Universal chief Sir Lucian Grainge faces the music over £80m pay

One of the most influential men in music also turns out to be one of the highest paid.

Sir Lucian Grainge, the British boss of Universal Music, could secure a whopping £80 million in a new pay deal, on top of his £4 million base salary.

He joined Universal in 1986 and has led it since 2011. He is known for his close relationship with artists, with those on the label’s books including everyone from Elton John, Mick Jagger and Stevie Wonder to Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

But despite his success — and the credit he’s been given for reviving the company over the past decade — shareholder advisory groups Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have labeled his windfall as “excessive” and called on investors to backtrack. at the following month’s annual meeting.

Under the new contract, Grainge’s base salary will be reduced from £12 million to £4 million.

But it also includes £40 million for a five-year commitment to the 90-year-old label and a further £40 million based on the performance of Universal’s Amsterdam-based shares.

The latter would be paid to the music mogul in three stages: the first if the share price reaches €26.50, the second if it reaches €30, and then €38.

Universal Music shares are currently $21.02 and are down nearly 10 percent year to date.

But Grainge’s salary gives him an edge over his music contemporaries, with incoming Warner Music boss Robert Kyncl set to make £12 million in his first year and Sony Music’s Rob Stringer reportedly bringing in a whopping £18 million a year.

The hefty pay packages come at a time when consumers continue to feel the pressure, with the Bank of England this week telling Britons to ‘accept that they are worse off’.

Universal chairman Sherry Lansing said the board was committed to maximizing shareholder value and supported Grainge’s payout.

“Only the right CEO can help achieve that goal, and Lucian is the right person to do that,” she said.

Bank of America analysts said the deal helped align Grainge’s and shareholders’ interests for five years, while Credit Suisse noted that while it was a generous package, leadership stability was essential.

Grainge, 63, has spent his entire career in the industry, working with stars from Amy Winehouse to the Rolling Stones.

He joined Universal in 1986 and helped launch the Polygram record label, which became one of the UK’s top three music publishers in just five years.

By 2011, the Londoner, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife Caroline, had worked his way up to chairman and CEO.

In his first year in charge, he orchestrated the rescue of beleaguered music giant EMI after its rocky run under the ownership of private equity firm Terra Firma.

Grainge was knighted in 2016 for his contributions to the music business.

And the company, majority owned by French media giant Vivendi since 2000, went public in Amsterdam in 2021 with an estimated value of £28 billion.

Yet record labels have come under scrutiny in recent years as streaming services like Spotify are revolutionizing the way music is consumed.

A damning 2021 parliamentary report argued that a ‘full reset’ was needed, calling on the competition watchdog to investigate the commercial power of major labels including Warner, Sony and Universal.

Will Page, a former chief economist at Spotify, gave evidence that streaming increased label revenue by 21 percent between 2015 and 2019.

“The music business not only got bigger, but also much more profitable for record labels. However, artists have not received a proportional benefit,” he wrote.

Last year, the Competition and Markets Authority found that the major record labels ‘are unlikely to make significant excess profits that can be shared with makers’.

Last month, Universal revealed that revenues are up more than a fifth in 2022 to almost £8.7 billion, with profits up 15 per cent to £1.2 billion.

It is the largest music group in the world, by revenue.