Universal Music Group
Recorded music and publishing group running Universal Music Nigeria, Universal Music Africa and Def Jam Africa, and majority owner of Mavin.
- Based in
- Hilversum, Netherlands
- Website
- universalmusic.com
Universal Music Group is a recorded music, music publishing and merchandising group with corporate headquarters in Hilversum in the Netherlands and operational headquarters in Santa Monica, California. It has been listed on Euronext Amsterdam since its spin-off from Vivendi in September 2021. Lucian Grainge has been chairman and chief executive since 2011.
Its African structure runs through several named entities. Universal Music Nigeria opened in Lagos in 2018, with corporate offices on Victoria Island. Universal Music Africa covers Francophone West Africa from Abidjan. Def Jam Africa launched in 2020 out of Lagos and Johannesburg and has since extended into Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Cameroon. Sipho Dlamini was promoted to chief executive for South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa in January 2021.
UMG is in this directory because it is the counterparty on the largest ownership change in Afrobeats to date: the February 2024 agreement to take a majority stake in Mavin Global, the Lagos label founded by Don Jazzy. It also holds licensing deals with the two largest Africa-focused streaming platforms, Boomplay from 2018 and Mdundo from 2022.