Common Music CEO Lucian Grainge issued a letter to UMG workers on Thursday to announce a restructuring of its present working mannequin.

Within the memo obtained by Selection, Grainge writes the transfer marks “the beginning of the following highly effective wave of [UMG’s] business and inventive progress and success,” below which Interscope Geffen A&M’s John Janick and Republic’s Monte Lipman will assume higher duty over U.S. label operations for UMG.

Extra concretely, Janick will present help to UMG labels Blue Observe, Capitol, Geffen, Interscope, Motown, Precedence and Verve, whereas Lipman will achieve this for Def Jam, Island, Mercury and Republic. Grainge’s letter describes this unification as a transfer for each execs to “lead a broader a part of our US recorded music enterprise,” and “speed up [their business] methods and maximize their impact.”

Logistics might be revealed within the coming weeks with “John and Monte making additional bulletins about construction, assets and next-generation partnerships,” writes Grainge. “Janick will proceed to be based mostly in L.A. and Lipman in New York.”

Learn Grainge’s full memo to employees beneath:

Pricey Colleagues: 

In my New Yr’s word to you, I wrote of the various methods UMG is evolving to make sure that we proceed our historic success.   

One facet of that evolution might be to design the organizational mannequin and construct upon the management workforce for the recorded music enterprise of the longer term. In the present day we’re taking the 12 months’s first step towards doing so. 

I’m pleased with the truth that UMG has a few of the handiest leaders within the music enterprise. Within the U.S., the world’s largest music market, Monte Lipman at Republic and John Janick at Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) function the trade’s two most profitable label teams. 

Yr after 12 months, they’ve been buying and selling locations of their battle for No. 1. In 2023, Republic held the highest spot and IGA was No. 2. In reality, Republic has been so sturdy this 12 months and final, that some weeks its particular person market share alone exceeds that of different total main music teams.  In the meantime, IGA has damaged extra world artists in recent times than some other label and leads the trade in 2024 Grammy nominations within the prime classes.

The competitors inside our personal firm in signing and growing artists is not any accident. It’s by design. By creating a house for quite a lot of impartial and aggressive artistic facilities and the leaders that run them, we improve alternatives for progress and success.  

On the identical time, our tradition by no means lets our ‘in-house’ competitors change into harmful; our executives always remember that we’re all a part of the identical UMG workforce. John and Monte constantly share methods for achievement with our labels within the U.S. and all over the world, methods that profit artists signed to all our labels, not simply these on Republic and IGA. 

Internally, we’re as fiercely cooperative as we’re aggressive.  

John and Monte deliver to UMG distinctive and complementary abilities in how they lead their organizations and the way they envision positioning them for achievement sooner or later.  To speed up these methods and maximize their impact, in the present day I’m appointing Monte and John to steer a broader a part of our US recorded music enterprise.  Monte will proceed to be based mostly in New York and John in LA.

Beneath this new working mannequin, Monte and John will help our label heads and assist them construct best-in-class groups – powered by the trade’s most completed and forward-looking individuals.  John will present our labels together with Blue Observe, Capitol, Geffen, Interscope, Motown, Precedence and Verve with unparalleled help, whereas Monte will achieve this for Def Jam, Island, Mercury and Republic.

As our labels proceed to take care of their artistic A&R and advertising and marketing independence, distinctive identities, and entrepreneurial spirit, they’ll even be supplied with entry to the expertise and assets finest capable of help their rosters and convey them to new ranges of success.  It’s a confirmed mannequin we pioneered on the East Coast a number of years in the past—one that we’ll speed up and increase.

As this mannequin takes form and spurs new creativity, our U.S. recorded music enterprise will proceed to outperform and outgrow our competitors.  Led by the trade’s finest artistic visionaries – we are going to domesticate extra repertoire sources, we are going to make investments extra in new artists and rising genres, and UMG will change into a good extra enticing vacation spot for the world’s most gifted artists. 

Within the coming weeks, John and Monte might be making additional bulletins about construction, assets and next-generation partnerships. These and different developments may even energy a few of the different initiatives I outlined in my New Yr’s word, together with super-fan and viewers monetization, state-of-the-art D2C, e-commerce, branding and extra. 

I’m sure that we’ll look again on in the present day as a pivotal second within the evolution of UMG, marking the beginning of the following highly effective wave of our business and inventive progress and success.

The brand new 12 months is simply a month outdated, however, as I promised, it’s already turning out to be an thrilling one for our firm.

Lucian