The business of music long has been an incestuous one, even when the players aren’t related. But some of the leaders of today’s recorded music industry — 84 percent of which is housed under the three major label groups, Universal, Warner and Sony — actually are. When Lucian Grainge , chairman and CEO of UMG, took the reins in 2011, his son, Elliot, had barely graduated college. Today, the junior Grainge is running Warner’s Atlantic Records (home to Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Bruno Mars) alongside another so-called “nepo baby,” WMG’s billionaire majority owner Len Blavatnik ‘s 27-year-old son, Val Blavatnik, who is a member of WMG’s board of directors with an increasing presence at the company.

The business of music long has been an incestuous one, even when the players aren’t relate

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