With the £1.2bn takeover of EMI, a 52-year-old Londoner has emerged as ‘the music industry’s most powerful man’
That industry needs, he says, a culture of “constructive collision” between musicians, content owners, distributors, entrepreneurs and investors. Such collisions have not always been constructive: indeed, since 1999, labels have sued Napster, questioned Apple’s dominance of downloads, fought YouTube over music played in users’ videos, and dragged their heels when licensing new digital services. Yet now, after the industry’s first year of modest growth since 1999, relations are thawing.
“I had titans of the business world; I had titans of the banking world; I had titans of the film world; I had the prime minister; I had the mayor of Los Angeles; I had the governor,” says Grainge, who likes lists. “We had everything that I’m talking about: finance, entrepreneurs, start-ups, innovators, disrupters, content owners, content creators, government representation; every component of the future.”
