not a particularly spiritual person,” he said. “I care about music, I care about artists, I care deeply, deeply, deeply about this industry. That was the impact the illness had.” After another pause, he added, “You know, the reality is, we’re no more than a speck of sand. All of us.”

“The last time I spoke to Lucian,” Bono told me, “he was going on about Africa: ‘It’s so exciting! All these new artists!’ He was looking at talent in Nigeria.” By 2050, more than a third of the world’s youth will live on the African continent.

When the African music scene came up in our conversation, Grainge got so worked up that he seemed like he might pogo off his chair. “A dancehall record coming out of Lagos—to an old-fart talent scout like me, this is wonderful,” he said. His ears were up. “Because they’re scenes. And then they start to cross-pollinate. It’s the greatest feeling when you’ve placed a song with an artist, or you’ve seen a band and there’s fifty people, then one hundred and fifty people, then three hundred people. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.” ♦

An earlier version of this article misidentified one of the artists involved in the Dream Track experiment.

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INTERNATIONAL MUSIC BUSINESS RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

We are a global community of scholars and students who research the music business..

The 15th International Music Business Research Days 2024

MUSIC BUSINESS RESEARCH

Springer international book series.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MUSIC BUSINESS RESEARCH

15th International Music Business Research Days (2024)

Music ecosystem research: challenges and opportunities, june 5 - 7, hanover university of music, drama and media, department of journalism and communication research in collaboration with hype&friends and gmm e. v., call for papers, music business research is an interdisciplinary field that puts different analytical approaches into mutual dialogue. it is located at the intersection of economic, artistic, musical, cultural, social, legal, and technological understandings of the creation, distribution, and use of music. this interdisciplinary nature calls for conceptual and methodological multiplicity and an openness to scholars from different fields., the 15th international music business research days 2024 will be hosted and organized by the department of journalism and communication research, hanover university of music, drama and media. the conference theme for thursday june 6 is ‘ecosystem thinking’. the term ecosystem presents opportunities for better understanding the complexity, dynamics and interdependence within the new digital boundlessness of the music sector and music-related sectors. a sustainable development of them will only succeed if not only the market and contractual relationships within it are understood, but personal network relationships, data and ai as well as social and ecological environments are understood and used productively in the long term. this is significant not only for the music economy and music-related sectors, but for society and the planet. the ecosystem metaphor was first developed by the chicago school of sociology and it is constantly being rediscovered and developed. in this context, ecosystem theories are emerging to understand possible futures of the music sector. ecosystem thinking has become a guiding idea within cultural and creative industries debates and in particular in management and strategic thinking as well as in the field of strategic economic and political consulting., friday june 7 is the open music business conference day. we invite papers that explore a variety of different approaches, questions, and methodologies for studying the music business, including, but not limited to, the following themes and topics:, • different structures of ecosystems and their openness, • artificial intelligence (ai) and the music business, • digital and ecosystem transformations and the future of the music sector, • new music networks and the rise of the creator economy, • labour conditions, work-life balance, and mental health.

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC BUSINESS RESEARCH DAYS

International Music Business Research Days is an annual academic conference. The conference brings scholars from many disciplines together with music business professionals every second year in Vienna and in an international location each other year. The conference provides a platform for the presentation of the latest music business research, and a forum for debate and the exchange of ideas.

The field of music business studies is multidisciplinary; scholars who research the economics of the arts, musical creativity, the sociology of music, the law, culture and technology come together for this event in order to enhance our understanding  of the creation, dissemination, and reception/consumption of music.

YOUNG SCHOLARS WORKSHOP

The Young Scholars’ Workshop is an annual event that runs in conjunction with the International Music Business Research Days Conference. It provides international post-graduate students with an opportunity to present their research and to gain feedback from senior academics from around the world. Every second year the event is organised by Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and the Department of Popular Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

MUSIC BUSINESS RESEARCH  BLOG

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Princeton University Library

Music industry and business: a guide to research and resources: music resources.

• Introduction & Contents
• Search Strategies
• Music Resources
• Music Copyright and Law
• Economics Resources
• Statistics & Charts
• News & Blogs

Music Periodical Databases

Use these resources primarily to find print and online articles, reports, notices,  reviews, and other writings on the music industry published in music journals, trade publications, and magazines.

• Music Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window Indexes (without abstracts but with links to online full-text) over 875 international music periodicals covering every aspect of the classical and popular world of music. Covers articles on all styles and genres of music, plus book and recording reviews, first performances, obituaries, and news about music, musicians, and the music industry. 1973 to current. more... less... Print volumes covering 1949-1972 are available in Mendel Music Library: Reference (SV) ML 118 M84.
• Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window Indexes (with abstracts and links to online full-text) scholarly and popular music journals and magazines across a broad range of topics, including the music industry.
• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature with Full Text This link opens in a new window Indexes (with abstracts and links to online full-text) primarily academic periodicals, essay collections, and books covering all aspects of music. Includes scholarly articles and research on the music industry and popular music. Coverage is international: use the language filter to focus on materials in English. 1967-current.

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Music Trade Journals

Listed here are some key music trade and related journals. Follow the title links to full descriptions, which include links to issues available online (fully reproduced in pdf or only available in html full-text). Princeton's holdings vary: some issues may be print only; or the library may have neither print or online for others.

• Billboard Color pdfs of complete issues 1963 to current available via ProQuest Central and the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive from the above link.
• Music Week The British perspective, published in London since 1983. The leading trade media brand for the UK music industry.
• MEIEA Journal of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association

Popular Music Resources

• Bloomsbury Music and Sound (formerly Bloomsbury Popular Music) This link opens in a new window Provides scholarly coverage of modern popular music worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present day, by cross-searching the 14-volume Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World; all 120+ volumes of the 33 1/3 book series (providing in-depth analysis of influential albums); an expanding range of scholarly books from Bloomsbury Popular Music Studies; and titles in the new 33 1/3 Global book series. This resource explores the historical origins and cultural impact of popular music, influential artists and albums, local music scenes and subcultures, musical form, instruments, the workings of the music industry, and the social, political, and economic context of different musical genres.

