If your last name is Grainge, you probably oversee a large chunk of the US music business.
Following Eliot GrangeHis promotion to CEO of Atlantic Music Group effective Oct. 1, the Grainge family — Elliott and his father, Lucian Graingechairman/CEO of Universal Music Group (UMG) — will control about 37.6% of the US recorded music market, according to Bulletin boarddata analysis by Luminate.
The younger Grainge, whose label 10K Projects was acquired by UMG rival Warner Music Group in 2023, will lead a label with about 7.9% of the US (EAU) market equivalent album units. That includes Atlantic Records, which had a 5.3% stake as of Aug. 1, along with the remaining labels that comprise Atlantic Music Group — 300 Elektra Entertainment (which includes labels 300, Elektra, Fueled By Ramen, Roadrunner, Low Country Sound, DTA and Public Consumption) and 10 thousand projects — with an estimated share of 2.6%.
Led by Republic Records' 10.5% share and Interscope/Geffen/A&M's 10.0% share, UMG-owned labels hold a 29.8% EAU share of the US market. Other labels under the UMG umbrella are Island Records, which currently has a string of hits from Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, and Universal Music Group Nashville, a collection of labels home to Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan and Carrie, among others Underwood. UMG also distributes labels it does not own, although for these purposes, Bulletin board compares only private label market shares. Bulletin board estimates that UMG's distributed labels have a total UAE market share of 8.8%.
The Grainge CEO father-son 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 has a father and son been CEOs of a global music company and a major label music group at the same time.
Grainge, age 30, will become CEO of Atlantic Music Group as WMG restructures Atlantic's organizational chart and tools to bring music to digital natives (aka young people). CEO Robert Kyncl is “excited at the prospect of leveraging Atlantic's culture-making potential and adding the 10K Projects founder's digitally native approach to the mix,” he said during Wednesday's earnings conference call.
As Bulletin board reported in February, the Atlantic laid off about two dozen employees with the intention of “bringing in new and additional skill sets in social media, content creation, community building and audience insights,” with the goal of “calling[ing] increase the focus of our fans and help[ing] artists tell their stories in ways that resonate.” Julie Greenwaldthe company's president/CEO said at the time. Greenwald had been set to take on the new role of chairman following Grange's promotion, but announced her resignation on Tuesday (August 6). He will officially step down at the end of January 2025.
