Lucian Grainge adds Eagle Rock Entertainment to the Universal Music Group stable

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Grange, CEO of the Universal Music Group (UMG) continues his  drive to consolidate   the world’s leading music company.

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Lucian Grainge CEO of the Universal Music Group,  a fully owned subsidiary of Vivendi, has recently announced the acquisition of independent producer and distributor of music programming Eagle Rock Entertainment.

No details  were made available on how much UMG paid for the UK-based company.

According to power that be in the music industry this most recent  acquisition considerably strengthens UMG’s position in one of its most important segments -marketing and distribution of original but top-quality audio-visual content, in particular live concert footage as well as documentaries and films.

Through absorbing Eagle Rock’s extensive library of such footage, comprising close to 2000 hours of audiovisual programming, covering in excess of 800 titles, UMG’s catalog will be dramatically increased.

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Another factor that Lucian Grange will no doubt have taken into account when considering the acquisition, will be the alternative take advantage of the undoubted talents and considerable experience  of  Eagle Rock’s production team who will be able to provide UMG with cutting-edge video content as well as allowing the creation of unique artist-based bundles, especially for the fast-growing  mobile market.

Terry Shand, Eagle Rock’s current CEO will remain in charge of the company, which will  continue to operate from their existing headquarters in London.

Announcing the acquisition Lucian Grainge explained that as UMG’s transformation to a music-based content company continues,  the ability to expand our audio-visual catalog and production expertise has grown to become increasingly critical, and bringing Eagle Rock, who have gained themselves a worldwide reputation  as a leading producer of content as well as one of the principal driving forces in the distribution of top music-based audio-visual programming will add tremendous qualities to the company.

In response Terry Shand confirmed her delight  to be able to bring Eagle Rock into the UMG family whilst looking forward to guiding  the fortunes of Eagle Rock over the coming years, by continuing to produce top-quality content while at the same time extracting maximum benefit from the audio-visual digital revolution.

Established in  1997 by Terry Shand, Geoff Kempin and Julian Paul, Eagle Rock Entertainment was later acquired by British investment company HgCapital for £34 million in 2001.

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Eagle Rock has produced and/or distributed both live concert and documentary films and programs in for most of the U.K.’s leading bands. Since its founding  Eagle Rock Productions have been the recipient of the cream of the music industry’s industry’s honors, in particular 30 multi-platinum, more than 50 platinum and more than 90 gold sales certifications for their audio-video productions as well as Emmy and Grammy Awards.

Lucian Grainge was born and raised in the North of London and began his musical career immediately after leaving high school in 1978. After learning the basics of industry and deciding that this is where his future lay, the young Grainge got his first real break when he convinced Maurice Oberstein, at that time head of CBS Records, that he had the talent to make it big in the music business.

Oberstein apparently was impressed and found an opening for Lucian in the A&R department of one of CBS’s minor publishing companies. That was all the help that was needed to get Grainge’s career underway and by the early Eighties he was already rapidly climbing up the ladder of success in the music publishing business.

By the late nineties was appointed to the post of managing director of the Polydor record label where he remained for fourteen years before being appointed to the post of Chairman and Chief Executive of Universal Music in 2011.

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