Guides to the Music Business & Industry

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• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/music-industry

The Music Business and Digital Impacts

Innovations and Disruptions in the Music Industries

• © 2018
• Daniel Nordgård 0

Department of Popular Music, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

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• Provides insights into the music industries’ transition to a digital era
• Explains the nature and the problems of the adaptation process
• Includes quotes from recorded meetings at the Kristiansand Roundtable Conference

Part of the book series: Music Business Research (MUBURE)

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Table of contents (3 chapters)

Front matter, in revision: theoretical frameworks.

Daniel Nordgård

Start Making Sense

Conclusion: tying it all together.

• Music Business
• Music Industry
• Popular Music Studies
• Cultural Industries
• Media Management
• Digitalisation
• Business Innovation
• Business Disruption

About this book

This book provides rare insights into the difficult and complex dialogues between stakeholders within and outside the music industries in a time of transition. It builds on a series of recorded meetings in which key stakeholders discuss and assess options and considerations for the music industries’ transition to a digital era. These talks were closed to the public and operated under the Chatham House Rule, which means that they involved a very different type of discussion from those held in public settings, panels or conferences. As such, the book offers a much more nuanced understanding of the industries’ difficulties in adjusting to changing conditions, demonstrating the internal power-struggles and differences that make digital change so difficult.

After presenting a theoretical framework for assessing digital change in the music industries, the author then provides his research findings, including quotes from the Kristiansand Roundtable Conference. Following from thesefindings, he develops three critical concepts that explain the nature as well as the problems of the music industries’ adaptation process. In conclusion, he challenges the general definition of crisis in the music industries and contradicts the widely held view that digitalization is a case of vertical integration.

Authors and Affiliations

About the author.

Daniel Nordgård has a broad musical background, foremost as a musician and artist, but also as a project manager occupying different positions in the Norwegian music business. In particular, Nordgård has worked for music festivals and the live-sector in various positions. In 2007 and 2008, he was festival manager of the Quart Festival. Nordgård recently finished his doctorate in music with the dissertation Determining Factors on Digital Change in the Music Industries (2017). He teaches music business at the University of Agder’s master’s program on music management and works as a senior researcher at Agder Research, a private research institute. Nordgård’s work focuses on the music industry and the cultural industries, with a special emphasis on digital change. In 2013, he was appointed to lead the Norwegian Government’s committee on digital change in the music industry. Daniel Nordgård holds several positions on different national and international boards, including Gramo (the Norwegian collecting society for recording artists and record companies), The Norwegian Film Institute, and Gramart (the Norwegian featured artist organization). He is also a member of the board of the International Music Business Research Association (IMBRA).

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : The Music Business and Digital Impacts

Book Subtitle : Innovations and Disruptions in the Music Industries

Authors : Daniel Nordgård

Series Title : Music Business Research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91887-7

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Economics and Finance , Economics and Finance (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-319-91886-0 Published: 15 October 2018

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-06321-4 Published: 12 January 2019

eBook ISBN : 978-3-319-91887-7 Published: 28 September 2018

Series ISSN : 2522-0829

Series E-ISSN : 2522-0837

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XVIII, 129

Number of Illustrations : 1 illustrations in colour

Topics : Cultural Economics , Innovation/Technology Management , Cultural Management , Media Management , IT Law, Media Law, Intellectual Property , Music

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Performing Music Research: Methods in Music Education, Psychology, and Performance Science

Professor of Performance Science

Associate Director of Research

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Performing Music Research is a comprehensive guide to research in music performance. It reviews the knowledge and skills needed to critique existing studies in music education, psychology, and performance science, and to design and carry out new investigations. Methodological approaches are highlighted across the book in ways that help aspiring researchers bring precision to their research questions, select methods that are appropriate for addressing their questions, and apply those methods systematically and rigorously. Each chapter contains a study guide, comprising a chapter summary, a list of keywords, and suggestions for further discussion. The book concludes with a resources section, including a glossary and supplementary material to support advanced statistical analysis. The book’s companion website provides information designed to facilitate access to original research and to test knowledge and understanding.

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How Will New Artists Learn to Navigate the Music Business?

Several platforms that allow artists to create and listen to music also see educational initiatives as a way to foster loyalty — and possibly make extra money

By Elias Leight

Elias Leight

Don Passman had been teaching a course on music law at USC for several years when he realized his class notes were the outline of a book. “Because musicians are oriented to their ears,” he says, there was an opportunity to write “an easy-to-read overview of the business for people who don’t like to read.” Think “big print, lots of pictures, analogies, simple language.” When the first edition of All You Need to Know About the Music Business came out in 1991 — the 11th edition arrived this past October — “there was only one book on the music business at the time that was of any consequence,” Passman recalls. “And it was a bit difficult to read.”

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As a result, there is a dire need for quality, accessible music business education. Many of the platforms that allow artists to create, listen to, or distribute music today see educational initiatives as a way to foster loyalty and community — which will in turn help them stand out in the neverending battle for users and attention — and possibly as an additional revenue stream as well. 

Some of these educational efforts are in their early stages: Spotify started testing video learning courses in the U.K. in March, for example, while TIDAL has said education will be a cornerstone of its new era as it works to build financial tools for artists. (It was acquired by Block in 2021.)

The company Creative Intell is further along — it has raised money from around the music business and created an animated series to teach young artists the inner workings of the industry, from record deals to publishing. And the platform Bandlab, which allows its 100-million-plus users to create songs on their phones, has been releasing a steady stream of free tutorials and blog posts.

