Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment
legal form	Inc.
founding	1887 (as Columbia Records )
Seat	New York City , New York , United States
management	Rob Stringer ( CEO ) Carmine Coppola ( CFO )
sales	4.3 billion euros (2011)
Branch	entertainment
Website	www.sonymusic.de

Sony Music Entertainment ( Sony Music or SME for short ) is an American company based in New York City . It was founded in 1887 as Columbia Records and is owned by the Japanese Sony Corporation as a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America and a sister company of Sony Music Entertainment Japan . Sony Music Entertainment is one of the three big major labels alongside Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, with artists such as Michael Jackson and Peter Maffay under contract. The company's headquarters are located at 25 Madison Avenue, and Rob Stringer has been Chief Executive Officer since April 2017. In Germany , Austria and Switzerland it is run by Patrick Mushatsi-Kareba .

From 2004 to 2008, the German media group Bertelsmann, through its Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and the Sony Corporation of America, held half of the joint successor company Sony BMG Music Entertainment . However, due to declining revenues Bertelsmann sold its shares completely at Sony, which for this return to the old name of Sony Music Entertainment meant, while BMG thereby opened formally in Sony Music and the brand of Bertelsmann with selected musicians in the newly founded BMG Rights Management continued was . The former Bertelsmann labels Ariola , Arista and RCA Records, however, were sold to Sony Music.

history

Columbia Records and CBS

Columbia Records logo

→ Main article : Columbia Records

In 1887, the Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in Washington, DC as a franchise of the North American Phonograph Company . The company began manufacturing and selling phonographs for which it had previously acquired the corresponding patent from Thomas Alva Edison . The business activity of Columbia was initially concentrated on the US states of Maryland and Delaware and the capital district , from which the name Columbia is derived. In 1926 Okeh Records took over a repertoire of jazz and blues musicians, including works by Louis Armstrong and Clarence Williams . At that time the Columbia Graphophone Company had bought the majority in the company, it had once been founded as a subsidiary for gramophones in Great Britain . In the course of the takeover of other companies, the Electric and Musical Industries Limited was created , with the business in the United States again being sold to the American Record Corporation . Columbia and EMI only separated completely after World War II .

Until it was taken over by the American Record Corporation, Columbia was owned by a consortium of banks that went bankrupt during the Great Depression . American Record Corporation was itself the target of a takeover by Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938 . After the Second World War , CBS founded another label under the name Epic Records , which, in addition to Columbia, was initially to specialize in classical and jazz, but also to advance into other genres . In 1961, CBS Records was finally launched, which acted as the label for all stores outside the United States and Canada . Towards the end of the decade, Columbia , Epic and CBS Records were combined in what is known as the CBS Records Group .

In 1968 Columbia and CBS Records agreed a joint venture with the Sony Corporation of America , the main aim of which was to market music together with other products from the manufacturer. As part of the collaboration was to 52nd Street of Billy Joel also the first album on compact disc released. In November 1987, Sony finally announced the CBS Records Group. to be acquired from CBS Corporation for $ 2 billion after months of negotiations . At that time, the company was the largest music label in the world and had artists such as Michael Jackson , Barbra Streisand , Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper under contract. Observers rated the takeover as a significant change in the North American media landscape. CBS Records initially carried on its name, it wasn't until 1991 that the company was officially changed to Sony Music Entertainment .

Bertelsmann participation

Sony BMG logo

As early as 2000 it was reported the music division of Bertelsmann , the Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), would negotiate with Sony Music Entertainment on a merger. Both companies initially denied the merger, and the joint venture was not officially announced until November 2003 . The new company was to be called Sony BMG Music Entertainment , half owned by Bertelsmann and Sony, with combined sales of five billion US dollars . Sony Music Entertainment was previously the second largest and BMG the fifth largest music label in the world. Observers rated the merger as a necessary consolidation against the background of falling revenues, ongoing competition in the industry and the increasing electronic distribution of music.

Sony Music Entertainment Japan was expressly excluded from the joint venture as it was heavily overweight BMG there. Andrew Lack became CEO of Sony BMG , while Rolf Schmidt-Holtz took over the position of Chairman . In the summer, the European Commission initially approved the merger of Sony Music Entertainment with BMG, but this decision was later overturned by the European Court of Justice. The companies then had to re-register the merger, and after approval by the European antitrust authorities and the Federal Trade Commission , the joint venture was finally completed in August 2004. Sony BMG employed a total of 9,000 people at the time and had a market share of 25.2 percent in CD sales.

In mid-2008, Bertelsmann announced that it would be parting with Sony BMG after sales in Germany had collapsed for several years. For a purchase price of 1.2 billion US dollars, Sony became the sole shareholder of the company, which from then on traded again as Sony Music Entertainment . With Ariola , Arista and RCA Records , three traditional labels, which Bertelsmann founded in 1958 and acquired in 1979 and 1986, were wholly owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Bertelsmann only secured the rights to recordings by 200 artists, mainly of European origin, which were then pooled in BMG Rights Management , which continued the tradition of the BMG brand. The distribution was still handled by Sony Music Entertainment.

