How Much of the Recorded Music Market Will the Grainges Control?
Written by djfrosty on August 9, 2024
If your last name is Grainge, you probably oversee a large chunk of the U.S. music business.
Following Elliot Grainge’s promotion to CEO of Atlantic Music Group effective Oct. 1, the Grainge family— Elliot and his father, Lucian Grainge, chairman/CEO of Universal Music Group (UMG) — will control roughly 37.6% of the U.S. recorded music market, according to Billboard’s analysis of data from Luminate.
The younger Grainge, whose record label 10K Projects was acquired by UMG competitor Warner Music Group in 2023, will lead a record label group with about 7.9% of the U.S. market’s equivalent album units (EAUs). That includes Atlantic Records, which had a 5.3% share through Aug. 1, along with the remaining labels that comprise Atlantic Music Group — 300 Elektra Entertainment (which includes the labels 300, Elektra, Fueled By Ramen, Roadrunner, Low Country Sound, DTA and Public Consumption) and 10K Projects — with an estimated 2.6% share.
Led by Republic Records’ 10.5% share and Interscope/Geffen/A&M’s 10.0% share, UMG-owned record labels have a 29.8% share of the U.S. market’s EAUs. Other labels under UMG’s umbrella are Island Records, currently basking in a string of hits by Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, and Universal Music Group Nashville, a collection of labels that are home to Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood, among others. UMG also distributes labels it does not own, although for these purposes, Billboard is comparing market share of owned labels only. Billboard estimates that UMG’s distributed labels have an aggregate market share of 8.8% of EAUs.
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The Grainge’s father-son CEO dynamic is unprecedented even for an industry that often sees the offspring of heavy hitters follow a parent into the business. There have been many family businesses run by successive generations — music publisher peermusic, for example — but never in modern history have a father and son been CEOs of a global music company and a major label music group simultaneously.
Grainge, age 30, will ascend to CEO of Atlantic Music Group as WMG restructures its organizational chart and Atlantic retools to market music to digital natives (a.k.a. young people). CEO Robert Kyncl is “excited by the prospect of taking Atlantic’s culture making capabilities and adding the 10K Projects founder’s digitally native approach into the mix,” he said during Wednesday’s earnings call.
As Billboard reported in February, Atlantic laid off about two dozen staffers with the intention of “bringing on new and additional skill sets in social media, content creation, community building and audience insights,” with the goal of “dial[ing] up our fan focus and help[ing] artists tell their stories in ways that resonate,” Julie Greenwald, the company’s chairman/CEO, said at the time. Greenwald was to assume the new role of chairman upon Grainge’s promotion but announced her resignation on Tuesday (Aug. 6). She will officially step down at the end of January 2025.