Helping aspiring artists grasp the intricacies of the music industry is “something that we’re investing a lot in,” says Kevin Breuner , Bandlab’s head of artist development and education. “The industry is more complex than ever, and understanding the business from day one is not just an advantage; it’s essential. Bandlab has such a young audience, it’s growing, and we want those artists to feel like they have a partner — somebody they can trust.”

Welcome to the Spotify Machine: Podcasts, Audiobooks, Video, Education — And, Yes, Music

Austen Smart agrees: The DJ, who co-founded the U.K. music-education company PLAYvirtuoso in 2020 with his brother, sees “huge potential in this space.” “I look at it like, there will be one in eight people, at least, learning at home,” he says, and a portion of those will be interested in the music industry. 

Creative Intell co-founder Steven Ship divides the music education field into three buckets — how to create music, how to market music and the business of music. While YouTube alone is littered with free videos on the first two topics — not to mention all the Reddit threads, blog posts and TikTok tutorials — finding reliable and accessible information on the third is more challenging. “The business of music is probably the most important; it has to be the most accurate, and it’s often ignored,” Ship says.  

If an aspiring artist produces a track poorly or markets it clumsily, that song probably won’t do well — a temporary setback. In contrast, if they don’t understand how the industry works, the consequences can be far more damaging: They could sign a contract with a manager, label, or publisher that cedes control of their output for decades. “Artists were horribly taken advantage of in the early days of the music business, because they just didn’t know what they were doing,” Passman says. And today, “the industry is changing so fast,” Breuner adds, making it even harder to “know what’s important and what’s not.”

When Smart signed a major label deal with his brother — just “two hungry young artists living in London” — he admits the pair “didn’t have the knowledge and the understanding of what we were ultimately signing.” An attorney would have helped, but they didn’t have the cash “to engage with lawyers who could help us interpret it.”

There’s a Free Mobile App Helping Teens Crash the Hot 100, and It’s Not TikTok

Contracts are often “murky and complicated,” Smart continues. “You get offered a relatively big advance; it’s quite a big number when you’re 25 and 22. What does it actually mean? What does it mean ten years later?” 

If he could rewind the clock, he imagines going through the process again — but this time, “we’ve got that course on understanding label deals” available. And if necessary, he could “book a one-on-one session with someone for 30 pounds” to help provide extra context. This is part of the reason that one of PLAYvirtuoso’s “three pillars” of educational material centers on understanding the music industry. 

PLAYvirtuoso is one of four companies that partnered with Spotify initially to provide courses on a variety of topics. The streaming service’s decision to test new education materials came about because it saw data indicating that some users were eager to acquire more knowledge. 

“If I take you 10 years back, most of the people that came to Spotify came with a single intent: listening to music,” says Mohit Jitani , a product director at Spotify. “But in the last few years, as we brought on podcasts and audiobooks, people started to come to Spotify to listen to an interview or learn leadership and finance.” 

TIDAL Plots a New Course — Will It Pay Off?

Currently Spotify’s courses are offered via a freemium model: Users are able to access the first few lessons for free, but they must pay to complete a full course. 

While Spotify’s exploratory foray into education stemmed from the fact that “people started coming to [us] for casual learning,” as Jitani puts it — and it potentially offers the platform another new revenue stream — TIDAL’s recent drive to help artists raise their business IQ is driven in part by its new owner, the payments company Block.

“Building tools and services for business owners, we saw that the moment that you get a little traction outside of your friends and family, the world becomes a lot more complicated,” says Agustina Sacerdote , the TIDAL’s global head of product. “You have to start to understand your numbers to understand where the next big opportunity is going to come from.”

The same principle applies to artists. Understandably, they tend to focus on the art. But as Ship notes, “The moment you release a song, you’re in business” — whether you like it or not. So TIDAL has started offering webinars and rolled out a new product called Circles, which Sacerdote likens to “a very curated version of Reddit, where we have the topics that we believe most artists have questions about,” including touring and merchandise. 

Why Spotify’s Latest Price Hike Means a Lower Royalty Rate for U.S. Songwriters

For now, TIDAL’s products are free. “Once an artist does get a really good piece of advice that they would have never gotten [elsewhere] on Circles, then we’ll start to think about, how do we monetize?” Sacerdote says. 

Creative Intell’s materials on the music business are currently far more comprehensive than TIDAL’s or Spotify’s: The company has created 18 animated courses to help aspiring artists — the vast majority of whom don’t have a manager or lawyer — “understand what they’re signing, learn how to monetize themselves better and learn how to protect themselves,” Ship says.  

Creative Intell releases some materials for free and charges for access to everything ($29.99 a month). It’s also aiming to work with distributors like Vydia as marketing partners. Vydia is not the only company looking to provide this type of resource — Songtrust, for example, has built out its own materials to help songwriters understand how to collect their money from around the world.

“Other industries have all kinds of corporate resources for training and the music industry is lacking those,” Ship says. “We’re trying to fill that void.”

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Changing tunes: How social media, tech are impacting the music industry

Private equity’s involvement in the digital age, along with platforms like TikTok and other social media, are reshaping the music industry by reviving older hits and discovering new artists. 

TikTok shared its music impact report , which confirms the effects social media platforms have on the industry. 

According to the report, “TikTok fuels music discovery.” 

Globally, TikTok users are more likely to discover, or rediscover, music content. 

The catalyst of TikTok streams has led Billboard Magazine, a prestigious music ranking company, to start a chart titled the TikTok Billboard Top 50. 

According to their website the TikTok Billboard Top 50 is “a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the U.S. based on creations, video views and user engagement.”

Kenzie Harper, an Instagram user, said social media expands her comfort level to different genres and eras of music. 

