Sony Music Entertainment (or
Sony
Music) is the second-largest global
recorded music company of the
"big four" record companies and is controlled
by
Sony Corporation of
America.
History
The company which evolved into Sony Music was founded in 1929 as
the
American Record
Corporation (ARC) through the merger of several smaller record
companies. In the depths of the
Great
Depression, the
Columbia
Phonograph Company (founded in 1888) in the U.S. (including its
Okeh Records subsidiary) was acquired
by ARC in 1934. ARC was acquired in 1938 by the
Columbia Broadcasting
System (CBS) (which itself had been formed by the Columbia
Phonograph Company, but then sold off). CBS made Columbia its
flagship label with Okeh its subsidiary label while deemphasizing
ARC's other labels.
CBS founded
Epic Records in 1953.
In 1958, CBS founded another label,
Date
Records, which initially issued
rockabilly music.
CBS only
had the rights to the Columbia name in the United States
and Canada
.
The
Columbia Phonograph Company had international subsidiaries and
affiliates such as the Columbia Graphophone Company in
the United
Kingdom
, but they were sold off prior to CBS acquiring
American Columbia, therefore the international arm founded in 1961
utilized the "CBS Records" name only.
In 1966, the Date subsidiary label was repurposed mainly for the
soul music outlet. This label released the first string of hits for
Peaches & Herb. Date's
biggest success was
Time Of The Season by
The Zombies, peaking at #2 in 1969. The label
was discontinued in 1972.
Epic distributed
Ode Records between
1967 and 1969 and between 1976 and 1979.
In March 1968,
CBS and
Sony
formed CBS/Sony Records, a Japanese business joint venture. With
Sony being one of the developers behind the
compact disc digital music media, a
compact disc production plant was
constructed in Japan under the joint venture, allowing CBS to begin
supplying some of the first compact disc releases for the American
market in 1983.
In the 1980's to early 90's there was a CBS imprint label in the US
known as CBS Associated Records. Tony Martell veteran CBS and Epic
Records A&R Vice President was head of this label and signed
artists including
Ozzy Osbourne,
The Fabulous Thunderbirds,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Joan Jett, and
Henry Lee Summer. This label was a part of
(Epic/Portrait/Associated) wing of sub labels at CBS which shared
the same national and regional staff as the rest of Epic Records
and was a part of the full CBS Records worldwide distribution
system.
On
November 17, 1987, the
Sony Corporation of America
acquired CBS Records for US$2 billion. CBS Inc., now
CBS Corporation, retained the rights to the
CBS name for music recordings but granted Sony a temporary license
to use the CBS name.
CBS Corporation
founded a new
CBS Records in 2006.
Birth of Sony Music Entertainment
Sony renamed the record company
Sony Music
Entertainment (SME) on January 1, 1991, fulfilling the
terms set under the 1988 buyout, which granted only a transitional
license to the CBS trademark. Also on January 1, 1991, Sony
reintroduced the
Columbia label
worldwide, which it previously held in the United States and Canada
only, after it acquired the international rights to the trademark
from
EMI in 1990. Japan is the only country
where Sony does not have rights to the Columbia name as it is
controlled by
Columbia
Music Entertainment, an unrelated company. Thus, until this
day,
Sony Music Japan does not use
the Columbia trademark for Columbia label recordings from outside
Japan which are issued in Japan.
The Columbia Records trademark was also
controlled in Spain
by another
company, Bertelsmann Music
Group (BMG), which Sony Music subsequently obtained through the
2004 merger, and later through the 2008 buyout, of BMG. The
CBS Associated label was renamed Epic Associated.
Sony BMG: Joint venture with Bertelsmann
In August
2004, Sony entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Bertelsmann
by merging Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) to
form Sony BMG Music
Entertainment. However Sony continued to operate
its Japanese music business
independently from Sony BMG (while BMG Japan was made part of the
merger).
Return to Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Corporation of America and
Bertelsmann announced on August 5, 2008 that Sony agreed to
acquire Bertelsmann's 50% stake in Sony
BMG. Sony completed its acquisition of Bertelsmann Music
Group on October 1, 2008. The company, once again named Sony Music
Entertainment Inc. (SME), became a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Sony Corporation of
America.
Main divisions
The following are the main operating divisions of Sony Music
Entertainment. Note that the frontline, standalone label operations
exist mainly in the United States.
Additional labels under each division are listed at
Sony Music Entertainment
labels.
Previously affiliated labels
List of Sony Music Entertainment labels
Further information:
List of Sony Music
Entertainment labels
List of Sony Music Entertainment artists
Further information: List of Sony Music
Entertainment artists
See also
References
External links
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
