NTS Radio Is Now Partially Owned by Universal Music Group
a.k.a. Is the celebrated independent radio station still independent?
Back in July, NTS Radio sent out an email blast to its official Supporters community (i.e. those people who financially contribute to the station via monthly or annual pledges). The message opened with updates on merch, programming and the platform itself, but its latter half turned to the topic of funding, and included the following:
So we’ve just completed another round of funding. We spent 18 months searching for the right partner, before deciding that the best path for NTS was bringing in new funding from Universal Music Group (UMG).
That’s not a misprint. NTS Radio, arguably the most important and influential independent online radio outlet on the planet, is now partially owned by the largest record label and music company in the world. (Full disclosure: I appeared as a guest on an NTS show earlier this year.)
According to an August 23 filing with Companies House—the UK government office that maintains the country’s register of companies and makes that information available to the public—Universal became a “Person with Significant Control” of NTS this past June 21, holding “directly or indirectly, more than 25% but not more than 50% of the shares in the company.”
Considering the players involved, it’s frankly bizarre that this has so far gone unmentioned in the music press, and aside from a few stray comments on social media, the news has largely stayed out of online discourse as well. Perhaps that’s because NTS put such a positive spin on the deal in its initial announcement, assuring its Supporters that not much would change and that the station would “operate in exactly the same way as before, supporting and broadcasting amazing artists and DJs, just in more innovative ways.”
More specifically, the statement also said the following:
UMG have come correct with the right long-term funding, leaving total creative and operational control with us. They believe in what we do for the right reasons, and want to help us continue to make alternative music heard and supported. They don’t have any control over how we operate, what music gets played, or which artists we promote on NTS. UMG will not have access to any listener data (not that we collect much anyway) and we will remain fully independent. They’re just one minority investor of many and the investment they’ve made will secure existing jobs and help us create more jobs and opportunities for our broader community.
The final part of that passage already appears to be in the works, as NTS announced earlier this month that it was hiring a range of new positions at the station. The claim about other investors is also true; according to a confirmation statement filed with Companies House on October, the list of NTS shareholders also includes musician Peter Gabriel, Barcelona festival Primavera Sound, artist manager Kevin Kusatsu (who represents Diplo, amongst many other prominent acts) and a number of other investors.
Nevertheless, much remains unknown about the specifics of the situation. The terms of the deal (i.e. money, exact shares) have not been shared, and no fully public announcement has been made by either NTS or UMG. When reached for comment yesterday, the station shared the above-referenced mailout that was sent to NTS Supporters, along with an additional statement that was sent to its resident DJs on July 28, but declined to elaborate further.
Signed by NTS founder Femi Adeyemi, the statement to residents, which has not been posted online, largely reiterated the points from the Supporters mailout. However, it did include some additional details, stating that UMG did not have any seats on the NTS board and that the station would be “under no obligation to air or promote any UMG artists or content.” The prevailing narrative was one of continuity, as Adeyemi stressed that management would “continue to program NTS impartially and fairly, focusing on artists we believe in” and that aside from “improving our website and apps” and the ability to “hire some more staff in the near future,” changes to the status quo would be minimal.
What the statement did not include, however, was the news that Adeyemi’s level of financial control had changed. According to a separate Companies House filing on August 23, he ceased to be be a Person with Significant Control on June 21, the same day that UMG officially entered the company. NTS declined to provide more details, and Adeyemi is still listed as the station’s founder and Chief Commercial Officer on LinkedIn, but the filing makes clear that his percentage of shares has dropped below a certain threshold. When asked if Universal was now the largest shareholder in NTS, the station declined to comment.
[Update: Shortly after this piece was first published, a keen-eyed First Floor reader pointed out another Companies House filing from August 23 that spelled out more details of UMG’s investment. The company appears to have purchased 68,922 shares at a price of £72.55, which would equal an approximate total investment of £5 million for a 25% stake in NTS. UMG does appear to now be the station’s largest shareholder, though NTS seems to have retained control over its own board.]
NTS management also declined to address questions about potential collaborations between the two companies, including the possibility of joint A&R efforts or connections between UMG and the station’s in-house record label, NTS Recordings. At this point, Universal’s motivations for investing are essentially unknown, especially if NTS won’t be providing listener data or ceding any sort of creative or operational control. Although the initial mailout to NTS Supporters claims that UMG “believe(s) in what we do for the right reasons, and want(s) to help us continue to make alternative music heard and supported,” and Adeyemi’s statement to NTS residents says that Universal “believe(s) in our programming,” it strains credulity to believe that a multinational corporation would wish to get involved with an independent radio outlet for wholly altruistic reasons.
