When Elliot Grainge was named CEO of the Atlantic Music Group back in August, it sent a seismic jolt through the music industry. At 31, Grainge is by far the youngest person to be running a major label, no less one with such a storied history. He replaced Julie Greenwald, then the longest tenured CEO at any label. And, of course, he is the son of UMG chieftain Sir Lucian Grainge, which raised the eyebrows of some who contended that the anointing of Grainge 2.0 was not based solely on his own (considerable) accomplishments.

It's only been eight-plus months since Grainge assumed control, but thus far, it's fair to say that he and his team have far exceeded expectations and transformed the label's fortunes. With hits from breaking acts The Marías, Alex Warren and Ravyn Lenae, and glow-ups for superstars Charli xcx, Bruno Mars and Coldplay, Atlantic's current market share is up a full point since Grainge arrived.

"He’s doing a fantastic job," says WMG CEO Robert Kyncl. "Elliot and his team have delivered blockbuster hits from global superstars, broken new artists and started signing a whole new generation of talent. He’s done all this while building on the legacy and reshaping one of the most iconic record labels in the world. He’s managed to make it leaner and stronger at the same time. It’s remarkable. I think it's fair to say it was a bold move, and I’m obviously pleased Elliot is proving any skeptics wrong."

One of Grainge's biggest supporters is 27-year-old Val Blavatnik, son of WMG owner Len Blavatnik and a member of WMG's board of directors. Grainge first came under the WMG umbrella in 2023, when his 10K Projects label signed a JV deal there.

"I’ve met a lot of leaders, and it’s rare to find someone who’s fluent across three languages: music, money and marketing," says Blavatnik. "It makes him a fierce artist champion and exceptional leader. We wanted someone who could carry forward the legacy of Ahmet [Ertegun] and the entrepreneurial tradition of Atlantic. Elliot understands and respects the history of the music business, but he’s combining that with disruptive thinking to pioneer a whole new approach."

There are reminders of Grainge's precocity throughout our hour-long conversation at Warner's DTLA offices. A new husband and father, he admits to carving out an hour on Saturdays to play Fortnite with his brothers-in-law, Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte fame. "We go on our headphones, we look so uncool," he says. Later during our interview, he pauses to take a urgent call from his wife, Sofia Richie, who has news to report: Their daughter, Eloise Samantha, has just taken her first steps. (The middle name honors Grainge's mother, Samantha Berg, who suffered complications during his birth that led to a coma she remained in until her death in 2007.)

"You're the greatest walker who ever lived!" he beams to Eloise.

Meanwhile, not one encouraging word about our ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. Hmmph.

How's the new gig?
It’s great. Look, it's been a period of massive change for Atlantic. Since October, we’ve gone through transition and restructuring, but our share is up. We have three new artists on the charts: The Marías, Alex Warren and Ravyn Lenae. Artists want to work with us. We’re breaking records. This is exciting.

Hits will do that for you.
100%.

What part of the transition did you find most challenging?
When you come into an organization like Atlantic, this incredible brand, and you're asked to make drastic changes—headcount reduction, structural changes—it's disruptive. Some people found it difficult to see what the vision was. It was initially a real shock. But now they're seeing it. And they're like, "All right, we believe."

Can you articulate what that vision is?
It sounds super cliché and corny, but it's about working with great artists and putting hits on the board. It’s about identifying the hits and using data to put fuel on the fire, which is what we, as a team, do better than anyone else in the business. I’m a big believer in creating an artist sanctuary where we give them the freedom to explore what makes them unique. That’s true artist development to me.

