Personal Narrative: My Universal Music Career

Did you have a dream when you were young? Something that you loved so much that you swore you would never give it up? I certainly did—music. I have written and performed music for the biggest part of my life; it was always something that I could depend on to make me happy and take the stress away. As I got older, I had multiple offers from managers. It seemed like a dream come true at first, until I realized that when I began to look at my writing and performing as a career, it took away from the calming passion that I once had. I knew that I still wanted to be involved in music, but I did not want to be in the spotlight; I wanted to be on the business side. I have always been above average in my leadership and organizational skills, and had

My boss has managed a great number of artists and has gotten many of them signed to major labels. He has told me stories about his involvement in the business side of the music industry, and it absolutely fascinated me. The idea of being able to remain true to my original dream, while simultaneously utilizing my management skills and maintaining my passion for music seemed too good to be true. After a great deal of research, I realized that I would love to become an A&R Manager for Universal Music Group. Universal Music Group is one of the “big three” record labels, along with Warner Music Group and Sony Music. While many people believe that there are a huge number of record labels around the world, the reality is that most of them are subsidiaries for one of the big three (aside from independent labels). The current chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group is a man by the name of Lucian Grainge. Universal Music Group was founded in 1932 as Decca Records.; since then, it has gone through several name and ownership changes to become the group that we know today—Universal Music Group (“Universal Music