IT’S GOOD TO BE KING—
BETTER THAN EVER,
IN FACT

UMG monarch Sir Lucian Grainge has sent out an in-house missive to staff in response to Nielsen Music’s mid-year report on the U.S. market, which, as you may have suspected, paints a glorious picture of the performance of the dominant major music group. Without further ado...

Dear Colleagues,

We've made history…once again.

Nielsen Music just issued its Mid-Year 2018 report on the U.S. market, and on the Top Ten Artist chart, we represent eight, including all of the top five. It doesn’t stop there. We also had all of the top eight artists ranked by on-demand audio streams. This is unprecedented. No company has ever achieved this level of success.

As much as our industry keeps changing, and as much as we have led its transformation, one thing remains unchanged: the exceptional level of commercial and creative success we consistently achieve for our artists. You are the world’s best partners for artists.

Let’s keep up the momentum so we can continue to deliver for our artists and make 2018 another record-breaking year. You can read the report here.

Thank you and congratulations.

Lucian