Universal Music Group announces label restructuring, led by Monte Lipman and John Janick

Universal Music Group announced a massive restructuring of its label operations on Thursday (February 1), reorganizing its web of front-line labels to align them with two main labels, Republic Records and Interscope Records. The move, which can be called an East Coast (Democracy) and West Coast (Interscope) alignment, means that Interscope John Janick and the Republic Monte Lipman will head the label's US label business for UMG.

As part of the move, the other US label heads will now report to Janick and Lipman, a source confirms. In the new alignment, Janick will now oversee Interscope, Geffen, Capitol, Motown, Priority, Verve and Blue Note, while Lipman will oversee Republic, Def Jam, Island and Mercury.

President/CEO of UMG Lucian Grainge announced the move today in a memo to staff, in which it acknowledged that Republic and Interscope have been the two market leaders in current market share in recent years. in 2023, Republic claimed 13.47% of the US market, while Interscope was second, with 8.80%.

“As our labels continue to maintain their creative A&R and marketing independence, their unique identities and entrepreneurial spirit, they will also be given access to the talent and resources that can best support their catalogs and bring them to new levels of success”. Grainge wrote in the memorandum, which he received Advertising sign. “It's a proven model that we pioneered on the East Coast several years ago – one that we will accelerate and expand.

“As this model takes shape and drives new creativity, our US recorded music will continue to outperform and outperform our competition,” Grainge continued. “Led by the industry's best creative visionaries — we will cultivate more repertoire sources, invest more in new artists and emerging genres, and UMG will become an even more attractive destination for the world's most gifted artists.”

The move comes after weeks of speculation about layoffs and restructuring at the company, and while no other moves were announced Thursday, more layoffs are expected, according to multiple sources. In his memo, Grainge said that “In the coming weeks, John and Monte will be making further announcements about next-generation structure, resources and partnerships. These and other developments will also fuel some of the other initiatives I outlined in my New Year's note, including fan and audience monetization, state-of-the-art D2C, e-commerce, branding and more.”