Lucian Grainge has achieved fresh success at the helm of the world’s biggest recording company, Universal Music.
Los Angeles-based Lucian (OE 1971-78) recently announced a partnership with rapper and music mogul JAY Z’s Roc Nation music label. The announcement came just a few weeks before JAY Z released his 12th studio album; it has gone straight to number one in the official UK album chart and has already broken US streaming records on Spotify, with 14 million plays.
Californian film-maker DreamWorks Animation, the company behind 27 films including the Shrek and Madagascar franchises, also revealed that it was nominating Lucian Grainge to join its board of directors.
Both announcements appear to underline his success as chairman and chief executive officer of Universal Music Group.
In a major interview with the Sunday Times, he was bullish about the prospects for EMI – owner of famous labels such as Capitol Records and Virgin – which was the subject of a controversial £1.2bn takeover by Universal. Concerned about a threat to competition, the European Commission forced Universal to sell a third of EMI.
He is due to bring together many of his British labels into a new company called Virgin EMI, while also launching a Capitol Records UK label. In addition, he plans to invest millions of pounds into signing unknown acts.
Speaking of his plans to revive EMI now that the takeover has been secured, he said: “I tried to get my first records recorded at EMI and I really want to make a difference to it. For me, this is a duty and a responsibility.”
Figures released during the spring show that the recorded music industry’s global revenue grew 0.3% to $16.5bn last year – the first increase for more than a decade, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Revenue was boosted by growing sales from legal downloading and streaming of music.
He is correspondingly sanguine about Universal’s prospects: “We were the first to be disrupted by the internet and we will show that we are the first to power out. When you lift the carpet there is an extraordinary transformative explosion of new rights, new distribution, new content and new ways of acquiring and finding it.”
Lucian reputedly walked out of a history A-level examination at QE to cut his first record deal, although he still passed his A-levels. His interest in the business is said to have been fired in childhood, when he would observe which records customers selected in his father’s TV, radio and record shop.
He was awarded the CBE for services to the creative industries in the 2010 New Year’s Honours. Married with two children and a stepdaughter, he is known both for his formidable business ability and his disarming style. He remains a keen Arsenal supporter.
His brother, Justin (OE 1978-81), is understood still be to living in the family home in Finchley and is a photographer.