Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group N.V. (UMG) is the world’s largest music company, comprising record labels and the Universal Music Publishing Group. In its current form it was established in 1996, with a lineage tracing back to Decca Records (1934) and organizational roots in MCA and PolyGram. The company’s corporate seat is in Hilversum, the Netherlands, and its operational headquarters is in Santa Monica, California. Since 21 September 2021 UMG has been a publicly listed company on Euronext Amsterdam under the ticker UMG. Sir Lucian Grainge is its Chairman and CEO (since 2011). The group includes Interscope Geffen A&M, Republic Records, Def Jam Recordings, Capitol Music Group, Island Records, Motown, Deutsche Grammophon and EMI, among others. Group revenue in 2023 was €11.108 billion. On AI, UMG is a central player in licensing disputes over generative audio: in June 2024 it joined other labels in suing the platforms Suno and Udio for copyright infringement in model training, and in October 2025 it reached a settlement and licensing agreement with Udio.