The motivations of NTS, on the other hand, are easier to ascertain. Both statements forwarded by management made clear that the station has sought outside funding before, and Adeyemi’s statement to residents went a bit further, explaining:
We’ve created a model that has enabled us to sustain ourselves in multiple different ways: NTS Supporters, our brand partnerships, working with the Arts Council England, merch and our recently launched record label.
Still, even while these income streams are growing — which we are all super proud of — we’ve always needed additional funding to continue pushing boundaries.
It’s safe to assume that as NTS has grown, so have its operating costs, and online radio has never been a lucrative business. Over the years, the station has previously partnered with a number of brands, including Adidas, Netflix, Sonos, Uniqlo and Carhartt. (Many of the projects that resulted from those partnerships have been archived here.) At the 2022 edition of Art Basel in Miami, NTS teamed up with Bored Apes Yacht Club on an event, despite the fact that the controversial crypto firm had very publicly been accused of promoting racist and Nazi-affiliated imagery, most prominently by artist Ryder Ripps. (BAYC did eventually sue Ripps for copyright infringement—and won the case—but the company is now embroiled in a separate class-action lawsuit brought by people who claim they were misled into purchasing NFTs.) NTS was surely aware of the controversy around Bored Apes Yacht Club at the time of the Art Basel event, and though its decision to go ahead with the collaboration—which prompted quite a bit of critique, at least online—might be interpreted as a sign the station was in need of money, management yesterday declined to comment further, both about that particular partnership and the overall reliability of its other income streams.
Reading all of this, some might be prompted to sound the alarm and bemoan the potential downfall of NTS, or at least question its status as a truly independent outlet. The fact that a wider public announcement about the station’s deal with Universal Music Group was never made—when asked why, NTS declined to comment—is also unlikely to inspire confidence. In the aftermath of what’s been happening at Bandcamp lately, many independent music fans (and artists) are worried about the consequences of treasured institutions being infiltrated by corporate investment, and the lack of further details about this deal with UMG does represent a potential cause for concern.
That said, the two statements provided by NTS were clearly designed to allay people’s worries and provide some level of transparency to the station’s community, both internal and external. NTS has not been sold—that’s the major point of difference when comparing its situation to that of Bandcamp—and the deal with Universal is not the first time the station has taken on outside investment. Parsing its statements, it seems obvious that “nothing is changing” was the primary message that NTS management wished to impart, even as it subtly touted the benefits that UMG’s involvement would bring.
For now, NTS does still appear to be NTS, and the folks who’ve been running the station for years are still the ones making the decisions. The station says it’s still “fully independent” and will remain as such, and that UMG is only a “minority investor.” While those claims do test the limits of the term “independent”—a word that’s increasingly used as an aesthetic indicator, as opposed to being an actual measure of freedom from outside control—they do appear to be true.
That said, these things do have a way of changing, often quite suddenly. The history of major labels collaborating with independent music (e.g. artists, labels, organizations, platforms) is full of sob stories and cautionary tales, and when something goes awry, it’s usually not the multinational corporation that suffers most acutely. UMG may not have a controlling interest in NTS, but without knowing more about the terms of its investment, it’s impossible to feel totally secure about the station’s future, no matter how many reassurances management provides.
Even if UMG is saying all the right things about NTS right now, major labels are notoriously fluid operations; staff turns over, trends change, priorities shift and eventually the day arrives when the cool, boutique investment of old becomes just another line item on the corporation’s enormous spreadsheet. Suddenly there are pressures to make cuts, boost profits, alter the business plan or simply offload the investment altogether, irrespective of whether or not the next buyer is in sync with the project’s core mission and philosophy.
For the sake of the NTS audience, and the global community the station has cultivated during its decade-plus of existence, one hopes that day will never come. And even if it does, one hopes that station management has built all of the necessary safeguards into its deal with Universal, and all of its deals with other investors as well. Perhaps it has, but without further details, fans will be left wondering when exactly the other shoe will drop, and what might become of a station that’s become an important hub of the wider independent music sphere.
When it comes to independent platforms, “hope for the best and prepare for the worst” seems to be an increasingly common refrain among those who love, support and rely on them, but whether they’re talking about the health and future of Bandcamp, NTS or some other similarly integral outlet, it’s a shame that those kinds of thoughts even have to be part of the conversation.
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn and Twitter, or you can just drop him an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.