Universal Music Group head Lucian Grainge. Photo Credit: UMG
Another year, another internal rally-the-troops memo from Universal Music head Lucian Grainge, who’s shed a bit of new light on the major’s 2026 “Streaming 2.0” and superfan plans.
Grainge just recently mass-emailed this “UMG New Year’s Memo 2026” to staffers. And naturally, the close to 3,000-word message (plus an additional chart-highlights section on top of that) promptly made its way into DMN’s own inbox.
Unsurprisingly given its length, the detail-oriented email retreads a substantial amount of ground, particularly concerning the UMG roster’s 2025 commercial results. Here, Grainge noted that “Drake was the most streamed artist worldwide” – albeit without mentioning the rapper’s ugly “Not Like Us” lawsuit or the new allegations of widespread streaming manipulation across the appropriate catalog.
Meanwhile, the Universal Music CEO’s remarks about AI are more or less a victory lap touting a growing pile of related agreements.
However, two things stand out: The conspicuous absence of Spotify in the relevant paragraph (the DSP did, after all, ink AI pacts with the majors, Merlin, and others in October 2025) and a shot at those “[v]alidating [AI] business models that fail to respect artists’ work and creativity.”
Regarding the latter, UMG, Sony Music, and indies are continuing to litigate against Suno; does Warner Music’s settlement with the music generator fall into the validation category?
Furthermore, Grainge dedicated plenty of ink to calling out music platforms’ machine-made audio avalanche notwithstanding “provisions in our agreements with DSPs that prevent AI slop from being counted in the same royalty pools as” Universal Music artists and songwriters.
“Our proactive strategic approach to harnessing AI led UMG to be the first media company to enter into AI-related agreements with established platforms such as YouTube, Meta, TikTok and KDDI as well as with emerging AI entrepreneurs such as Udio, BandLab, Soundlabs, KLAY Vision, Splice and Stability AI,” the Spotify-free AI paragraph reads.
Back to the initially highlighted Streaming 2.0 and superfan angles, Grainge described the former as revolving around “smarter consumer segmentation,” accelerated geographic buildouts, enhanced “consumer value,” and adjacent ARPU improvements.
This information, tying right back to price increases when all is said and done, doesn’t exactly come as a surprise – nor do mentions of existing Streaming 2.0 unions involving Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube, with “more such agreements” on the horizon in 2026. But an updated look at UMG’s “premium tier” ambitions and brick-and-mortar stores is certainly interesting.
“In 2026 we will accelerate these efforts both by working with our established DSP partners on the launch of enhanced premium tiers for superfans, as well as by working with emerging platforms that are focused on special events and products for superfans — both virtually and in the physical world,” Grainge wrote.
“For example, we have recently established a portfolio of retail stores in Tokyo, Madrid, New York and London as a complement to our growing D2C business… 2026 will see additional scaling of this activity, including the expansion of our experiential hospitality strategy and seamless integrations between virtual and IRL events for superfans,” he proceeded.
Time will tell precisely what these IRL events entail – though in general, the overview is providing worthwhile context when it comes to UMG’s physical storefronts. Also worth keeping in mind is the diversification-focused JV, aiming to break artist IP “into every dimension of entertainment and consumer life,” that the major unveiled with Patrick Whitesell this past June.
