Universal Music Group
Operational headquarters in Santa Monica, California | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| |
| ISIN | NL0015000IY2 |
| Industry | |
| Founded | September 1934 (American branch of Decca Records) 1972 (as MCA Records) December 9, 1996 (Current form) |
| Headquarters | , U.S. (operational) |
Area served | Worldwide (except for Russia & Belarus) |
Key people |
|
| Services | Music publishing |
| Revenue | €11.108 billion (US$14.7 billion) (2023) |
| €1.418 billion (US$1.88 billion) (2023) | |
| Owners |
|
Number of employees | 8,319 (2018) |
| Divisions | List of Universal Music Group labels |
| Website | universalmusic |
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch-American music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands, and its operational headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California. As the biggest music company in the world, it is one of the "Big Three" record labels, along with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. Tencent acquired ten percent of Universal Music Group in March 2020 for €3 billion and acquired an additional ten percent stake in January 2021. Pershing Square Holdings later acquired ten percent of UMG before its IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The French Bolloré family still owns 28 percent of UMG (18 percent directly, and ten percent through Vivendi, formerly Vivendi Universal, the Bolloré family's investment company). The company went public on September 21, 2021, at a valuation of €46 billion.
As of April 2024, UMG's catalogue includes over three million recordings and four million compositions.