V2 Records (or V2 Music) is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2007. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI.

Ultimately, the label was owned 95% by Morgan Stanley and 5% by Branson because Morgan Stanley was the chief financier of the company. Over the years V2 acquired Gee Street Records, Junior Boy's Own, Blue Dog Records, and Big Cat Records. The label also distributed many labels, such as Wichita, Luaka Bop, City Slang, and Modular.

V2 now operates in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States.^{[citation needed]} It was distributed in the US by BMG; however it left for WEA shortly after the formation of Sony BMG. Its headquarters were located at 14 East 4th Street in Manhattan, the former US home of Island Records, which was in the same building as the former Greenwich Village branch of Tower Records.

In April 2005, Cooperative Music was set up by the V2 Music Group as a transnational marketing and distribution operation which licenses independent labels, as opposed to individual artist companies which is the standard industry practice, for release in Europe, Australia and Japan. This in-house licensing division has an exclusive international marketing team with representation in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia and Japan.

Maximilian Hecker (born July 26, 1977 in Heidenheim an der Brenz) is a German musician from Berlin, known for ethereal pop music, similar to Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Tom Baxter and Nick Drake. He himself describes his songs as »melancholy pop hymns«.

Hecker grew up in Baden-Wuerttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. He learned to play the piano, the drums and the guitar and did his A levels at Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium in Bünde in 1997. Having finished his alternative civilian service at Klinikum Schwabing in Munich, he started training in nursing practice at the hospital Charité in Berlin in 1999.

Apart from his activities as a trainee nurse, Hecker continued pursuing his musical hobby busking in the area of Hackescher Markt in Berlin-Mitte. Thus he came in contact with Berlin's music- and cultural scene. In 2000, the demo of his song »Cold Wind Blowing« was used for the score of German director Esther Gronenborn's movie alaska.de. Soon after that, the Berlin based record company Kitty-yo, having released the movie's soundtrack, offered Hecker a record deal.

Lindsey Stirling (born on September 21, 1986) is an American violinist, musician, dancer, performance artist, and composer. In 2010 she competed on the fifth season of America's Got Talent. Stirling is noted for her versatility performing music from country to hip hop.

At the age of 23 Stirling was a quarter-finalist on the fifth season of America's Got Talent where she was known as the ‘Hip Hop Violinist’. After Stirling's performance, Sharon Osbourne said, "Wow... we love you Lindsey!” and Piers Morgan called her performance "Electrifying!".

At the age of 5, after being influenced by the classic music records played by her father, Stirling requested the opportunity to learn and play the violin.

Stirling was classically trained through private lessons for 12 years. When she was 16, she joined a rock band with four friends called Stomp on Melvin. As part of her experience with Stomp on Melvin, Stirling wrote a solo violin rock song, and her performance helped her to win both the title of Arizona’s Jr. Miss in 2005 and the talent category of the National Jr. Miss Pageant. As of May 2, 2012, Stirling is 5'3" tall.