“I will admit that there have been older songs added to my playlist just because I heard it on social media,” Harper said. 

Lauren Hurst, a TikTok user, shares how social media platforms have influenced her playlists. 

“Sometimes a trend is what introduces me to a song,” Hurst said. 

Stranger Things actor, Joe Keery, released a song under his artist name Djo called “End of Beginning” in 2022. The song recently gained traction going viral on social media platforms. Although the song was initially released in 2022, it had a resurgence in popularity in 2024, generating over 118,000 videos, according to TikTok . 

@djo_time ♬ End of Beginning – Djo

The Goldman Sachs Report showcases the financial history of the music industry.

“After nearly two decades of disruption, the music industry is undergoing a massive revival. Artists, labels and publishers are cashing in on the growing popularity of streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music — and consumers are signing up for subscriptions like never before,” the Goldman Sachs Report said. 

Zach Collier, founder of Deseret Noise Co. , oversees Provo Music Magazine, Modal Music Magazine and KPOPWORLD as their publisher. He is responsible for the quality and funding of these publications and offers valuable insights into the future of music production and consumption. 

According to Collier, social media and the internet have dramatically transformed the music industry. Not only has social media morphed genres and increased creativity, he highlights how they have enabled musicians to succeed independently of major labels. 

“It’s also made it easier for musicians around the world to make a living without help from major corporations, all while making it more difficult for major-label musicians to become household names. The power dynamics and strategies have shifted dramatically,” Collier said. 

According to Collier, as social media platforms continue to shape the future of the industry there are three areas of concern.

The first is AI’s impact on music. Although artificial intelligence is already disrupting visual arts, its effect on music production may still be a decade away. Once it arrives, it could significantly impact the creator economy.

Changing song lengths is the second. Song lengths have evolved over time and continue to change due to shifts in cultural expectations. In the age of TikTok, shorter, more engaging songs that capture attention quickly are becoming the norm.

The third is the rise of closed social networks. As users increasingly abandon major social media platforms, they are turning to closed social networks like Telegram and Discord for a more controlled and intimate online experience. Meanwhile, a projected increase in AI-generated content could lead to a more artificial online mainstream, creating a contrast with vibrant, niche online communities.

The music industry is in the midst of a transformative period driven by social media platforms and technology, presenting challenges and opportunities to reshape how music is produced and consumed.

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Vivendi evaluating potential separation of four business divisions.

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Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg

Deal Overview

On April 29, 2024, Vivendi SE (OTC ADR: VIVHY, $10.51; Market Capitalization: $10.8 billion) announced 1Q24 earnings and said it is on track to explore ways to split-off its business into four companies and list them on exchanges. Vivendi, a leading global media conglomerate, is looking to unlock shareholder value by pursuing the separation of its Canal+ Group, Havas, Vivendi’s interest in Lagardère with Prisma Media, and an Investment company.

On December 13, 2023, it was announced that the company is studying the feasibility of splitting into multiple listed entities structured around Canal+, Havas, publishing and distribution company (including Lagardère and Prisma Media) and an investment company. According to management, these firms are experiencing significant growth in an international context marked by numerous investment opportunities. The separation would ensure that value is delivered to all entities associated with the Group. It would facilitate the establishment of independent entities, each equipped with the necessary personnel and financial flexibility, allowing them to pursue their strategic growth objectives independently.

Vivendi SE Price Performance and Spin-Off Details

The reorganization is contingent upon approval from the Supervisory Board. Subsequently, it will undergo consultation with employees and representative bodies of the affected entities. Following this consultation, approvals will be sought from creditors and regulatory authorities. Additionally, approval from Vivendi’s shareholders at the annual general meeting scheduled for April 2025 will be required. The transaction is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete. The reorganization necessitates Vivendi to restructure debt and secure financing, as ensuring sufficient liquidity is a key criterion for the separation.

Vivendi is assisted by its usual bankers and financial advisors in conducting the analysis of potential split.

Deal Rationale

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Since Universal Music Group’s distribution and listing in 2021, Vivendi has been subject to a significant conglomerate discount, resulting in a notable decrease in valuation and limiting its capacity to execute external growth initiatives for its subsidiaries. Management believes that this steep discount is unwarranted given the robust growth opportunities experienced by its group companies, such as Canal+ Group, Havas, and Lagardère. These companies are experiencing favorable investment environments.

In a proposal presented to the Supervisory Board on December 13, 2023, Vivendi’s Management Board recommended exploring the possibility of splitting the company into various entities, each to be listed on the stock market, in order to unlock the full development potential of its activities.

The group will be split into Canal+ Group, Havas, a company overseeing the publishing and distribution business (Lagardère + Prisma Media), and an Investment company. Each of these entities will become independent and listed on stock exchanges. Following the reorganization, Vivendi would continue to be a listed company, supporting its subsidiaries’ growth and managing investments.

Key Data and Top 5 Shareholders

Other Transactions

On June 9, 2023, Vivendi announced that it had received approval from the European Commission to proceed with its proposed merger with Lagardère group, provided that Vivendi fulfilled two commitments: selling 100% of Editis’ share capital and selling Gala magazine. On November 21, 2023, Vivendi confirmed the completion of the transaction with Lagardère group, following the sale of Editis’ entire issued share capital to International Media Invest on November 14, 2023, and the sale of Gala magazine to Groupe Figaro on November 21, 2023.

Company Description

Vivendi SE (Parent)

Vivendi SE, founded in 1853 and headquartered in Paris, France, operates as an entertainment, media, and communication company across Europe, the U.S., Asia, and Africa. It engages in Music, Television, Video Games, Telecommunications, and Publishing industry, with divisions including Canal+ Group, Lagardère, Havas, Prisma Media, Gameloft, Vivendi Village, New Initiatives, and Generosity and Solidarity. As of December 31, 2023, Vivendi had 72,958 employees.

