Common Music Group is reportedly getting ready to chop ‘a whole lot’ of jobs in Q1, with UMG’s recorded music — the corporate’s largest division — to be ‘hit the toughest.’
Bloomberg reported on Friday, January 12, that Common Music Group is planning a significant spherical of layoffs this quarter, in accordance with these near the matter. Common Music will minimize “a whole lot” of jobs, with the corporate’s largest division, recorded music, being “hit the toughest.”
“We proceed to place UMG to speed up its management in music’s most promising progress areas and drive its transformation to capitalize on them,” stated a spokesperson for UMG on Friday. “Over the previous a number of years, we’ve got been investing in future progress — constructing our e-commerce and D2C operations, increasing geographically, and leveraging new applied sciences.”
“Whereas we preserve our industry-leading investments in A&R and artist improvement, we’re creating efficiencies in different areas of the enterprise so we are able to stay nimble and aware of the dynamic market, whereas realizing the advantages of our scale.”
Boyd Muir, Common Music Group’s EVP and CFO, launched the corporate’s forthcoming cost-cutting plan throughout Common’s Q3 2023 earnings name, saying, “We’re at the moment conducting a cautious assessment of our price base, which we’ll full over the approaching months, and we’ll replace you when applicable about an anticipated cost-savings program to begin in 2024.”
“We stay centered and optimistic as we proceed to execute on the expansion prospects that lie forward for UMG,” Muir added. “We see monumental alternative for worth creation, each for our artists and for the corporate, as we advance our artist-centric initiatives and work to additional seize the worth of the engagement being pushed by our unparalleled roster of artists and songwriters.”
Muir stated the deliberate 2024 cuts had been anticipated to enhance the corporate’s EBITDA margin as soon as carried out, whereas additionally noting that UMG will goal to higher “seize alternatives we see within the market” all year long. The important thing goal in 2024, as summed up by UMG Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge, might be to “minimize to develop — minimize overheads as a way to develop elsewhere.”
At 12 months’s finish 2022, UMG had a worldwide headcount of slightly below 10,000 staff, up by 487 individuals year-on-year. Of these, 9,286 had been everlasting staff, whereas 706 had been non permanent hires. UMG employed 4,161 individuals in Europe in 2022, the most important headcount in a single area, at 42% of its workforce. The second largest employment area was North America, the place 39% of its world headcount (3,951 staff) had been primarily based in 2022.