Artist

Peter Maffay (2008)

Sony Music Entertainment held the exploitation rights for the works of well-known musicians, including AC / DC , Alicia Keys , Anastacia , Andrea Berg , Avril Lavigne , Backstreet Boys , Beyoncé Knowles , Bob Dylan , Boney M. , Britney Spears , Bushido , Bruce Springsteen , Carlos Kleiber (because of this, the two albums for the New Year's Concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1989 and 1992 were released by Sony), Casper , Christina Aguilera , Clueso , Daft Punk , Depeche Mode , Die Ärzte , Eurythmics , Falco , Die Prinzen , Hansi Hinterseer , Heino , Jennifer Lopez , Joe Cocker , Johnny Cash , Jupiter Jones , Justin Timberlake , Kelly Clarkson , Kool Savas , Kygo , Laith Al-Deen , Louis Armstrong , Luciano Pavarotti , Modern Talking , ZZ Top , Nena , Oasis , One Direction , Ozzy Osbourne , Pink , Roger Whittaker , Carlos Santana , Shakira , Silbermond , Tim Bendzko , Udo Jürgens , Usher , Van Morrison , Whitney Houston and Wolfgang Ambros , Sony Music Entertainment ,. The cooperation of Sony Music Entertainment with the following musicians experienced a special media reception:

• Peter Maffay has been exclusively under contract with Sony Music Entertainment since the 1990s. In 2010 the collaboration was extended until 2022, and his albums will appear on Ariola as before . Peter Maffay is the overall most successful German album artist. Most recently, the album " Wenn das ist so " achieved a chart record on Sony Music Entertainment .

• Sony Music Entertainment closed 2010 with the executors of Michael Jackson 's most expensive recording contract ever, within the limits of ten projects, such as the album " This Is It US dollars should be paid" in seven years a total of 200 million. Even during his lifetime, Michael Jackson was one of Sony Music Entertainment's most commercially successful artists, and at the turn of the millennium he and Bob Dylan made a large contribution to the company's profits. In 1995 Michael Jackson founded the music publisher Sony / ATV Music Publishing with Sony Music Entertainment .

• Elvis Presley signed a record deal with RCA Records in 1973 , under which the rights to various songs came to Sony Music Entertainment, including Hound Dog , Jailhouse Rock and Heartbreak Hotel . The agreement later led to a lawsuit by Elvis Presley Enterprises. before the Munich Regional Court : It was argued that Elvis had been exploited by his record label and demanded additional payments in the millions. However, the court dismissed the lawsuit, stating that the artist had effectively accepted the agreement. Further claims could therefore not be asserted.

Sony delivers the works of its artists on Compact Disc , DVD and Blu-ray Disc as well as in download . Individual works are also offered as SACD, the radio play series Die drei ??? also appears on the cassette. With the resurgence of vinyl records, many albums have also been sold on this very medium. Due to declining CD sales, the company launched an online service called Duet in 2001 together with Universal Music and Yahoo , which later became pressplay. and was finally sold to Roxio in 2003 . Sony Music Entertainment concluded agreements with various other online services for the legal distribution of its music, for example with the MP3.com swap platform . In Germany there was a cooperation with Telefónica Germany (O₂) from 2004 , customers of the mobile phone provider could access music from Sony via the newly introduced UMTS network. In 2011 Sony Music Entertainment launched its Music Unlimited service in Germany . that observers ranked in response to streaming services like Spotify . In the same year, Sony Music Entertainment did not generate any noteworthy sales with downloads, and it was only in 2013 that the crisis was considered over.

Labels

• Ariola : Bertelsmann founded the label in 1958 and initially mainly supplied the reading ring and record ring . Ariola first became known with artists such as Peter Alexander and Udo Jürgens , and later expanded internationally to include the United States . At the beginning of the 1970s, Ariola was already one of the seven largest record labels in Germany, today mainly pop musicians are under contract there.

• B1 Recordings : The label is a joint venture between Wolfgang Boss and Sony Music Entertainment, primarily for international artists.

• Sony Music Catalog : The catalog department is responsible for evaluating the entire repertoire portfolio. This includes music albums and singles from international artists such as B. Michael Jackson , Joe Cocker , AC / DC and national artists like Peter Maffay , Andrea Berg , Udo Jürgens or Wolfgang Petry .

• Columbia : The label is mainly used by Sony Music Entertainment in Germany for German-language pop music . Artists such as Casper , Johannes Oerding , Lions Head and Tim Bendzko are under contract. Internationally, artists from various genres appear at Columbia, such as works by Prince , Joco , the rapper TI or David Bowie . Most recently, the label's expansion to India achieved greater awareness.

