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Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a global recorded music company with a roster of artists that included a broad array of both local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalog that comprised some of the most important recordings in history. Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a 50–50 joint venture between the Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann AG. The venture’s successor, the again-active Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment is a major global record label controlled by the Sony Corporation of America, being one of the World music market. According to Variety, on October 2, 2008, Sony had completed the acquisition of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the Sony BMG joint venture, and Sony BMG was renamed Sony Music Entertainment....
, is 100% owned by the Sony Corporation of America.






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Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a global recorded music company with a roster of artists that included a broad array of both local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalog that comprised some of the most important recordings in history. Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a 50–50 joint venture between the Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann AG. The venture’s successor, the again-active Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment is a major global record label controlled by the Sony Corporation of America, being one of the World music market. According to Variety, on October 2, 2008, Sony had completed the acquisition of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the Sony BMG joint venture, and Sony BMG was renamed Sony Music Entertainment....
, is 100% owned by the Sony Corporation of America. Although being officially now owned by Sony, Sony BMG subsidiaries outside of the US and UK have yet to be rebranded
Rebranding

Rebranding is the process by which a product or Service developed with one brand, company or product line affiliation is marketed or distributed with a different identity....
.

History

Sony BMG Music Entertainment began as the result of a 50–50 joint venture
Joint venture

A joint venture is an entity formed between two or more parties to undertake economic activity together. The parties agree to create a new entity by both contributing Ownership equity, and they then share in the revenues, expenses, and control of the enterprise....
 between Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment is a major global record label controlled by the Sony Corporation of America, being one of the World music market. According to Variety, on October 2, 2008, Sony had completed the acquisition of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the Sony BMG joint venture, and Sony BMG was renamed Sony Music Entertainment....
 (part of Sony
Sony

is a multinational corporation list of conglomerates corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding US$99.1 billion ....
) and Bertelsmann Music Group (part of Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann AG is a transnational mass media corporation founded in 1835, based in G?tersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,397 workers ....
) completed on August 5, 2004. It is one of the Big Four
World music market

The music industry sells musical compositions, sound recordings and music performances of music. It employs about a quarter of million people,...
 music companies, and includes ownership and distribution of recording labels
List of record labels

This is a list of notable record labels.Owing to the large number of entries, the list has been divided by the first letter of the label's name, with labels starting with a number added to this page:...
 such as Arista Records
Arista Records

Arista Records is an United States record label. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operates under the RCA Records....
, Columbia Records
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
, Epic Records
Epic Records

Epic Records is an United States record label. It is owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment. The label was founded in 1953 as a jazz label, and was eventually expanded to several genres of music....
, J Records
J Records

J Records is an United States record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment, and is distributed through the RCA Records Group....
, Jive Records
Jive Records

Jive Records is a record label, based in New York City, owned by Sony Music Entertainment, and operates as a quarter of the Zomba Label Group....
, RCA Victor Records, RCA Records
RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1983 and a partner from 1983 to 1986....
, Legacy Recordings
Legacy Recordings

Legacy Recordings is Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division. It was founded in 1990 in music by Sony Music Entertainment to handle reissues of recordings from the vast catalogues of Columbia Records, Epic Records and associated labels....
, Sonic Wave America, and others. The merger affected all Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group companies worldwide except for Japan, where it was felt that it would reduce competition in that country’s music industry significantly.

Financial analysts covering the merger anticipated that up to 2,000 jobs would be cut as a result, saving Sony BMG approximately $
United States dollar

The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States and was defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be between 371 and 416 grains of silver ....
350 million annually.

The company's Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking Corporate title or Administration in charge of total management of a corporation, company, non-profit organization, or government agency, reporting to the board of directors....
 (CEO) is Rolf Schmidt-Holtz
Rolf Schmidt-Holtz

Rolf Schmidt-Holtz is Chief Executive Officer of Sony BMG.External links * who succeeded Andrew Lack on February 10, 2006. In the first half of 2005, the company's share of new releases in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 (US) declined from 33% to 26% according to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan

Nielsen SoundScan is an information system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett that tracks sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada....
. This, and Lack's negotiation of what some called an "ill-conceived" deal with Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss", is an American songwriter, singer and musician. He has recorded and toured with the E Street Band....
 led to Bertelsmann informing Sony that it would not renew Lack's contract.

The company signed a content deal with the popular video sharing community YouTube
YouTube

YouTube is a Video hosting service website where users can upload, view and share video clips. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005....
.

On August 5, 2008 Sony Corp. agreed to buy Bertelsmann AG's 50 percent stake in the music company for $1.2 billion to get full control. The music company will be renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and will become a unit of Sony Corporation of America. This will allow Sony the rights to artists on the current and historic BMG roster and would allow Sony Corporation to better integrate its functions with its Playstation 3 and upcoming new media initiatives.

