Jody Gerson

CHAIRMAN/CEO, UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP

Universal Music Publishing Group, under Gerson, closed 2020 with a landmark deal that reverberated throughout 2021: acquiring Bob Dylan’s entire 60-year, 600-song catalog — one of the most prestigious in music — for an undisclosed price. But that was just the beginning. Over the last 13 months, UMPG signed deals with hit-making songwriters across the spectrum — Lionel Richie, Holly Humberstone, Clairo, Louis Bell, Tommy Brown and Julia Michaels — while also extending its relationship with Harry Styles. In addition, the company made deals in the digital space, inking licensing deals with TikTok and Triller “to create entirely new revenue streams for songwriters,” says Gerson. The publisher grew geographically, too, opening offices in Shanghai and Israel. For Gerson, the rewards also came in seeing writers-producers that the company invested in early, such as Blake Slatkin and Omer Fedi, have the biggest hits of their careers, including the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “Stay,” by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber (another UMPG artist). “The music industry is growing again, and I’m really proud of the role that our company has taken in returning the industry to growth,” Gerson says, adding that it has happened by dedicating “time and resources, financial and otherwise, to bet on and invest in securing long-term careers for our songwriters.” As the publishing industry becomes even more crowded with private equity-backed companies, Gerson says UMPG and other traditional publishers stand apart. “Now there are these players who are just buying up these rights, and they’re calling these catalogs ‘asset classes.’ But I represent songwriters. I represent them as human beings, and I represent their catalog of music that I believe changes culture... To me, music is not an asset class. It’s an art.”

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