That team, I assume, includes people that you've been working with for a while?
Yes. Zach [Friedman] and Tony [Talamo], of course [Atlantic Records Group COO and GM, respectively] and I’ve been close friends with [President of Creative] Dave Rocco for years. We have executives who were already in the system that we promoted, like Marisa Aron, who's our outstanding head of marketing on the pop/rock side for Atlantic. Kevin Weaver, our president, West Coast, is a unicorn. His success even outside of traditional artist-breaking is incredible. What he's able to do with IP like Barbie and The Greatest Showman, and what he's doing with F1 and Grand Theft Auto right now, is stuff that no one has done before. And there are executives we brought in, like our head of digital, Alana Dolgin, who is a digital marketing genius. And we brought Cara Donatto back [as EVP of media strategy], which has been great. I wish I could name everyone. I will say we have one of the most incredible A&R teams in the business across many different genres. I try to surround myself with people who are brilliant and smarter than me, and I'm lucky, because the majority of my team are.

You said that you and your team identify hits using data and then put your considerable muscle behind those songs. Wouldn’t every label say they do the same thing?
They say they do, but they don't. Historically, there were two major ways for labels to build audience: radio and music videos. It's very different now when you're discovering or breaking a new artist. It isn't through radio or music videos. It's through their channels, it's through the social media system, it's through their shows.

So how do other labels do it? Well, they'll discover the artists on social media, but they'll rely on the artists to continue building the fanbase. What we do is slightly different. We take a very non-cookie-cutter approach. We sit down with the artists, we identify who their fans are, and we spend money very intelligently to help them build their audience online. Other labels, they'll go and hire companies to put digital marketing campaigns together. They used to pay us to do that. 10K acquired Homemade Projects, which is a digital influencer agency. That's Zach and Tony. Homemade used to work on campaigns for every major label you could name. Now, we do that exclusively for just Atlantic Music Group and global Warner Music Group artists. So now they work on campaigns for The Marías, Alex Warren, Don Toliver, Ravyn Lenae, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Charli xcx. We've perfected, as much as we can, the label influencer game, and we're seeing great upside.

Let me ask you about a couple of quotes from an interview you did with the LA Times in 2023. In that, you said that a major label is “a conveyor belt with 100 other priorities” and that "in the last few years, the power of the major label has been completely decimated." Now that you’re running a major label, do those two things still hold true?
Look, me and my team, we love a challenge. We built a great label with 10K. It's at 1.5% market share this quarter on new releases, 1.1% in overall. We did that in seven, eight years. I like building things. The idea of going to Atlantic, a legendary global brand, and being told, "Go modernize this into your vision for the label,” for me, that’s a dream come true. And obviously we took drastic measures to get there. We're not quite there yet. It's been six months. We will get there. Hopefully when we talk again in a couple of years, you'll be quoting things that I said today, and it will be totally different.

So to answer your question, we were up for the challenge of building, and we were given the freedom to build, not the major label that I was quoted about then, the major label of yesterday, but what a major label needs to be today. Which is to partner with incredible artists, give them as much creative freedom as possible, and prove to them that we can help build their audience. Which is what we’ve been doing in the last six months, and what we will continue to do.

Given your age, did you have any doubts about your ability to run a major label?
Never.

Never?
Nope, never. I'm not wired like that.

I catastrophize everything. I unfortunately live in this DEFCON 1 version of reality. So anything that can go wrong, I've already thought about it. I can tell you 2, 3, 4 steps ahead, the worst that could go wrong. If you live in that, you don't feel fear or pressure.

Please excuse my amateur psychoanalysis, but does that have to do with your mom?
Possibly, yes. I do therapy for an hour once every couple of weeks. As sad and tragic as that experience was, I think it's probably shaped me, in the sense of being a survivor. You've got to think that there's a tiger behind your back at any point.

Who was the first Atlantic artist you spoke with when you got the job?
It was a blur. I remember having conversations with Ed Sheeran. I remember having conversations with all of the teams, from Bruno Mars to Charli xcx.

Were artists and their teams anxious about the change?
There’s always anxiety, because I didn't know a lot of them. But very quickly, you connect with people. These artists are a vital part of the culture and history of the company. They deserve all the respect in the world. And if you treat great artists with great respect, it's a good bridge to a relationship.

We've mentioned some of the newer artists who are currently enjoying success. How about some of the more established acts on Atlantic?
Well, we came in and very quickly helped to deliver Coldplay its first #1 in a decade.

