Universal Music Group, last international record label active in Hungary, leaves the country

The Universal Music Group (UMG) will withdraw from the Hungarian market at the end of the year. It will cease to distribute and publish Hungarian artists and will only deal with international artists on the Hungarian market in the future.

This also means that the company’s Budapest office will be downsized, with only a few of the existing 10-15 staff in finance and marketing remaining, Telex reports.

With this, the last big global music company is leaving the Hungarian market. Of the three major record labels (UMG, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment), Warner’s international releases are handled in Hungary by Magneoton, while Sony Music spends on the domestic marketing of its foreign artists in Hungary.

The last major global record label

UMG was the last major global record label still dealing with Hungarian artists. Previously, the company was responsible for booking and releasing Krúbi, but also previously owned 6363, Dé:Nash, Lil Frakk, Kapitány Máté and the Fiúk. One of the first signs of the exodus was the gradual divestment of these names over the past year, Telex explains.

Universal has recently launched a digital distribution arm called Virgin Music, the only company that has been really active in Hungary for the past year.

As with the other two major players (Sony and Warner), UMG will only retain staff for the domestic distribution and marketing of international artists. In technical terms, the company will not disappear completely from the country, but their activities will be limited to the rights management tasks mentioned above. According to Telex, some departments, including finance and marketing, will thus remain in the Hungarian division of the company.

World stars at Universal

Universal Music Group is the world’s largest and richest record publishing group, with a 38% market share of the global market in the first quarter of 2023. The company includes labels such as Republic, Def Jam, Motown and Interscope. Their annual revenues exceeded USD 10 billion in 2022. This can be attributed to the fact that they are home to most of the world’s most popular pop stars, including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Drake, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber. Even the Beatles and Sting’s catalogue is owned by Universal.

Regional Managing Director Tomas Filip (who also heads the Slovak, Czech and Hungarian offices) replied to Telex’s enquiry with the following:

“To be more efficient, we are centralising our activities in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Prague. We will continue what we have been doing well in Hungary for decades – promoting the international repertoire.”

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