UMG is a Dutch-American conglomerate, headquartered in the Netherlands and the US, estimated to hold between 31% and 34% of the global market share. Considered the largest of the “Big Three” of the world’s record labels alongside Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group, UMG’s list of subsidiaries includes EMI, Abbey Road Studios, Def Jam Recordings and Motown.

The company’s list of artists puts things in a greater perspective – their full roster boasts Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, The Weeknd and Bad Bunny to name just a few. In their financial report for the year, the group declared that their artists had occupied 9 of the top 10 spots on the year’s IFPI Global Artist Chart for the third consecutive year, as well as 4 of the top 5 artists on Spotify. Universal further reported continued revenue growth throughout 2025, including greater subscription service rates and major successes with Swift, Olivia Dean, Morgan Waller, Stray Kids and the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack.

But this sustained growth is not enough for Bill Ackman, chief executive of Pershing Square, which currently owns a 10% stake in UMG. The US-based investment group also holds shares in Google, Meta and Amazon, and it now seeks to take a majority hold over Universal in order to boost its stock price and profit margins. Pershing Square’s bid of $64 billion aims to fix the “languished” stock prices of UMG, with its problems Ackman identifies as being outside of its music business capable of being “addressed with this transaction”.

According to the BBC, in a letter to the board of UMG Ackman voiced that the company had “dramatically underperformed” in US and world stock indexes, due to various factors but chief among them is his belief that the company is currently only listed in European markets from Amsterdam, and not US ones such as the New York Stock Exchange. A move to list itself on the American stock market was filed in 2025 as per the BBC, with a valuation at the time of approximately $50bn, but this has been delayed since March this year citing “turbulent market conditions” according to Music Business Worldwide.

Further issues hampering UMG’s profitability include the dilemmas around royalty payment from streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, who are known to provide little compensation for music consumption, and the rise of AI-generated music and piracy. The group threatened to pull the rights to their library from social media platform TikTok in 2024, due to issues over royalty payment and concerns about “protecting human artists from the harmful effects of AI, and online safety for TikTok’s users.”

As of today, Universal has not responded to the offer. The BBC reports that since the proposal was made publicly known, UMG’s share price rose by nearly 30% before plateauing at around 10% higher.

The iconic rapper surprised fans as the model for their 2025-26 home kit recently, as reported by BBC Sport.

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Since then, it’s been announced that Snoop has joined the club’s ownership group. In a statement on A.F.C’s official website, Snoop wrote: ““My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City.”

“The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me.”

“I’m proud to be part of Swansea City. I am going to do all I can to help the club, and I look forward to getting to know all my YJBS.”

Tom Gorringe, Swansea City chief executive, continued: “It is very exciting for us as a football club to formally welcome Snoop Dogg as a co-owner and investor into Swansea City.

 

 

 

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“His enjoyment and love of football is well documented, and he has often spoken of a desire to get more involved in the sport. We are delighted he believes that being part of Swansea City is the right way to realise that ambition.

“Dogg is passionate about this project and helping us continue to raise the profile of the club to as wide an audience as possible.”

This isn’t Snoop’s first venture into the business of sports. He worked as a correspondent for NBC and a symbol for Team USA at last year’s Olympics, making appearances at events and even carrying the Olympic torch.

The rapper/businessman has also had close involvement in American football. His Snoop Youth Football League was born in 2005, giving kids aged 5-13 opportunities with football and cheerleading in Los Angeles. Since its establishment, the league has put over 50 players in the NFL.

As far as football/soccer goes, Snoop has said that he’s a longtime fan of Celtic F.C., and that he wishes to buy shares in them. He’s also developed a unique tradition for his EU performances – for many of his European concerts, he’ll wear the football shirt for the team of the city he’s playing in. You can view a gallery of his many match kits here.

It will launch on February 1 in Croydon, on a 15,000 sq. ft retail site close to Asda and IKEA on Beddington Lane.

