Cultura Voice

Sir Lucian Grainge is clearly a master at solving professional challenges whenever they arise. But even he’s going to struggle to get all of Universal Music Group‘s institutional owners on a single Zoom call pretty soon: the time zones are going to play havoc. This morning (June 4) we learned that Bill Ackman’s New York-based SPAC, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings (PSTH), is set to buy 10% of UMG from Vivendi in a $4bn transaction. This won’t result in UMG merging in any way with PTSH. Indeed, Vivendi is still pushing ahead with its plan to spin out 60% of Universal on the Amsterdam stock exchange before the end of September. Instead, if the PSTH deal and Amsterdam float both go through as intended, it will mean UMG ends up being owned thusly: 10% by US-based PSTH; 10% by France-based Vivendi; 20% by a consortium led by China-based Tencent; and 60% publicly traded in Europe. Will any of these institutional owners want to fiddle with Universal’s current strategy, and its continued heavy...

Spotify plunged itself into the center of a sensitive, industry-wide debate last month when it announced that it was starting to ban certain artists from its first-party playlists on the grounds of ‘hateful conduct’. The controversial move saw the likes of R Kelly (pictured) and rapper XXXTentacion removed from major Spotify playlists – essentially due to allegations of serious misconduct in their personal lives. Spotify earned some praise for the move, but plenty of backlash. Those against the announcement including some of Spotify’s own senior executives – believed to include, according to reports, its global head of creator services Troy Carter. Today, Spotify has officially walked back the ‘hateful conduct’ policy, which is believed to have originally been the brainchild of its public affairs boss Jonathan Prince. However, the firm has stood by a provision, introduced at the same time, which will see music containing ‘hateful content’ – ie. lyrics which incite hate – ...