Canal+ Group (Split-Off)

Canal+ Group is a prominent European media establishment mostly involved in television industry. The division’s extensive portfolio of television channels catering to a wide range of interests and demographics. It’s has expanded into online streaming with services like myCANAL, so subscribers can access the content. Canal+ Group has about 26.4 million subscribers in almost 50 countries.

Havas (Split-Off)

Havas is a leading international advertising and communications establishment that delivers diverse marketing and communication solutions to clients across different sectors worldwide. Offerings traditional advertising, digital marketing, media planning and purchasing, public relations, brand advisory, experiential marketing, and more.

Publishing and Distribution (Split-Off)

Publishing and distribution operations will manage Lagardère and Prisma Media business. Lagardère focuses primarily on publishing books, encompassing a wide variety of genres including literature, education, and illustrated books. Prisma Media, on the other hand, is a major magazine publisher in France, offering an extensive range of print and digital titles covering news, lifestyle, entertainment, and fashion.

Investment Company (Split-Off)

The investment company will hold interests in a range of culture, media, and entertainment companies, encompassing both listed and unlisted entities, as part of its strategy to diversify its investment portfolio.

Organization Structure

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Money blog: Major free childcare change kicks in today as parents of younger children can now apply

From today, eligible parents of children from nine-months-old in England can register for 15 free hours of childcare per week. Read this and the rest of our Weekend Money features, and leave a comment, and we'll be back with rolling personal finance and consumer news on Monday.

Sunday 12 May 2024 11:59, UK

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Ask a question or make a comment

From Sunday, eligible working parents of children from nine-months-old in England will be able to register for access to up to 15 free hours of government-funded childcare per week.

This will then be granted from September. 

Check if you're eligible  here  - or read on for our explainer on free childcare across the UK.

Three and four year olds

In England, all parents of children aged three and four in England can claim 15 hours of free childcare per week, for 1,140 hours (38 weeks) a year, at an approved provider.

This is a universal offer open to all.

It can be extended to 30 hours where both parents (or the sole parent) are in work, earn the weekly minimum equivalent of 16 hours at the national minimum or living wage, and have an income of less than £100,000 per year.

Two year olds

Previously, only parents in receipt of certain benefits were eligible for 15 hours of free childcare.

But, as of last month, this was extended to working parents.

This is not a universal offer, however.

A working parent must earn more than £8,670 but less than £100,000 per year. For couples, the rule applies to both parents.

Nine months old

In September, this same 15-hour offer will be extended to working parents of children aged from nine months. From 12 May, those whose children will be at least nine months old on 31 August can apply to received the 15 hours of care from September.

From September 2025

The final change to the childcare offer in England will be rolled out in September 2025, when eligible working parents of all children under the age of five will be able to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week.

In some areas of Wales, the Flying Start early years programme offers 12.5 hours of free childcare for 39 weeks, for eligible children aged two to three. The scheme is based on your postcode area, though it is currently being expanded.

All three and four-year-olds are entitled to free early education of 10 hours per week in approved settings during term time under the Welsh government's childcare offer.

Some children of this age are entitled to up to 30 hours per week of free early education and childcare over 48 weeks of the year. The hours can be split - but at least 10 need to be used on early education.

To qualify for this, each parent must earn less than £100,000 per year, be employed and earn at least the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at the national minimum wage, or be enrolled on an undergraduate, postgraduate or further education course that is at least 10 weeks in length.

All three and four-year-olds living in Scotland are entitled to at least 1,140 hours per year of free childcare, with no work or earnings requirements for parents. 

This is usually taken as 30 hours per week over term time (38 weeks), though each provider will have their own approach.

Some households can claim free childcare for two-year-olds. To be eligible you have to be claiming certain benefits such as Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit, or have a child that is in the care of their local council or living with you under a guardianship order or kinship care order.

Northern Ireland

There is no scheme for free childcare in Northern Ireland. Some other limited support is available.

Working parents can access support from UK-wide schemes such as tax credits, Universal Credit, childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare.

Aside from this, all parents of children aged three or four can apply for at least 12.5 hours a week of funded pre-school education during term time. But over 90% of three-year-olds have a funded pre-school place - and of course this is different to childcare.

What other help could I be eligible for?

Tax-free childcare  - Working parents in the UK can claim up to £500 every three months (up to £2,000 a year) for each of their children to help with childcare costs. 

If the child is disabled, the amount goes up to £1,000 every three months (up to £4,000 a year).

To claim the benefit, parents will need to open a tax-free childcare account online. For every 80p paid into the account, the government will top it up by 20p.

The scheme is available until the September after the child turns 11.

Universal credit  - Working families on universal credit can claim back up to 85% of their monthly childcare costs, as long as the care is paid for upfront. The most you can claim per month is £951 for one child or £1,630 for two or more children.

Tax credits -  People claiming working tax credit can get up to 70% of what they pay for childcare if their costs are no more than £175 per week for one child or £300 per work for multiple children.

By Jess Sharp , Money team 

Money saving trends are constantly popping up on social media - but one in particular has been gaining huge amounts of attention.

Created accidentally by a comedian, loud budgeting is breaking down the taboo of speaking about money.

The idea is based on being firmer/more vocal about your financial boundaries in social situations and setting out what you are happy to spend your money on, instead of "Keeping up with the Joneses". 

On TikTok alone, videos published under the hashtag #loudbudgeting have garnered more than 30 million views - and that figure is continuing to climb. 

We spoke to Lukas Battle - the 26-year-old who unintentionally created the trend as part of a comedy sketch. 

Based in New York, he came up with the term in a skit about the "quiet luxury" hype, which had spread online in 2023 inspired by shows like Succession. 

