Universal Music Group

All you want to know about Universal Music Group

For history prior to 1996, see MCA Records.

"Universal Music" was once the music company attached to film studio Universal Pictures. Its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in 1934. MCA Inc. bought American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram and merged it with Universal Music Group in 1998. However, the name first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group.

With the 2004 acquisition of Vivendi's Vivendi Universal Entertainment by General Electric's NBC, Universal Music Group was separated entirely from its film studio namesake for the first time.

In February 2006, the group became 100% owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi SA when Vivendi purchased the last 20% from Matsushita, the group's sole owner from 1990 to 1995 and co-owner from 1995 to 2006.

On May 25, 2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion ($2.4 billion) purchase of BMG Music Publishing after receiving European Union regulatory approval, [2] having announced the acquisition on September 6, 2006.[3]

Labels

Universal Music Group owns, or has a joint share in, a large number of record labels, including:

Interscope-Geffen-A&M

The Island Def Jam Music Group

Machete Music

Sanctuary Records

  • Antidote Records
  • Attack Records
  • Castle Home Video
  • Castle Music
  • Castle Pie
  • Castle Pulse
  • Castle Select
  • Discotheque
  • Fantastic Plastic
  • Indigo
  • Mayan Records
  • Metal-is Records
  • Noise Records
  • RAS Records
  • Rough Trade Records
  • Rough Trade Records U.S.
  • Sanctuary Records U.S.
  • Sanctuary Records UK
  • Sanctuary Classics
  • Sanctuary Special Editions
  • Sanctuary Visual Entertainment
  • Sequel
  • Slogan
  • Trojan Records
  • Vapor Records
  • Vertical Records

The Universal Motown/Universal Republic Group

Decca Label Group

Universal Music Group Nashville

Verve Records

Stand-alone labels

Independent labels distributed by Universal Music Group

Labels outside of the U.S.

Vintage label catalogs owned by Universal

  • ABC
  • ABC/Paramount
  • ABC/Dunhill
  • Dot
  • Paramount
  • Duke/Peacock
  • Philips
  • Mercury
  • RSO
  • Casablanca
  • Geffen
  • Vertigo
  • Command
  • Impulse
  • Steed
  • Atca
  • Uni
  • Decca
  • Congress
  • Kapp
  • Wing
  • Verve
  • Verve Forecast
  • Smash
  • Chess
  • Checker
  • Argo
  • Cadet
  • Cadet Concept
  • Fontana
  • Motown
  • Soul
  • Tamla
  • Ric Tic
  • Golden World
  • Backbeat
  • Gordy
  • V.I.P.
  • Rare Earth
  • Prodigal
  • Melodyland/Hittsville
  • MGM
  • Lionel
  • Cub
  • MGM-South
  • Amaret
  • Stormy Forest
  • Sunflower
  • Polydor
  • MoWest
  • Natrual Resources
  • Moonglow
  • I.R.S.
  • Bluesway
  • Banana
  • Blue Thumb
  • Grand Award
  • Black Forem
  • Capricorn
  • Choclate City
  • 20th Century Fox
  • Wingate
  • London
  • Parrot
  • Deram
  • Press
  • Threshold

Controversy

Payola

In May 2006, an investigation led by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer concluded with a determination that Universal bribed radio stations to play songs from Ashlee Simpson, Brian McKnight, Big Tymers, Lindsay Lohan and other performers working for Universal labels. The company paid $12 million to the state in settlement. [5]

Pay-per-listen

In September 2007, Universal came up with a new way of tackling music piracy by "paying the pirates", beginning with a pilot of tracks from will.i.am (will.i.am music group). [6]

MySpace.com

In December 2007, Colbie Caillat inadverdently announced that The Universal Music Group recently enacted a new policy on MySpace.com that will reduce all songs from artists within The Universal Music Group to 90 seconds. [3]

Imeem.com

In December 2007 The Label announced a deal with Imeem which allows users of the social network to listen to any track from Universal's catalogue for free with a portion of the advertising generated by the music being shared with the record label[7]. Two weeks after the deal was announced Michael Robertson speculated on the secret terms of the deal and argued that ultimately this was a bad deal for imeem. This speculation lead to a flame war on the Pho digital media email list as imeem representatives denied his claims and dismissed his theories as unfounded.[8]

International Music Feed (IMF)

On January 7, 2008 UMG had announced that the IMF channel would be going off the air as the music group had sold the channel to another network dedicated to showcases of the fine arts. As of January 9, 2008, Channel 157 on Dish Network had officially become Ovation TV.[9]

YouTube

Until UMG works out a way for YouTube's owner, Google, to show their videos free in exchange for ad placements during the viewing, and/or to find a way for Google to charge and forward to Universal a per-download royalty fee for downloads of a video or musical selection, Universal continues to target individual users using any video that contains any music they own, regardless of context.[citation needed]

UMG contends that copyright owners have a right to receive compensation for each play or download; the YouTube viewers question why they should buy a selection of music unless they can find out in advance whether or not they like it; and Google's position is that their company is only a repository of the postings, and has little or no control over who posts what, and that YouTube will voluntarily remove any copyrighted material upon request of the copyright owner.

Some users have reported that UMG has allowed their YouTube videos containing UMG content to remain on the service, as long as UMG has the right to disable external embedding and in return to place advertising on those pages.

References

  1. ^ Universal Music Group - Contact
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ BBC NEWS | Business | Universal to buy BMG publishing
  4. ^ Decca Label Group
  5. ^ Garrity, Brian (2006-05-11). "UMG Settles With Spitzer". Mediaweek. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.
  6. ^ Pay-per-listen innovation from Black Eyed Peas man (thelondonpaper)
  7. ^ [2][dead link]
  8. ^ Digital Music War Gets Dirtier - News Blog - Daily Brief - Portfolio.com
  9. ^ StrategyWire :: Universal Music sells music channel to Ovation

External links

v • d • e
Vivendi
Directors
Jean-René Fourtou · Henri Lachmann · Claude Bébéar · Gérard Brémond · Fernando Falcó y Fernández de Córdova · Sarah Franck · Gabriel Hawawini · Patrick Kron · Andrzej Olechowski · Pierre Rodocanachi · Karel Van Miert
Canal+ Group
Canal+ · CanalSat · StudioCanal · Canal Overseas
Maroc Telecom
SFR
Universal Music Group
Activision Blizzard (52%)
Other assets
Employees: 34,031 (2005) · Stock Symbol:(Euronext: VIV) · Website: www.vivendi.com
v • d • e
Music industry
Record labels
Divisions
People
Performers
Music genres
Pop · R&B · Hip hop · Drum and bass · Rock · Indie · Jazz · Folk · Blues · Reggae · Country · Gospel · Soul · Funk · Motown · New age · Dance · Electronica · Easy listening · Latin · Instrumental · Soundtrack · Classical pop · Crossover · World
Releases
Album · Single · EP
Music awards
Music charts
Sales
certifications
Music publications
Music retailers
Other
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Music_Group"

No comments have been added.



Your name:

City:

Country:

Your comments:

Security check *
(Please enter the number into adjoining box)

 

  • Ads

           
eXTReMe Tracker