Universal Music Group has reportedly banked approximately USD $467 million from selling part of its Spotify shareholding, with the money splitting two ways. Artists are owed a cut under a policy dating back to 2018, and UMG is routing its own portion into the share buyback program it doubled to EUR €1 billion earlier this year.
The figure came from UMG CFO Matt Ellis on the company’s Q2 and H1 2026 earnings call on July 30. Ellis told analysts the company sold “just under one-third of our planned 50% stake sale” in the first half of the year, for gross proceeds of EUR €403 million. UMG confirmed the plan to sell half…