The supermarket will feature a halal meat and poultry counter, fresh and frozen exotic fish, a bakery, fruit and veg, tinned and ambient foods from around the world, and household essentials, including hair and beauty products. It will also sell foods from global brands like McCain and Heinz and has made a distribution deal with Martin’s potato rolls from the US.

Speaking to BBC London, Konan said “We like to get involved with businesses that solve problems and give back to the community.” The South London rappers say that Croydon, a diverse area with over 250,000 residents of black, Asian and mixed backgrounds, is under-served by smaller food shops that “often lack in product variety, hygiene standards, parking and fair pricing”.

Krept added that he “immediately” understood the space for a supermarket that could meet the needs of Croydon’s diverse population when their business partner and co-founder, Kaysor Ali pitched it to them.

He explained that “Having the experience of going shopping and having to go to multiple places – have to go to here for my meat, here for my fruit and veg and then for certain seasonings I have to go here – not everything is in the major supermarkets,”

“They just have one world food aisle, and it was like, ‘imagine that, but a whole supermarket.'”

It’s not the first business venture the industrious UK hip hoppers have launched. In 2018, the ‘Freak of the Week’ hitmakers teamed up with grime veteran J2K to open Crepes & Cones, a restaurant in Croydon that offered desserts, fast food, cold drinks and cocktails.

More recently, Krept and his former partner, model Sasha Ellese, have created Nala’s Baby, a skincare range for young children. Currently valued at £17 million, their brand has seen great success and garnered multiple industry awards, including the Mother Baby Gold Award for the Best Baby Skincare Range for two years in a row. It’s even had investments from figures such as Marcus Rashford, Jaden Sancho and Anthony Joshua.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Krept said “I’ve always wanted to branch out and not just do music. I’m really keen on different streams of income. I also want to create a life for my daughter that I wasn’t able to have. I don’t want her to go through the sort of things that we did as kids.”

Krept and Konan are currently gearing up to return on the UK music scene with their fourth studio album, ‘Young Kingz II’, described as a more mature version of their breakout mixtape ‘Young Kingz’. The album will be released on Feburary 7 through their independent label, Play Dirty.

The Croydon artists have dropped a few singles for their rollout, including a smooth drill track “Low Vibrations”, and two introspective tunes, “Nala’s Song” and “Delroy’s Son” – the first a tribute to Krept’s daughter, and the second to Konan’s father, Jamaican reggae singer Delroy Wilson.

The album is currently available for pre-save on the duo’s Spotify page here.

In a candid and forthcoming interview with GQ, Barnett revealed how close she came to losing her home after having to cancel all of her upcoming shows whilst not being able to claim the Governments small business loans “I came really close, and it made me pay attention and learn a lot about things that I never really paid attention to before, because I’ve always been on the go“. She had a lot of people to pay in her team, and continued doing so despite said losses, but as time went by and her balance ran lower, it became increasingly hard to find a solution in a world turned upside down by the pandemic.

With the ban on live music taking out a huge chunk of her earnings, she felt the pinch of agreements she had signed up to earlier in her career when she was less aware of the small prints repercussions. Learning from it all now, it’s served as a sharp wake up call to the singer who is now placing more emphasis on her business practice and personal sovereignty in an industry that often seeks to take it away.

Speaking with GQ‘s Briana Younger in a typically thoughtful and open manner, she said “It has been intimidating for me being a young woman running a business because I felt like I didn’t deserve to understand everything. I felt like I didn’t deserve to understand the contracts – or even, sometimes now, when you do a song, there’s royalties, publishing, there’s points, there’s who gets paid first”. 

Now she feels like she’s matured and gained enough experience of the industry to deserve a seat at the table and be at the helm of the decision making of her business “I’m learning, and I want to make my own mistakes. I don’t want other people to make mistakes and then me not understand what’s happened… I think it’s important for specifically young women in a creative industry to have the confidence to understand their business and have the confidence to understand their worth and have the confidence to want more for themselves”.

You can check out FKA Twigs latest single “Killer” here: