Adam Granite, Universal Music Group’s (UMG) chief executive for Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, who was in Mumbai last week, spoke to Mint on the company’s vision for India in the next few years and its willingness to invest for faster growth. Edited excerpts…
Where does India currently stand for Universal Music Group and where do you see it in the next 5 years?
India currently ranks 14th globally in the music market. However, given its population and growth potential, we anticipate significant upward movement in the coming years. India holds immense significance for us at Universal Music Group. (Universal Music Group posted a revenue of ₹555 crore and a net profit of ₹72 crore in FY’23 from its India operations. According to a FICCI-EY report, the Indian music market was at ₹2,400 crore in 2023.)
Its youthful population and rich cultural heritage make it a priority market for our expansion efforts. India is growing very fast for us, but it is our desire, our goal, and one of Devraj’s (Sanyal, chairman and CEO, South Asia) KPIs to grow faster than the market. The market growth is exciting. But we have to grow faster than that.
We envision India breaking into the top 10 global music markets within five years, with UMG maintaining leadership in non-film music and exploring new genres and regions. Our focus lies on nurturing local talent, forging strategic partnerships, and exploring potential investments that align with our long-term goals.
What is the roadmap or key pillars that you are going to focus on for this growth?
We focus on three primary areas — first is on our local artists, nurturing and expanding our roster. The evolution of India’s non-film music scene in recent years presents an exciting opportunity to leverage our expertise in this space. (The film music comprised 64% of total music consumption in India, but artist-driven music continued to grow and reached 27% of the total music consumed in 2023.)
Secondly, we actively seek strategic partnerships in the market. Whether it’s our investment in TM Ventures, the country’s largest talent agency, or recent collaborations like Represent, we’re deeply engaged in forging alliances.
Additionally, our focus on independent distribution, exemplified by Virgin’s recent launch, brings a fresh dimension to our ecosystem, empowering independent artists and labels.
Lastly, we remain vigilant for M&A prospects, seizing investment opportunities as they emerge, a strategy we’ve executed successfully in recent years.
Without getting into details, I can tell you music has to be at the core for us to want to invest. We’re looking at catalogues, live events, and other record labels that perhaps are in a different genre than we’re in. If you think about the music industry, it’s incredibly broad and India is a great example as there are so many different regions and genres here.
Why should an artist partner with UMG and not other labels?
First and foremost, we keep the artist at the centre of it. That’s our core business. And then it’s about maximizing the entire ecosystem around the artists and being great partners with them to help maximize their careers. That can span from streaming and subscription to merchandise to live to brands. It can be quite broad. We know we need to be a great partner for those artists across as many different revenue streams as possible.
UMG recently signed a “multi-dimensional” deal with TikTok in the US. There have been concerns about the platform’s use of Gen AI and artist rights. How do you tackle that?
I believe one of the main areas of dispute we encountered revolved around the use of AI and ensuring that the platform, indeed all platforms, safeguards the integrity and value of human artistry. While we harbour great excitement for the future of AI, it must be employed in a responsible fashion. I can tell you who doesn’t own the IP — and that’s the AI model.
We will always fight for the rights of our artists if we feel that a platform is not getting the appropriate permissions to train their models is not being transparent about the outputs of their models, and also making sure that fake artists’ content is quickly identified and separated out.
We have a major problem with a technology that could misappropriate the identities of artists and infringe on their rights. And we’ll continue to fight as needed. But I want to stress, we are very optimistic about the potential of AI as it relates to the creative process.
But don’t these platforms also help in content discoverability and making the songs viral?
Of course, if a song or video of ours begins to go viral on a platform, that can be an amazing moment. I wish we were more in control of those moments though. I think it’s also important to recognize the distinction between a song and an artist and those viral moments can often lead to a song becoming very popular. But I think it’s rare that they then lead to an artist on the other side of it as well. And that’s where we have to connect the dots and take perhaps an ember and turn it into a big fire.
Despite UMG’s leading position in India’s non-film music sector, Bollywood music still dominates over half of India’s music market. You’ve ceased involvement in Bollywood music entirely. Is there a possibility of reconsidering your stance on this in the future?
There’s always a possibility and if the right opportunity presents itself, we will certainly consider it. Over the last couple of decades, we have not been investing in the Bollywood space. But it’s certainly something we constantly discuss and evaluate. As I said, we would only consider if the right opportunity presents itself but don’t expect us to join the current bidding circus for the evolution of the Bollywood industry.
(UMG stopped engaging with Bollywood music industry because it feels that there is no control on the process and you just have to buy it as Devraj Sanyal said, “We don’t like trading. We don’t like a finished end product. And then everyone’s in a bidding war, killing each other and we don’t like it”.)
You recently made some senior-level promotions in the India team. What was the reason?
I’m really proud of the team here. We have an incredible leader in Devraj, who is so passionate and cares about his people, artists and music. And we have some new promotions as well. Sanujeet (Bhujabal) is elevated to managing director and Viral (Jani) to chief revenue officer at Universal Music India and South Asia. Both will work with Devraj, who can focus on a broader strategy. And he has an excellent team underneath him to execute and grow our core business.