Was that important, to deliver them a #1?
I don't think it was that important for them. They're the most iconic stadium band of, say, the past 25 years. But it was important for us to show them, "Hey, we're a young team, but we are going to execute. We're going to help put the ball in the back of the net for you guys."

Charli xcx, that was a very important one… Stronger first-week sales on her remix album than on the original. Of course, it speaks her art, her genius. She put that together. Her team, Brandon [Creed], Sam [Pringle], Twiggy [Rowley], they're incredible. But them trusting us to work on the plan, to lock in an incredible global story on the remix album, that was super important as well.

Winning that trust from key artists and managers was very important. So that was the first thing. And then the second thing was, we went through the roster. What is special here? What hasn't broken? How can we use our tools to invest wisely around very special art.

We identified that very quickly with Ravyn Lenae, The Marías and Alex Warren. These were artists that were not on the charts, that were not even thought of as breaking artists. Within six months, all three of those artists are high on the charts. They're growing week over week. These are real success stories of artists that were at the label. And we were able to identify them and sprinkle on a bit of the marketing magic.

Where does 10K fit into the Atlantic Music Group?
We moved 10K from the ADA of Warner Music Group into the Atlantic Music Group world. And 10K has doubled its current market share in the last 12 months. We've got an incredible story with Artemas, who's selling out all his shows. He had an amazing set at Coachella. Forrest Frank is very important. We have new artists like SAILLOR, who is having an incredible development moment.

If 10K is like a speedboat, whereas Atlantic's a giant cruise ship, did you need to change your philosophy about what a record label should be when you took the job?
If Atlantic is a cruise ship, we’re putting engines the size of the Empire State Building on that cruise ship. So that ship is now moving at the same pace as a Ferrari. That's my goal. And we're doing it now.

Let's talk about how you got the job. When did you first talk to someone about this possibly happening?
When Robert came from the tech world to replace Steve Cooper, he was a disruptor. I could be totally wrong on this, but I think he came in and said, "I'm going to observe. I want to understand how the business works." And he's done that. At the same time, he was looking at the structure. He redid a lot of the structure with Netflix, a lot of the structure of YouTube.

I think if I'm Robert, I'm seeing Atlantic, which, in the three years since he’s been there, has gone one way, and then I'm looking at 10K, which has quickly gone a different way. And I'm understanding that 10K has a digital native team and I'm going, "I want more of that for the biggest engine of our recorded music group department." And so the board, they had the guts to give it to a 30-year-old.

What role did Val play in connecting you all?
We're incredibly lucky to have Val on the board. He's a music guy. Very few people know this about Val, he's written records. He understands how a record is made. He understands how marketing works. I think Val can see things that others can't. Val was incredibly instrumental in and supportive of the decision for me to come into Atlantic.

Do you two share a generational point of view about the way that the business is and should be?
100%. Val has an extraordinary brain. Same with his father. Both he and Len think in multiple dimensions across multiple industries. They're able to zoom out, look at the world, but very quickly zoom in and see all the issues, get to the point and go, "Here are the issues, here is the fix." Len is famous for doing that. He and Val are like twins in that sense.

Did you have a formal interview with Len?
When we were doing the original deal with 10K, I got to know him. So there were always conversations.

Did Max Lousada play a role in bringing you in?
Absolutely. Max played a vital role. He was one of the very early advocates.

In American baseball terms, you're what’s called a big swing, I would say.
1,000%. But I like that. High risk, high reward, hopefully.

Broad-stroke question, not about Atlantic per se: What are some of the big-picture issues facing the major record companies?
There are two fundamental issues that I see. One is, what role will AI play, and in particular the AI trained on artists’ copyrights. Holistically, is that right or wrong? Is that fair or unfair? There are fundamental issues and concerns about protecting artists' rights. It's funny, labels have always been considered the big bad wolf. But the world is now seeing the labels lobbying governments to protect artists' rights. Labels are putting everything on the line to protect artists' voices.

That's one issue. Part two is, fairly valuing artists and their streams. Should Bruno Mars or Don Toliver be paid the same per stream as AI-generated background music? Is that fair? The way I see it, it’s not.

