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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14-- Tencent Music Entertainment Group, one of China's largest media companies, in a move that would flex its already well-developed muscles in the entertainment industry, is mulling a purchase of 10 percent of the music monolith, L.A.-based Universal Music Group (UMG), reported its parent company Vivendi. UMG, with its revenue in excess of 7 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, is considered one of the "Big Three" music companies in the world, along with Warner Music Group and Sony Music, and was named by FastCompany, a leading business magazine in the United States, as "one of the top 50 most innovative companies in the world ... redefining what a modern label should look like." "It's a smart business move on Tencent's part," Eddie Cane, former UMG label rep, told Xinhua in a recent interview. "They may dominate the market in China, but UMG dominates the global music market. It's simple math: the more songs you have to license and the bigger the artists, the more money you make." UMG owns not only such trending global hitmakers as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Drake, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar, but also top classic bands like The Beatles, U2, Abba and Queen. Tencent, owner of the wildly popular and ubiquitous social media WeChat super-app, has bought shares in the past in leading Western companies like Spotify, Tesla and Epic Games. It is a powerful music industry leader in China and owns QQ Music, a leading China-based music site which went public late last year in one of the largest U.S. offerings in recent years, plus a popular online Karaoke platform. | 
