Lucian's manifesto

LUCIAN’S MANIFESTO: Lucian Grainge told the Financial Times he’s working up a "manifesto" to give to the EC (and presumably the FTC as well) that will identify specific measures intended to turn around the music business. “I’m extremely open-minded about working with the Commission in the context of behavioral remedies as well as divestitures,” he said in his first interview since launching the bid in November. For starters, the UMG ruler’s plan will allocate additional funds to spend on artist development, after EMI suffered an “enormous” cut to A&R spending under Terra Firma. Grainge said Universal was willing to sell off assets to address regulators’ fears that a combined UMG-EMI won’t exceed a 50% marketshare in some territories. The manifesto will also reportedly include “a new way of working with all these startup platforms...in a fair, open-minded way,” as well as a "pro-consumer" package of concessions. “It could be in five years that the digital landscape has the same choices as the physical landscape had 25 years ago,” he speculated. (7/11a)