• Epic : CBS created Epic in 1953, a specialized label for jazz and other classics. However, Epic never focused on a specific genre, today it is used for pop, rock and dance music by national and international artists. Epic is one of the oldest brands of Sony Music Entertainment, within the company it forms an equal organizational unit ( label cell ) for artists and repertoire alongside Columbia, RCA and Four Music.

• Europe : The label was launched by Miller International in 1965and initially focused on particularly inexpensive records. From 1969, the companylaunched radio plays for children and young peopleunder the Europa brandfor the first time, in particular fairy tales and adventure stories such as “ The three ??? ". In 1989 the Bertelsmann Music Group took over the label, later the name BMG Ariola Miller was usedat times.

• Four Music : Die Fantastischen Vier founded the Berlin label in 1996 and initially sold 50 percent of the shares in Sony BMG in 2005, and later also the other half. Four Music was best known through hip-hop , soul and reggae artists such as Max Herre and Gentleman .

• RCA : The label was created in its current form in 2011 after Jive , Arista and J Records were dissolved. Organizationally, it is assigned to Ariola, and business activities began with Peter Maffay as the first act. The most famous international artists include Pink and Shakira .

• Sony Classical : Sony Music Entertainment markets classical music from, for example, Jonas Kaufmann , Nikolai Tokarev , Angelika Kirchschlager and the Vienna Philharmonic under this label . In addition, DEAG Deutsche Entertainment , in whose classical music business the company has been involved since 2009, acts as a concert organizer in this area. As part of the investment, Sony Music Entertainment relocated the international headquarters for the genre from New York to Berlin .

• Fun society : BMG Germany founded the audiovisual label in July 2003to expand its presence in the comedy genre. The first publications included TV Total , Ladykracher , Bullyparade and “ Best of Olm ”. In 2007 Sony Music Entertainment agreed an exclusive cooperation with the production company Brainpool . The contract with Atze Schröder also achieved greater awareness; most recently, the fun company was the market leader in the segment with 150,000 units sold.

• The Distributed Label Division supports external labels in their distribution. Artists indirectly supervised by this are u. a. Andrea Berg, Metalblade, Bushido, BMG, DJ BoBo, Cooking Vinyl, Kool Savas or Starwatch The Munich classic label Solo Musica and the Wiener Symphoniker have also been marketed since 2015 .
• Gold League: Sony founded this distribution label in 2019 to primarily sell urban music. For example, artists like Rin (rapper) , Jalil or Joshi Mizu are signed. In November 2019, a partnership was entered into with the cable AEIOU, thus securing the distribution of the up-and-coming artist duo Yung Kafa & Kücük Efendi .

criticism

In 2004, the company came under fire after the merger to Sony BMG was unconditionally approved by antitrust authorities in the United States and Europe . The London Impala Association , which represents the interests of smaller music labels , viewed the joint venture as a threat to competition in the music industry . A complaint was then submitted to the European Court of Justice and won in the first instance. The European Commission re- examined the merger and confirmed its decision in October 2007. Other observers criticized the creation of Sony BMG as a "global musician massacre" that would primarily affect the creative staff of both companies, while the majority of the artists themselves Fusion welcomed.

In 2005 it became known that Sony BMG was using Extended Copy Protection (XCP) on CDs . The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other experts criticized that this software could be compared to a rootkit , since it would hide itself on affected computers. In addition, XCP is a potential security risk , as it opens back doors in the system that would make attacks easier. According to media reports, the security specialists at F-Secure Sony DADC warned of the dangers of the software early on, but the advice was ignored. After F-Secure also downgraded Microsoft XCP as malicious software , and posted an update, which the rootkit from Windows - PCs removed. Civil rights activists, affected customers and authorities filed class action lawsuits in the US states of Florida , Illinois , New York and Texas, among others . Due to ongoing public criticism, Sony BMG finally announced that it would no longer use copy protection. All infected CDs were removed from retail stores and buyers offered a replacement, and they were compensated with free downloads and cash payments. As part of an out-of-court settlement , Sony BMG paid a fine of $ 4.25 million to a total of 35 US states. A total of 4.7 million CDs were produced with XCP and 2.1 million records by 52 different artists such as Celine Dion or Frank Sinatra were sold.

In 2011 Sony Music Entertainment was one of the supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act . Civil rights activists and other observers feared that the law could encourage censorship on the Internet and that it contained inefficient and harmful procedures. The involvement of Sony Music Entertainment or the entire Sony group was also the reason for a public threat from Anonymous . While Sony Electronics gave up its support for SOPA due to public criticism in January 2012, Sony Music Entertainment did not change its position on the bill .

Web links

• Sony Music Entertainment in Germany , Austria and Switzerland

Individual evidence

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Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 41.5 "  N , 73 ° 58 ′ 23.9"  W.