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Lucian Grainge Says UMG ‘Not a Financial Institution That Views Music as an ‘Asset” in New Year’s Staff Memo

Lucian Grainge's 2025 New Year's staff memo was released. Read the letter, which discusses the company's efforts around AI, streaming and more.

In 2024, we continued to lead the media industry in our embrace and advancement of “Responsible AI.” Three recent examples of that initiative include our agreements with SoundLabs, ProRata and KLAY—companies that are taking unique approaches to the rapidly evolving AI space through new technologies that provide accurate attribution and tools to empower and compensate artists. Our leadership also includes our commitment to the enactment of Responsible AI public policies, fighting back against so-called text and data mining copyright exceptions and other misguided and ill-intentioned proposals that would enable what I will euphemistically call the unauthorized exploitation of creators’ work. In a matter of months, we reached agreements in principle on a number of issues: increasing the monetization of artists’ music; limiting the gaming of the system by protecting against fraud and content saturation; and focusing on the value of authentic artist-fan relationships, inspiring the development of more engaging consumer experiences, including specially designed new products and premium tiers for superfans.

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