Lucian Grainge

Sir Lucian Charles Grainge, CBE, (born 29 February 1960) is the chairman and chief executive officer of Universal Music Group. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in the careers of artists such as Amy Winehouse, ABBA, Eurythmics, Rihanna, Sam Smith, Take That, Psychedelic Furs, The Rolling Stones, Sting, U2, Jamie Cullum and Andrea Bocelli. Grainge has worked in the music business for his entire career. In 2013, 2015, and 2016, he topped Billboard Magazine’s “Power 100” list as the most powerful person in the music business, the only person to ever hold that distinction three times and the first to earn that position for consecutive years. Irving Azoff called him "'the great hope for the music business'" and Jimmy Iovine commented that Grainge "is working to restore [a] spirit of risk-taking and innovation" by being "'willing and open to entrepreneurship and that kind of thing the record industry has gotten depleted of.'" In an interview with Grainge, Billboard wrote: “If “power” means moving markets or greenlighting massive spends, Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge demonstrated a staggering penchant for it when UMG completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of EMI’s recorded-music assets in September 2012. Grainge is a fierce and tireless advocate for the recorded-music business." In 2013, CNET wrote that “Grainge is positioning Universal to lead the pack” of major labels in their embracing of new digital opportunities. A 2014 front-page LA Times profile of Grainge said that "if anyone can save the music business, it might be Grainge." In 2015, Billboard wrote, “in the age of Spotify, YouTube and Shazam, Grainge is positioned to tackle his business' overriding priority: win fair compensation for artists, and take full ownership of content that other parties have been profiting from.”