You may or may not know that the music industry is ruled by three major labels: Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group. But it hasn’t always been this way - over the past 100 years, a competitive market has been consolidated into three major record labels who dominate 80% of the global music market. These three house dozens of labels, distributors, and publishers who each have thousands of artists signed to them. All three of these majors have a long history in the music industry, and have changed hands more times than we can count. So, let’s talk a bit about each of the majors!
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest music rights holder. The group’s origins can be traced to Warner Bros. Records. The Warner Bros. studio created the record label in 1958 to rival Paramount Pictures’ label. They first acquired Frank Sinatra’s label, Reprise Labels, in the early 1960s, but were eventually sold to Seven Artist Productions, forming Warner Bros. Seven Arts. After acquiring Republic Records in 1967, Kimney National Company bought out the entire company two years later. Kimney merged all the labels under a new parent company, Warner Music Group, after they acquired Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records. Kimney rebranded as Warner Communications, selling off their non-entertainment assets, and bought publishing house Chappell Music, which is now named Warner Chappell Music, in 1987. Warner Communications sold to Time Warner in 1990, which merged with AOL eleven years later. Warner Music Group has gone public twice since then: in 2004 and in 2020.Â
Warner Music Group’s biggest labels are Reprise, Atlantic, Sub Pop, Fueled by Ramen, Parlophone, Elektra, Roadrunner, and Altco (the last three are owned by Atlantic). Some of Warner’s biggest artists are Ed Sheeran, Cardi B, Bruno Mars, Charli XCX, NLE Choppa, and Dua Lipa. Their distribution arm is called Alternative Distribution Alliance, which provides distribution services to breaking artists. Warner Chappell Music is the publishing company under Warner, and they also represent songwriters such as Amy Allen, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, and more. Chappell houses more than a million copyrights of every music genre spanning decades.Â
Sony Music
Sony Music (Entertainment) owned by the Japanese company Sony Corporation. Sony Music started off as American Record Corporation (ARC) in 1929, which was formed by a series of mergers. Almost ten years later, CBS acquired ARC and renamed it Columbia Recording Corporations; they later shortened it to Columbia Records. After its great success in the 1950s, they opened a sister label, Epic Records, and Columbia Records was renamed once again to CBS Records in 1966. Sony came into the picture twenty-one years later in 1987 when they bought CBS Records, which was renamed to Sony Music Entertainment afterwards. One of their biggest moves was acquiring Bertelsmann Music Group. Most recently, Sony Music Group was founded in 2019, which now houses Sony Music Entertainment and Sony’s publishing house, Sony/ATV.
Some of Sony’s biggest labels are Columbia Records, RCA Records, Epic Records, and Arista Records. Some of their most prominent artists are Adele, Harry Styles, Beyonce, SZA, Miley Cyrus, and Future. The Orchard is their full-service music distribution company; however, despite being owned by Sony, they operate independently. Sony/ATV, their publishing house, is in charge. Sony owns the world’s largest publishing company, named Sony Music Publishing, and they have many famous catalogs under their belt, like The Beatles, Queen, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, and more. They also have many catalogs of newer artists, like Rihanna, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Cardi B, and more.Â
Universal Music Group
UMG as we know it wasn’t founded until 1996, but you can trace the company back to 1962, when MCA Inc. (now known as Universal Pictures) merged with American Decca. MCA was sold to a Japanese company, but Seagram, a Canadian multinational conglomerate, took an 80% stake in MCA in 1995. The following year, MCA was renamed to Universal Pictures and its music division was renamed Universal Music Group, and after buying music company PolyGram, Seagram was acquired by French-based Vivendi. Vivendi bought the remaining 20% stake, which gave them full ownership of UMG.
UMG’s biggest labels are Capitol Music Group, Interscope Records, Republic Records, Def Jam Records, and Island Records. They have many big artists signed, like Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, and Ariana Grande. Their publishing division is named Universal Music Publishing Group, which is in charge of catalogs of many artists, including Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys, Sabrina Carpenter, and Kendrick Lamar. Unlike the other majors, UMG doesn’t have one main distributor - they distribute through their various labels and subsidiaries.
Written By Lauren DiGiovanni
*copyright not intended. Fair use act, section 107.