Universal Music Group

"Universal Records" redirects here. For Universal Records 1988–1989, see Universal Records (1988). For Universal Records 1995–2006, see Universal Records (1995−2006). For other uses, see Universal Records (disambiguation). For the Chicago recording studio, see Universal Recording Corporation.

Universal Music Group N.V.
Formerly
Company typePublic
ISINNL0015000IY2
Industry
FoundedSeptember 1934; 90 years ago (1934-09)
Headquarters
Hilversum, Netherlands (corporate)
Santa Monica, California
,
U.S. (operational)
Area served
Worldwide (except for Russia & Belarus)
Key people
ServicesMusic publishing
RevenueIncrease €11.108 billion (US$14.7 billion) (2023)[1]
Decrease €1.418 billion (US$1.88 billion) (2023)[1]
Owners
Number of employees
8,319 (2018)[2]
DivisionsList of Universal Music Group labels
Websiteuniversalmusic.com

Universal Music Group N.V.[3] (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its operational headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California.[4][5] The biggest music company in the world,[6] it is one of the "Big Three" record labels, along with Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group. Tencent acquired ten percent of Universal Music Group in March 2020 for €3 billion[7][8][9] and acquired an additional ten percent stake in January 2021.[10] Pershing Square Holdings later acquired ten percent of UMG prior to its IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The company went public on September 21, 2021, at a valuation of €46 billion.[11][12]

As of April 2024, UMG's catalogue includes over 3 million recordings and 4 million compositions.

  1. ^ a b "Universal Music Group N.V. Reports Financial Results for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended December 31, 2023" (PDF). Universal Music Group Official Website. February 28, 2024. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  2. ^ "Vivendi Annual Report 2018" (PDF). Vivendi. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  3. ^ "Universal Music Group Prospectus 14 September 2021" (PDF). Vivendi SE. September 14, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 14, 2021.
  4. ^ "Vivendi: UMG BV Secures Financing". finance.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  5. ^ "Vivendi: UMG BV Secures Financing". www.businesswire.com. March 26, 2021. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  6. ^ Shevlin, Shan Li and Anthony (August 6, 2019). "Tencent in Talks for Stake in Record Label of Ariana Grande, Queen". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  7. ^ "Sir Lucian Grainge: After Tencent deal 'our strategic vision remains the same'". Music Business Worldwide. December 31, 2019. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  8. ^ "Tencent Agrees to Buy 10 Percent of Universal Music Group". The Hollywood Reporter. December 31, 2019. Archived from the original on January 1, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  9. ^ "Tencent's Universal Music Group acquisition is now official". Music Biz Nation. Archived from the original on July 19, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  10. ^ "Vivendi: the Tencent-led consortium has completed the exercise of its call option and now owns 20% of UMG's share capital – Vivendi". www.vivendi.com. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Turak, Natasha (September 21, 2021). "Universal Music Group shares soar in market debut". CNBC. Retrieved October 14, 2021.