The term was used for humble bragging about your wealth with expensive items that were subtle in their design - for example, Gwyneth Paltrow's  £3,900 moss green wool coat from The Row, which she wore during her ski resort trial...

"I was never a big fan of the quiet luxury trend, so I just kind of switched the words and wrote 'loud budgeting is in'. I'm tired of spending money and I don't want to pretend to be rich," Lukas said. 

"That's how it started and then the TikTok comments were just obsessed with that original idea." 

This was the first time he mentioned it...

Lukas explained that it wasn't about "being poor" but about not being afraid of sharing your financial limits and "what's profitable for you personally". 

"It's not 'skip a coffee a day and you'll become a millionaire'."

While talking money has been seen as rude or taboo, he said it's something his generation is more comfortable doing. 

"I've seen more debate around the topic and I think people are really intrigued and attracted by the idea," he said. 

"It's just focusing your spending and time on things you enjoy and cutting out the things you might feel pressured to spend your money on."  

He has incorporated loud budgeting into his own life, telling his friends "it's free to go outside" and opting for cheaper dinner alternatives.

"Having the terminology and knowing it's a trend helps people understand it and there's no awkward conversation around it," he said. 

The trend has been a big hit with so-called American "finfluencers", or "financial influencers", but people in the UK have started practising it as well. 

Mia Westrap has taken up loud budgeting by embarking on a no-buy year and sharing her finances with her 11.3k TikTok followers. 

Earning roughly £2,100 a month, she spends around £1,200 on essentials, like rent, petrol and car insurance, but limits what else she can purchase. 

Clothes, fizzy drinks, beauty treatments, makeup, dinners out and train tickets are just some things on her "red list". 

The 26-year-old PHD student first came across the idea back in 2017, but decided to take up the challenge this year after realising she was living "pay check to pay check". 

She said her "biggest fear" in the beginning was that her friends wouldn't understand what she was doing, but she found loud budgeting helped. 

"I'm still trying my best to just go along with what everyone wants to do but I just won't spend money while we do it and my friends don't mind that, we don't make a big deal out of it," she said. 

So far, she has been able to save £1,700, and she said talking openly about her money has been "really helpful". 

"There's no way I could have got this far if I wasn't baring my soul to the internet about the money I have spent. It has been a really motivating factor."

Financial expert John Webb said loud budgeting has the ability to help many "feel empowered" and create a "more realistic" relationship with money.

"This is helping to normalise having open and honest conversations about finances," the consumer affair manager at Experien said. 

"It can also reduce the anxiety some might have by keeping their financial worries to themselves." 

However, he warned it's important to be cautious and to take the reality of life into consideration. 

"It could cause troubles within friendship groups if they're not on the same page as you or have different financial goals," he said.

"This challenge isn't meant to stop you from having fun, but it is designed to help people become more conscious and intentional when it comes to money, and reduce the stigma around talking about it." 

Rightmove's keyword tool shows Victorian-era houses are the most commonly searched period properties, with people drawn to their ornate designs and features.

Georgian and Edwardian-style are second and third respectively, followed by Tudor properties. Regency ranked in fifth place.

Rightmove property expert Tim Bannister said: "Home hunters continue to be captivated by the character and charm of properties that we see in period dramas.

"Victorian homes remain particularly popular, characterised by their historic charm, solid construction, and spacious interiors. You'll often find Victorian houses in some of the most desirable locations which include convenient access to schools and transport links."

Throughout the week Money blog readers have shared their thoughts on the stories we've been covering, with the most correspondence coming in on...

• A hotly contested debate on the best brand of tea
• Downsizing homes
• The cost of Michelin-starred food

Job interview mistakes

On Wednesday we reported on a new £12m ad from PG Tips in response to it falling behind rivals such as Twinings, Yorkshire Tea and Tetley....

We had lots of comments like this...

How on earth was the PG Tips advert so expensive? I prefer Tetley tea, PG Tips is never strong enough flavour for me. Shellyleppard

The reason for the sales drop with PG Tips could be because they increased the price and reduced the quantity of bags from 240 to 180 - it's obvious. Royston

And then this question which we've tried to answer below...

Why have PG Tips changed from Pyramid shape tea bags, to a square? Sam

Last year PG Tips said it was changing to a square bag that left more room for leaves to infuse, as the bags wouldn't fold over themselves.

We reported on data showing how downsizing could save you money for retirement - more than £400,000, in some regions, by swapping four beds for two.

Some of our readers shared their experiences...

We are downsizing and moving South so it's costing us £100k extra for a smaller place, all money from retirement fund. AlanNorth

Interesting read about downsizing for retirement. We recently did this to have the means to retire early at 52. However, we bought a house in the south of France for the price of a flat in our town in West Sussex. Now living the dream! OliSarah

How much should we pay for food?

Executive chef at London's two-Michelin-starred Ikoyi, Jeremy Chan, raised eyebrows when he suggested to the Money blog that Britons don't pay enough for restaurant food.

Ikoyi, the 35th best restaurant in the world, charges £320 for its tasting menu. 

"I don't think people pay enough money for food, I think we charge too little, [but] we want to always be accessible to as many people as possible, we're always trying our best to do that," he said, in a piece about his restaurant's tie up with Uber Eats... 

We had this in... 

Are they serious? That is two weeks' worth of food shopping for me, if the rich can afford this "tasting menu" then they need to be taxed even more by the government, it's just crazy! Steve T

If the rate of pay is proportionate to the vastly overpriced costs of the double Michelin star menu, I would gladly peel quail eggs for four-hour stints over continuing to be abused as a UK supply teacher. AndrewWard

Does this two-star Michelin star chef live in the real world? Who gives a toss if he stands and peels his quails eggs for four hours, and he can get the best turbot from the fishmonger fresh on a daily basis? It doesn't justify the outrageous price he is charging for his tasting menu. Topaztraveller

Chefs do make me laugh, a steak is just a steak, they don't make the meat! They just cook it like the rest of us, but we eat out because we can't be bothered cooking! StevieGrah

Finally, many of you reacted to this feature on common mistakes in job interviews...