Let’s talk about your dad. He runs UMG, you run the largest label within the Warner Music Group. Do you view each other as competitors?
No, absolutely not. Our companies are competitors, but as human beings, he's my dad. We’re able to compartmentalize work.

Has the tenor of your conversations changed at all since you took over?
Not at all. Zero.

Looking back, what was it like growing up in the biz?
My whole family was in music. Not just my dad. My grandfather had a record store. My uncle had Ensign Records. He signed Thin Lizzy, Sinead O'Connor, 10cc, The Waterboys, Boomtown Rats. As early as I can remember, I’ve always been around music. My cousin, when he was 16, 17, found Amy Winehouse. My family, that's just what we do.

Every child grows up with a different set of experiences. My experience, from birth, was very unusual. It was sort of shrouded in confusion, and it was very sad, very tragic. But as a result of that, the bonds that I created with my father, as my only parent, were quite profound.

When I was born, my dad was the head of A&R of a British label. It was a great company, but it wasn't a big company. I'm not saying our family hasn't been successful. But my dad didn't come from a lot of money. He still turns the lights off when he leaves a room. Being a solo father, not being able to afford around-the-clock nannies, not having a partner or wife to help with your baby, I don't know how the fuck he did it. And so I would spend lots of time with him. I grew up in the Polydor offices. I remember playing with the promo toys in the marketing office. That was my norm. If you put all of that together, there was no chance for me to have done anything different.

How are you like your dad? What personality traits do you share?
We're best friends. We love all the same things. First and foremost, we're family men. Family is always first. We love music. We love the record business. When I was a kid, he used to play me Sex Pistols next to ABBA. He used to play me Pavarotti next to Eminem next to Eagle-Eye Cherry. No one knows this about my dad, his knowledge of records is astounding. You know you have these wine sommeliers who can taste a wine and immediately identify it? That’s my dad with music. You could play a five-second snippet of a bridge from a B-side, he'll fucking get it. I've got it the same as him. We'll test each other on that every now and then.

Is your dad very competitive?
Yes.

Do you share that trait?
Oh yeah. You should see how we play ping-pong. We don't speak to each other for a few hours afterwards.

Who wins?
It used to be him, but now it's me.

The student has overtaken the master?
Maybe. I would say yes, and he would say no.

Every child grows up with a different set of experiences. My experience, from birth, was very unusual. It was sort of shrouded in confusion, and it was very sad, very tragic. But as a result of that, the bonds that I created with my father, as my only parent, were quite profound.

When your dad was ill with Covid, how did you cope with that?
It was very difficult. He was one of the first people with COVID. In Los Angeles, they called him patient one. We didn't know what the pandemic was at the time. We just knew it was a really nasty virus, and people were getting very sick. As scary as it was, there was a naivete of not knowing how bad the virus was. If we'd known then what we know now, maybe it would've been different. But I knew in my heart he would be okay. He's a fighter. He's one of the strongest individuals I've ever met, mentally and physically, evidently. I was proven right. I was lucky. We were lucky.

A couple of quick music questions. You’re stranded on a desert island and can only listen to three albums for the rest of your life. What are you choosing?
Hmm. Dark Side of the Moon. Never Mind the Bollocks. And Saturday Night Fever. Can I add one more? Motown 50.

Did you and Sofia have a first dance at your wedding?
Yes.

Which song did you dance to?
The Temptations, “My Girl.”

Finally, people with the last name of Grainge aside, who would you consider to be your mentors in the biz?
I wouldn't say mentors, but there are people who have inspired me. Irving Azoff is one. He's 77, and still operating at the level he's operating at. Allen Grubman is another. Then there’s P [Pierre Thomas] from Quality Control. He started with a studio in Atlanta, and now Quality Control is a global hip-hop brand. In the same way that we talk about Irving and Allen, P will be right up there. I also really appreciated the role that Jacqueline Saturn played in my 10K journey. These people are still at the top of their game. I find that totally inspiring.