The merger

On March 27, 2006, the New York Times reported that Bertelsmann was in talks with Sony
Sony

is a multinational corporation list of conglomerates corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding US$99.1 billion ....
 to possibly alter the current venture. Two executives close to Sony BMG said that Bertelsmann may offer Sony its half of the company in order to raise money by leveraging some of its media assets. Executives close to the label have stressed that any such agreement will likely take months to conclude.

On July 13, 2006, however, the European Court of First Instance
Court of First Instance

The European Court of First Instance, created in 1989, is a court of the European Union....
 annulled the European Commission's clearance decision as IMPALA (a trade association for independent labels in Europe) had applied for. This judgment was appealed by the merging parties. On October 3, 2007, after a new investigation, the European Commission upheld its prior approval of the merger.

It was also announced in 2006 that Sony BMG would dismantle the Sony Urban Music label. All of the artists will now be assigned to Epic
Epic Records

Epic Records is an United States record label. It is owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment. The label was founded in 1953 as a jazz label, and was eventually expanded to several genres of music....
 or Columbia
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
.

In March 2007, Sony Music Entertainment Japan
Sony Music Entertainment Japan

is Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry....
, which is not part of Sony BMG, dismantled the Tofu Records
Tofu Records

Tofu Records was a United States record label of Sony Music Entertainment Japan which was launched in 2003 in music to distribute Japanese pop Sony artists in the United States, and closed in 2007....
 label, and SMEJ's North American licensing switched to Columbia, or for artists on Epic Records Japan, Epic.

The international media and entertainment companies Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann AG announced on August 5, 2008, that Sony has agreed to acquire Bertelsmann's 50% stake in Sony BMG. The music company, to be called Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SME), will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.

On October 1, 2008, Sony Corporation completed the acquisition of Bertelsmann's 50% stake in the companies' joint venture. The music company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America and operates music labels such as Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Records and Zomba Records. The sale price was not disclosed when the deal was announced in August, but news reports valued it at $1.5 billion.

Management

  • Chief Executive Officer – Rolf Schmidt-Holtz
    Rolf Schmidt-Holtz

    Rolf Schmidt-Holtz is Chief Executive Officer of Sony BMG.External links *
  • Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President – Kevin Kelleher
    Kevin Kelleher

    Kevin Kelleher is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sony BMG....
  • Chairman, Sony Music Label Group – Rob Stringer
    Rob Stringer

    Rob Stringer is Chairman of Sony Music Label Group, which is part of Sony BMG. He is the younger brother of Sir Howard Stringer, who is Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation....
  • Chairman, BMG U.S. Label Group – Barry Weiss
    Barry Weiss

    Barry Weiss is Chairman of BMG U.S. Label Group, which is part of Sony BMG....
  • Chairman of Executive Agency Officer - Waseem Shah


Controversies


2005


July
Sony BMG was fined 10 million dollars after the New York
New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
 Attorney General
Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions....
's office determined that they had been practicing payola
Payola

Payola, in the American music industry, is the Bribery or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast....
 mostly in the form of direct payments to radio stations and bribes to disc jockey
Disc jockey

A disc jockey is a person who selects and plays sound recording for an audience. Originally, disk referred to phonograph records, while disc refers to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling....
s to promote various artists including Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (band)

Franz Ferdinand are a Scotland Rock music band that formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 2002. Named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the band comprises Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson ....
, Audioslave
Audioslave

Audioslave was an American hard rock Supergroup that formed in Los Angeles, California in 2001. It consisted of ex-Soundgarden frontman and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell and the former instrumentalists of Rage Against the Machine: Tom Morello , Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk ....
, and mainly Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson

Jessica Ann Simpson is an United States singer, actress, and reality television who rose to fame in the late 1990s. She has achieved seven Billboard Top 40 hits, and has three gold and two multi-platinum RIAA-certified albums....
.

Epic Records
Epic Records

Epic Records is an United States record label. It is owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment. The label was founded in 1953 as a jazz label, and was eventually expanded to several genres of music....
, one of their labels, was specifically cited for using fake contests in order to hide the fact that the gifts were going to disc jockeys rather than listeners . .

October and November
A controversy over digital rights management
Digital rights management

Digital rights management refers to access control technologies used by publishers, copyright holders, and hardware manufacturers to limit usage of digital media or devices....
 (DRM) software that automatically installed itself on people's computers and made them more vulnerable to computer viruses that was produced and shipped by Sony BMG ensued. The scandal caused numerous lawsuits and Sony BMG ended up recalling
Product recall

A product recall is a request to return to the maker a batch or an entire production run of a product, usually due to the discovery of safety issues....
 all affected CDs.

