2020!
For many of us, those four simple digits say all that needs to be said about the incredibly difficult year now finally coming to a close. “2020” has come to represent pain and loss on a scale none of us ever could have imagined. We can never forget the suffering that this year inflicted on so many. Likewise, we must never forget that even in the face of historic challenges, so many of you achieved great things—personally and professionally.
A little later, I’ll describe the spectacular and record-breaking success we had in 2020. It’s a success I’m extremely proud to share with you. But first, I want this year-end note to remind each of you of the instrumental part you played in bringing to the world something powerful, inspiring, uplifting, and yes, universal: music. A force for good unlike any other in the world.
UMG boss Lucian Grainge shared an optimistic message in his 2020 year end letter to staff.
UMG artists and songwriters “brought awareness to worthwhile causes that will help to repair a world so badly in need of repair,” wrote Grainge.
[We’ve added the bolding.]
Dear Colleagues:
2020!
For many of us, those four simple digits say all that needs to be said about the incredibly difficult year now finally coming to a close. “2020” has come to represent pain and loss on a scale none of us ever could have imagined. We can never forget the suffering that this year inflicted on so many. Likewise, we must never forget that even in the face of historic challenges, so many of you achieved great things—personally and professionally.
Universal Music Group Chief Lucian Grainge Addresses COVID Scare, Bob Dylan Deal in Year-End Letter to Staff lmtonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lmtonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Music Business Worldwide
December 18, 2020
Universal Music Group CEO and Chairman, Sir Lucian Grainge (credit: UMG)
Universal Music Group Chairman & CEO, Sir Lucian Grainge, has reflected on the past year in a memo to staff obtained by MBW.
While celebrating UMG’s “spectacular and record-breaking success” in 2020, Grainge also struck a note of contemplation, noting that the past 12 months has “come to represent pain and loss on a scale none of us ever could have imagined”. (Grainge, of course, was himself hit by COVID-19 in April.)
The note was sent yesterday (December 17), the same day that a Tencent-led consortium agreed to acquire a further 10% of UMG, in a transaction anticipated to take place during the first half of 2021.