Those 10 biggest mistakes people make in interviews is the dumbest thing I've ever read. They expect all that and they'll be offering a £25k a year job. Why wouldn't I want to know about benefits and basic sick pay? And also a limp handshake? How's that relevant to how you work? Jre90

Others brought their own tips...

Whenever I go for an interview I stick to three points: 1. Be yourself 2. Own the interview 3. Wear the clothes that match the job you are applying Kevin James Blakey

Two big economic moments dominated the news agenda in Money this week - interest rates and GDP.

As expected, the Bank of England held the base rate at 5.25% on Wednesday - but a shift in language was instructive about what may happen next.

Bank governor Andrew Bailey opened the door to a summer cut to 5%, telling reporters that an easing of rates at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on 20 June was neither ruled out nor a fait accompli.

More surprisingly, he suggested that rate cuts, when they start, could go deeper "than currently priced into market rates".

He refused to be drawn on what that path might look like - but markets had thought rates could bottom out at 4.5% or 4.75% this year, and potentially 3.5% or 4% next.

"To make sure that inflation stays around the 2% target - that inflation will neither be too high nor too low - it's likely that we will need to cut Bank rate over the coming quarters and make monetary policy somewhat less restrictive over the forecast period," Mr Bailey said.

You can read economics editor Ed Conway's analysis of the Bank's decision here ...

On Friday we discovered the UK is no longer in recession.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics said.

This followed two consecutive quarters of the economy shrinking.

The data was more positive than anticipated.

"Britain is not just out of recession," wrote Conway. "It is out of recession with a bang."

The UK has seen its fastest growth since the tailend of the pandemic - and Conway picked out three other reasons for optimism.

1/ An economic growth rate of 0.6% is near enough to what economists used to call "trend growth". It's the kind of number that signifies the economy growing at more or less "normal" rates.

2/ 0.6% means the UK is, alongside Canada, the fastest-growing economy in the G7 (we've yet to hear from Japan, but economists expect its economy to contract in the first quarter).

3/ Third, it's not just gross domestic product that's up. So too is gross domestic product per head - the number you get when you divide our national income by every person in the country. After seven years without any growth, GDP per head rose by 0.4% in the first quarter.

GDP per head is a more accurate yardstick for the "feelgood factor", said Conway - perhaps meaning people will finally start to feel better off.

For more on where Friday's figures leaves us, listen to an Ian King Business Podcast special...

The Money blog is your place for consumer news, economic analysis and everything you need to know about the cost of living - bookmark news.sky.com/money .

It runs with live updates every weekday - while on Saturdays we scale back and offer you a selection of weekend reads.

Check them out this morning and we'll be back on Monday with rolling news and features.

The Money team is Emily Mee, Bhvishya Patel, Jess Sharp, Katie Williams, Brad Young and Ollie Cooper, with sub-editing by Isobel Souster. The blog is edited by Jimmy Rice.

If you've missed any of the features we've been running in Money this year, or want to check back on something you've previously seen in the blog, this archive of our most popular articles may help...

Loaves of bread have been recalled from shelves in Japan after they were found to contain the remains of a rat.

Production of the bread in Tokyo has been halted after parts of a "small animal" were found by at least two people.

Pasco Shikishima Corp, which produces the bread, said 104,000 packages have been recalled as it apologised and promised compensation.

A company representative told Sky News's US partner network, NBC News, that a "small black rat" was found in the bread. No customers were reported to have fallen ill as a result of ingesting the contaminated bread.

"We deeply apologise for the serious inconvenience and trouble this has caused to our customers, suppliers, and other concerned parties," the spokesman said.

Pasco added in a separate statement that "we will do our utmost to strengthen our quality controls so that this will never happen again. We ask for your understanding and your co-operation."

Japanese media reports said at least two people who bought the bread in the Gunma prefecture, north-west of Tokyo, complained to the company about finding a rodent in the bread.

Record levels of shoplifting appear to be declining as fewer shopkeepers reported thefts last year, new figures show. 

A survey by the Office for National Statistics shows 26% of retailers experienced customer theft in 2023, down from a record high of 28% in 2022.

This comes despite a number of reports suggesting shoplifting is becoming more frequent. 

A  separate ONS finding , which used police crime data, showed reports of shoplifting were at their highest level in 20 years in 2023, with law enforcements logging 430,000 instances of the crime.

Let's get you up to speed on the biggest business news of the past 24 hours. 

A privately owned used-car platform is circling Cazoo Group, its stricken US-listed rival, which is on the brink of administration.

Sky News has learnt that Motors.co.uk is a leading contender to acquire Cazoo's marketplace operation, which would include its brand and intellectual property assets.

The process to auction the used-car platform's constituent parts comes after it spent tens of millions of pounds on sponsorship deals in football, snooker and darts in a rapid attempt to gain market share.

The owner of British Airways has reported a sharp rise in profits amid soaring demand for trips and a fall in the cost of fuel.

International Airlines Group said its operating profit for the first three months of the year was €68m (£58.5m) - above expectations and up from €9m (£7.7m) during the same period in 2023.

The company, which also owns Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling, said earnings had soared thanks to strong demand, particularly over the Easter holidays.

The prospect of a strike across Tata Steel's UK operations has gained further traction after a key union secured support for industrial action.

Community, which has more than 3,000 members, said 85% voted in favour of fighting the India-owned company's plans for up to 2,800 job losses, the majority of them at the country's biggest steelworks in Port Talbot, South Wales.

