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UMTV becomes UMOD because, you know, playlisting and all that nonsense

By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 2 August 2016

Universal Music’s always slightly confusingly named compilations division UMTV is rebranding as Universal Music On Demand, or UMOD to its closest friends. Which is still slightly confusing. The new name presumably acknowledges the fact that the unit now leads on the major’s playlisting activities on the streaming platforms in the UK. Though isn’t pretty much all music ‘on demand’ these days, playlisted or not?

Anyway, UMOD will coordinate Universal Music UK’s “dynamic playlist strategy” and control the major’s own playlist brands, while still pushing out compilation albums to the not insignificant number of consumers who still surprisingly buy such things.

The revamp follows the appointment of former Sony exec Simon Barnabas to run the division back in April, and he says of the all new UMOD: “Universal Music On Demand is a seismic leap for the playlisting and compilation side of Universal Music UK’s business. It is a strategic response to market changes and the demands of music fans which will allow us to capitalise on the exciting and emerging opportunities within this new age of streaming”.

UMOD boasts that it now has a team of “talented curators, analysts and innovative marketers” in place to capitalise on all these “exciting and emerging opportunities”. I wonder if that means the marketers are both talented and innovative, or just innovative? And if they are both, why aren’t the curators and analysts innovative? “The formation of UMOD”, Barnabas concludes, ignoring of adjectival enquires, “reflects the growing importance of playlists both culturally and commercially”.