Universal Music UK to move its headquarters to King’s Cross in 2017

City A.M reports that Universal Music Group has signed a long-term lease for a new development in King’s Cross. 

The major label would be moving its headquarters from Kensington to King’s Cross sometime in 2017 if building progresses as planned.

UMG and other Vivendi-owned music properties Universal Music Publishing and SeeTickets would be occupying all ten floors of the building, with 1,000-plus employees expected to make the move.

These companies are currently spread across different building (UMG itself has two sites in Kensington), and bringing everyone in the same place could have a positive effect on the group, allowing different parts of the company to work together. It could even end up saving the parent company money by scrapping several costly leases for just one (still presumably incredibly costly) lease, consolidating maintenance cost, catering, IT support and more.

This would be the first time that a major label moves outside Kensington, and given UMG’s substantial clout it will be interesting to see if the move will cause more labels to think about their location.

UMG is a Vivendi company, so the new location would enable a much quicker link between its London HQ and both UMG's and Vivendi's Paris offices via the Eurostar.

King’s Cross will also see Google move its UK HQ to the site after the search giant bought one of the most expensive plots of land ever sold in the UK.

 

(Andrea Leonelli)