Tata confirmed last month it was to press ahead with the closure of the blast furnaces at the plant, replacing them with electric arc furnaces to reduce emissions and costs.

In doing so, the company rejected an alternative plan put forward by the Community, GMB and Unite unions that, they said, would raise productivity and protect jobs across the supply chain.

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What's the best state for you », nemo's eurovision win fires up swiss advocates for non-binary rights.

Nemo's Eurovision Win Fires up Swiss Advocates for Non-Binary Rights

Nemo representing Switzerland celebrates after winning during the Grand Final of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, in Malmo, Sweden, May 12, 2024. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss advocates for non-binary rights hailed local star Nemo's victory in Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest, urging the country's authorities to enable official recognition of people who identify as neither male or female.

In a politically charged night in the Swedish city of Malmo, Nemo, a 24-year-old Swiss musician who uses they/them pronouns, claimed the top spot after dominating the jury section of the vote to beat out the audience favourite, Croatia's Baby Lasagna.

The Eurovision's traditionally carefree tone was clouded by booing and demonstrations from protesters who wanted Israel excluded from the contest because of its government's military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel's contestant, Eden Golan, placed second in the popular vote and wound up fifth overall.

War in Israel and Gaza

Nemo's victory came a year-and-a-half after the Swiss government rejected proposals to create a third gender or non-specific option for official records, arguing that a binary gender model was still "strongly anchored" in Swiss society.

Sibel Arslan, a Swiss Green Party lawmaker who launched a legislative proposal in 2017 to overhaul rules to enable non-binary designations, hailed Nemo's victory.

"A non-binary person who officially doesn't exist in Switzerland has won Eurovision 2024 for us all with #BreakTheCode," Arslan wrote on X, referencing Nemo's winning song "The Code" at the musical extravaganza.

Her proposal, she said, is now "more relevant than ever".

An Ipsos LGBT Pride online poll in 2023 stated that 6% of respondents in Switzerland identified as either transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid or differently from male or female, the highest proportion among the 30 countries surveyed.

"The Code", Nemo's drum-and-bass, opera, rap and rock song, describes their journey of self-discovery as a non-binary person, which the artist brought to a crescendo in Malmo while balancing precariously on a large, tilting revolving disc.

The youth wing of the Green Liberal Party said Nemo's success was a triumph for Switzerland and non-binary people.

"It's time that Switzerland broke with its binary gender designation," the group said on X.

Still, a nationwide survey last year by polling firm LeeWas for media 20 Minuten and Tamedia showed 62% of the Swiss public were broadly opposed to the introduction of a "third gender" designation on official documents, with only 35% in favor.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

Photos You Should See - May 2024

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Tags: Sweden , Switzerland , Israel , Middle East , music , Europe

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Student vocal group makes history in New York

• Celebration
• Durham news
• Global Durham
• Student news

Our reigning student A Cappella group, Northern Lights, has sung their way into the history books by retaining UK championship and competing in New York international finals of a high profile A Cappella competition for the second year running. Music undergraduate Lucie Fletcher also came away with the special accolade of 'Outstanding Soloist'.

Our flagship vocal group Northern Lights has put North East England firmly on the international A Cappella map. They have made history as the first mixed group to defend and win National Championship titles, winning the UK semi-final of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) competition in London. This gained the group a place in the World Finals in New York at the end of April where they represented the UK, performing as one of the top ten A Cappella groups from across Europe and the US.

At the New York Town Hall the group performed versions of Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time , Loreen's Euphoria , and Do Your Thing by Basement Jaxx. Northern Lights brought precision and energy to a very professional set, getting the appreciative American audience to their feet on numerous occasions. Lucie Fletcher (a third-year music student from Durham University’s Hatfield College) was awarded the special accolade of Outstanding Soloist by the American judges, the first time a UK group has bagged this award.

Lucie Fletcher with her Outstanding Soloist award

Doing Durham and Britain proud

Quentin Sloper, our Director of Student Enrichment said: “We are incredibly proud of Northern Lights’ achievements. To win the British Championships in successive years is unprecedented and it is clear from all the reports that they did Durham and Britain proud at the World Finals. 

“Their success is not by chance. The group is very ambitious, and they all work incredibly hard. They agreed their targets for the year, set out a plan to achieve those targets and then followed the plan. That's easily said but very difficult to do and the student leadership team specifically deserve a huge amount of credit. Not everyone will know that while competing in these championships, preparing for Edinburgh Fringe and revising for their exams, they have also made significant inroads into meeting their £10,000 fundraising target which will go towards the cost of the trip to New York. They have been a fantastic group to work with and we know there is far more to come from them before the end of the academic year." 

Lucille Richards, Northern Lights’ President said, “Northern Lights was formed with the stated intention of being a close and supportive environment, and we pride ourselves on our ethos 'One entity, One voice'. Although we are all driven members who constantly wish to improve the quality of our sound and performance, we are also a tight-knit group of friends who just love performing together. The fact that we have all developed such close friendships through A Cappella allows us to perform to a higher standard and this is something we are immensely proud of. It was a privilege to perform in New York and we are excited to see what else we can achieve this year.”  

​If you would like to see Northern Lights in action, they are lined up to perform at Durham Fringe Festival in July followed by Edinburgh Festival in August where they sold out their 2023 shows. 

Watch their 2024 ICCA set below:

Find out more

• Read more about Northern Lights A Cappella and follow their journey on Instagram
• View the ICCA 2024 results and read more about the ICCA Competitions
• Find out more about music as part of our wider student experience, and watch how we support students to discover musical talents
• Explore more musical performances put on by our students and book tickets
• Discover how we're actively contributing to our region through student performing arts and sports