With a number of services now leaning more on the digital side (like Pandora and Spotify), the music industry needs to experiment with some new ideas in order to bring in a big audience again. That advice comes from Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, who spoke at the Code/Media conference this week in California.

According to Re/Code, Grainge doesn’t believe that the ad-based services of such sites as Pandora and YouTube can’t bring in the audience alone – more experimentation is needed. “We want to accelerate paid subscription,” he explained.

With that, new ideas must be explored. One example Grainge brought up was the new deal with Jason Kilar’s Vessel site, offering a three-day exclusivity window for some videos as part of the site’s subscription service, which is currently undergoing testing in beta phase.

“Ad-funded on-demand is not going to sustain the entire ecosystem of the creators as well as the investors,” said Grainge.

Some big companies need to make moves, although Grainge isn’t quite sure what the likes of Apple and other have in mind for music. But he thinks the company could be in for great things. “I think Apple has been a fantastic partner to all of the content industries,” he explained. “They have been around for a long time. They have done phenomenally well with music. They ended up with a tremendous share of the pie.” (Its recent investment in Beats Music is likely to increase that hold as well.)

What Grainge is saying makes sense. Companies shouldn’t hold back on not having any advertising services on its sites, but that doesn’t mean they need to be the primary focus. Instead, new ideas, such as exclusive offers and special deals on subscription plans, could lead the way to a stronger customer base. That said, some, like Spotify, feel that an emotional connection with brands is the key.

You can catch the interview with Grainge below.