Sony Music Entertainment (SME 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, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation.
History
Pre-history
American Record Corporation
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.
Columbia/CBS Records
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). 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.
RCA Victor Records executive Ted Wallerstein convinced CBS head
William S. Paley to buy ARC and Paley made Wallerstein head of the newly acquired record company. CBS made Columbia its flagship label with Okeh its subsidiary label while deemphasizing ARC's other labels. This allowed ARC's leased labels
Brunswick Records and
Vocalion Records to revert to former owner
Warner Bros. which sold the labels to
Decca Records. Wallerstein restored Columbia's status as a leading record company and spearheaded the successful introduction of the
long playing (LP) record before he retired as Columbia's chairman in 1951. James Conkling then became head of Columbia Records. Also in 1951, Columbia severed its ties with the
EMI-owned record label of the same name and began a distribution deal with
Philips Records. Okeh Records continued to be distributed by EMI on the Columbia label.
CBS founded Epic Records in 1953. In 1956, Conkling left Columbia and Goddard Lieberson began the first of two stints as head of the record company. In 1958, CBS founded another label, Date Records, which initially issued rockabilly music.
In 1960, Columbia/CBS began negotiations with its main international distributor Philips Records with the goal of CBS starting its own international record company. CBS only had the rights to the Columbia name in North America. Therefore the international arm founded in 1961 and launched in 1962 utilized the "CBS Records" name only. CBS' Mexican record company, Discos Columbia, was renamed Discos CBS by 1963.
In 1964, CBS established its own UK distribution with the acquisition of Oriole Records. EMI continued to distribute Epic and Okeh label material on the Columbia label in the UK until the distribution deal with EMI expired in 1968 when CBS took over distribution directly.
In 1966, CBS reorganized its corporate structure which made CBS Records a separate unit of CBS run by Clive Davis.
Also 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 1970 CBS Records revived the Embassy Records imprint in UK and Europe, which had been defunct since CBS had taken control of Embassy's parent company, Oriole, in 1964. The purpose of the revived Embassy imprint was to release budget reissues of albums that had originally been released in the United States on Columbia Records (or its subsidiaries). Many albums, by artists as diverse as Andy Williams, Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand, The Byrds, Tammy Wynette, Laura Nyro and Sly & the Family Stone were issued on Embassy, before the label was once again discontinued in 1980.
The CBS Records Group was led very successfully by Clive Davis until his shock dismissal in 1972 along with that of Director of Artist Relations David Wynshaw, after it was discovered that Davis has used CBS funds to finance his personal life, including an expensive bar mitzvah party for his son. He was replaced first by former head Goddard Lieberson then by the colourful and controversial lawyer Walter Yetnikoff, who led the company until his dismissal in 1990.
In the 1980s 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.
By 1987, CBS was the only "big three" American TV network to have a co-owned record company. ABC had sold its record division to MCA Records in 1979, and in 1986, NBC's parent company RCA was sold to General Electric, who then sold off all other RCA units, including the record division (which was bought by Ariola Records, later known as BMG).
On November 17, 1987, the Sony Corporation of America acquired CBS Records, which hosted such act as Michael Jackson, 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. In 1990, CBS Records renamed the CBS Masterworks classical music label to Sony Classical Records. 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. The CBS Associated label was renamed Epic Associated. Also on January 1, 1991, to replace the CBS label, 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. The company, once again named Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (SME), became a wholly owned subsidiary of
Sony Corporation through its US subsidiary
Sony Corporation of America.
On July 1, 2009, Sony Music Entertainment and Independent Online Distribution Alliance announced their global strategic partnership to leverage combined worldwide online retail distribution networks and complementary technologies to support independent labels and music rights holders.
Main divisions
The following are the main, standalone operating divisions of Sony Music Entertainment.
Columbia/Epic Label Group
RCA/Jive Label Group
Sony Music Nashville
Sony Masterworks
Sony Music Latin
Legacy Recordings
Provident Label Group
Columbia Records UK
RCA Label Group (UK)
Syco Music
RED Distribution
Additional labels under each division are listed at Sony Music Entertainment labels.
Previously affiliated labels
Def Jam Recordings (1985–1993)
Loud Records (1999–2002)
Chaos Recordings (1993–1995)
The Work Group (1995–2000)
Date Records
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 artists, List of Sony Music Entertainment artists
See also
Sony BMG
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony Music Entertainment Japan
Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal
List of record labels
References
External links
Official site
Yahoo! – Sony Music Entertainment Company Profile
Category:American record labels
Category:Film soundtrack record labels
Category:Companies based in New York City
Category:Record label distributors
Category:Recording Industry Association of America
Category:Companies established in 1929
*
Category:Multinational companies
Category:IFPI members
.svg)
