Even if the player has nothing to do with it, the music business is incest. But some leaders in today’s recording music industry (84% of which are located under three major tag groups (Universal, Warner and Sony). When UMG Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge took over as Reins in 2011, his son Elliot was barely graduated. Today, Grainge in junior high school is running Warner’s Atlantic Records (home of Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Bruno Mars) and another so-called “Nepo Baby,” the 27-year-old son of Len Blavatnik, a billionaire majority owner of WMG, is a WMG board member who is on the board of directors of the company.

Elliot was brought to the age of 30 in late 2024 to reverse the decline in record label market share (from 10% at the end of 2020 to 5.7% last year). While his appointment results have not been evaluated, he broke the record of behavior on platforms like Tiktok (his successes include Ice Spice and the controversial 6ix9ine) before him. (WMG purchased a majority stake at 10K in 2023.)

“Everyone in the industry is doing the same thing,” Elliott told this Wall Street Journal Earlier this year. "I don't doubt any human ability of these great men, women and companies - but they grew up in the age of fax machines."

Elliot took the lead as CEO, bringing some turmoil - i.e. the outlet of Julie Greenwald, a beloved executive who has provided 20 years of development for Atlantic Bails. Now, the industry's eyes are on the bigger Warner pictures. Specifically, the company's inheritance line.

thr Speaking between management, recording music and publishing (all requesting free conversations on the matter anonymously), he pretended to be a common rejection: CEO Robert Kyncl, who joined WMG from YouTube in 2022, may be at the end of the run. (The representative of WMG said: "These are totally false rumors" and declined further comments.)

Although not everyone has the same theory that if this happens, the most likely candidate is Val Blavatnik. "Len will throw the kids into the seat as quickly as possible," said an artist manager. "It's inheritance. Warner is like Lun's vanity (asset)."

The senior manager added: "Val and Elliot are very close. It makes sense to bring Elliot in so he can sit down and look and help Val."

Another insider is even more outspoken: “This has always been a dynasty drama of Lun and Val.”

To be fair, Kyncl is a simple target for rumor feed, because he is the only CEO with a technical and media background rather than a music background, and the music industry (its traditional work environment and less reliance on intangibles like Golden “Ears” (Golden “Ears”), so it’s usually not like outsiders. A huge first-quarter earnings report (WMG’s share price has dropped 16% since the time last year) also makes it easy for onlookers to put Kyncl under a microscope, even if chatting. However, it would be a bit ironic if digital locals didn’t ask to browse these rough waters when AI is ready to disrupt the music business.

Despite insiders turning to Warner, it is worth remembering the fickle and cyclical nature of the music business, where hits remain the highest currency. With enough time, the conversation may change. Currently, WMG is ranked five of the top 10 spots on Spotify’s Global 50 list, while Alex Warren’s “Atlantic” remains the world’s largest song, Warner Records’ Sombr holds two attractions, “La Plena - W Sound 05” from Warner Music Latina is seventh, while Atlantic’s Rosé and Bruno Mars Mars are Anight an aaa antpt aaa antpt aaa antpt aaa antpt artp. ”

If the past tells us anything, it is that seismic technology shifts are often pioneers of the record label’s change of defenders. In the early days of Napster and peer-to-peer file sharing, Doug Morris (and his global colleagues, including Jimmy Iovine, will continue to sell the beat of the Dre Headphone Line to Apple’s beat in 2014, for $3 billion to Apple, with the death of the FENDEND CD tasked with CD. With that, the era of digital downloads made Apple’s iTunes the world’s largest music store. Still, album sales in the 2000s (usually $9.99 and above) dropped year-on-year when it sold at 99 cents.

By 2011, just before the streaming era, Lucian Grainge led Universal’s acquisition frenzy, starting with the catalog-rich EMI (purchased for $1.9 billion in 2012, not coincidentally, the year Spotify launched in the U.S.) and continuing to head to the present, its holding company now claims two-two of the global market share of music.

Now, when the company wins beautiful bonuses when it opens in 2021, he is the longest-serving CEO of the three tag groups. Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer is not too far away. After working in the company’s career, he replaced Morris as CEO in 2017 and continued to see some shocking wins, including records like Adele, as well as cultural change albums by creators Beyonce and creator Tyler, which said nothing to bring the world to Harry style.

Is there another change on the horizon? Of course, it's a topic, it's a question for supervisors and industry insiders, when the old defender passes the torch to the younger generation, ready for the next era. Some wonder if Grainge will continue to occupy the top seat on the contract end date in May 2028, although others believe speculation that Grainge's successor is still very active as he remains very active and has put forward a vision for the company in the years to come. Still, succession has been discussed at UMG board meetings, and a source familiar with the agenda’s ridicule, about to step out of the UMG family in the future.

Indeed, insiders and reports cite Republic collective CEO Monte Lipman (who is with his brother Avery, whose co-president and COO Avery and Interscope Chairman/CEO John Janick as logical candidates for Universal Pictures, but leaders in other territories should not be counted. “There are a lot of benches for internal players who qualify for this position.”

As successor names flow, an increasingly obvious pattern is the lack of female hosting labels, competing for the top-sporting C-Suite jobs. A few years ago, Greenwald was the chairman and CEO of Atlantic Music Group, and Ethiopia Habtemariam was the CEO and chairman of Motown and Sylvia Rhone was the CEO and chairman of Epic. (The ticket price on publishing is much better as Jody Gerson’s login has been CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group for a decade, and Carianne Marshall has been the COO of Warner Chappell since 2018.)

"Old whites have been the dominant industry for many years," said a female executive. She blamed women who lacked women because the industry was unable to properly embellish talent. "It's very sad for the label, but it's not surprising. ... There's such a rebellion around Dei now that everyone has allowed to do easy things and hire ordinary white people." (Rhone is the only female label head left, but at the age of 73, her retirement has become a perennial meditation.)

But there are promising signs under the company, but there are many next-generation executives on the wings. At UMG's Island Records (home of Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan), Imran Majid and Justin Eshak were appointed Co-Ceos in 2021. At Def Jam (Big Sean Justin Bieber), Tunji Balogun serves as chairman and CEO champion in 2022; 32-year-old Tyler Arnold is chairman and CEO champion at Mercury (Post Malone). Meanwhile, at Sony, Clio Massey, the daughter of outgoing chairman David Massey, has announced a new Maneskin leadership and transitioned to co-chair with Matt D'Arduini. WMG's own WMG Warner Records saw his parent company's biggest success between Zach Bryan, Benson Boone and Teddy, under the observation of Chairman and CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck.

Elliot Grainge, 31, will surely offer scale to younger, more agile record executives without being limited by the way Old Boys Club does things. But when that elder is your father and mentor, nepotism - Wesperth will last until he has enough hits. But in businesses that evoke Nepo tags in names like Azoff, Davis and Wasserman, the song remains the same.

"Imagine if Bob Iger had a son who went to work in a competitive company, it would never happen," said a well-known industry lifeguard. "In the music, it was like, 'Oh, we fuck idiots.' These CEOs refused to leave time and time again or do the right thing when it comes to corporate responsibilities."

A version of the story appeared in the June 4 issue of Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.