November 16 - US-CERT, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, part of the United States Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security

The United States Department of Homeland Security is a United States Cabinet United States federal executive departments of the United States federal government of the United States with the responsibility of protecting the territory of the U.S....
, issued an advisory on Extended Copy Protection
Extended Copy Protection

Extended Copy Protection is a computer software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet, , and sold as a copy protection or digital rights management scheme for compact discs....
 DRM, citing the XCP use of rootkit
Rootkit

A rootkit is malware which consists of a Computer program designed to hide or obscure the fact that a system has been compromised. Contrary to what its name may imply, a rootkit does not grant a user administrator access as it requires such access to execute and tamper with system files and processes....
 technology to hide certain files from the computer user as a security threat to computer users and saying that one of the uninstallation options provided by Sony also introduced vulnerabilities to a system.

US-CERT advised, "Do not install software from sources that you do not expect to contain software, such as an audio CD." In its "Top Flops of '05" issue, the enterprise newsweekly eWeek
EWeek

eWEEK is a weekly computing business magazine published by Ziff Davis Enterprise, featuring editorials, reviews, lab tests and news.The magazine mostly covers Company topics and is targeted at IT professionals rather than hobbyists....
 had to create a new category for the "Sony BMG root-kit fiasco." Peter Coffee
Peter Coffee

Peter Coffee is most well known for his longtime role as a commentator for Ziff Davis, where he was most recently Technology Editor for eWEEK until his departure for salesforce.com in January 2007....
, of eWeek
EWeek

eWEEK is a weekly computing business magazine published by Ziff Davis Enterprise, featuring editorials, reviews, lab tests and news.The magazine mostly covers Company topics and is targeted at IT professionals rather than hobbyists....
 Labs reported, "The Sony brand name was already in trouble—it lost 16 percent of its value between 2004 and 2005....

Now it has taken a blow among tech-product opinion leaders. "We've never done it before, and we hope we'll never have [an] occasion to do it again but, for 2005, eWeek Labs awards a Stupid Tech Trick grand prize to Sony." eWeek
EWeek

eWEEK is a weekly computing business magazine published by Ziff Davis Enterprise, featuring editorials, reviews, lab tests and news.The magazine mostly covers Company topics and is targeted at IT professionals rather than hobbyists....
 Vol. 22, No.50

2007

In October 2007, it was announced that Sony BMG successfully sued Jammie Thomas. The single mother, who made US$36,000 a year, was ordered to pay US$222,220 in damages for making 24 songs available for download on the Kazaa
Kazaa

Kazaa Media Desktop is a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack Protocol and owned by Sharman Networks.Kazaa is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet....
 file-sharing network. Thomas is currently appealing the decision.

2008

The Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission is an Independent agencies of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act....
 sued Sony BMG for collecting and displaying personal data of 30,000 minors without parental consent via its websites since 2004, violating the Federal Trade Commission Act
Federal Trade Commission Act

The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 established the Federal Trade Commission , a bipartisan body of five members appointed by the President of the United States for seven year terms....
 and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 is a United States federal law, located at .The act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S....
. Sony did not restrict minor
Minor

Minor means "not important", and in Latin "smaller". It may also may refer to:...
 children's participation in its websites. Sony paid a $1 million fine.

List of Sony BMG labels


Further information: List of Sony BMG labels

See also

  • Big Four
    World music market

    The music industry sells musical compositions, sound recordings and music performances of music. It employs about a quarter of million people,...
  • Sony Music Entertainment Japan
    Sony Music Entertainment Japan

    is Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry....
    , which is not part of Sony BMG, but has distributed Japanese Music
    Music of Japan

    The modern Japanese music scene includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles both traditional and modern, ranging from rock, electro, punk, folk, metal, reggae, salsa, and tango to country music and hip hop....
     in the US through Columbia or Epic since around March 2007, when Tofu Records
    Tofu Records

    Tofu Records was a United States record label of Sony Music Entertainment Japan which was launched in 2003 in music to distribute Japanese pop Sony artists in the United States, and closed in 2007....
     closed and that Sony immediately continued the distribution
  • the Japanese division of Bertelsmann Music Group, which is not part of Sony BMG
  • List of record labels
    List of record labels

    This is a list of notable record labels.Owing to the large number of entries, the list has been divided by the first letter of the label's name, with labels starting with a number added to this page:...
  • List of Sony BMG artists
    List of Sony BMG artists

    A*AC/DC*A.R.Rahman*Aerosmith*Air Supply*Alexandra Burke*Alice in Chains*Alicia Keys*Alkaline Trio*Amaia Montero *Amy Pearson*Anastacia...
  • Columbia House
    Columbia House

    Columbia House operates a Music club and DVD club, and as such is a direct seller of DVD movies and box sets, offering its selections through ?club membership? agreements....
  • Sony BMG discography
    Sony BMG discography

    This is page of albums that were released by Sony BMG....


External links