WARNER MUSIC GROUP

'Warner Music Group' (WMG) is one of the four major record labels.
Warner Music Group also has a publishing arm, Warner/Chappell Music, which dates back to 1929, when Jack Warner, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Inc., founded Music Publishers Holding Company (“MPHC”) to acquire music copyrights as a means of providing inexpensive music for films. Amongst the historic compositions in which the publishing rights are controlled by WMG are the works of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Its printed music operation, Warner Bros. Publications, was sold to Alfred Publishing on 2005-06-01.
WMG's roots in what became Time Warner date back to the founding of Warner Bros. Records as a division of the Warner Bros. movie studio in 1958. After Warner Bros. became Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1967, it purchased Atlantic Records, now WMG's oldest label. When its successor Kinney National Company bought Elektra Records in 1970 and then became Warner Communications in 1971, it assembled the three labels into a group then known as 'WEA' (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic); that name was also used as a label outside the U.S. (WMG's current logo is the former Warner Communications logo). In 1990, it was announced that Warner Communications was to merge with Time Inc. to form Time Warner.
Time Warner sold the company in late 2003 to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr. for $2.6 billion. Time Warner was reportedly attempting to reduce its debt load. This spinoff was completed on February 27, 2004. In the 2004 transition to independent ownership, WMG hired record industry heavyweight Lyor Cohen from Universal Music Group to attempt to reduce cost and increase performance.
On May 5, 2006, WMG apparently rejected a buyout offer from EMI[1]. Then WMG offered to buy EMI and it also rejected the offer. The two companies are still in talks about a potential merger. The headquarters are located at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104. It is interesting to note that Time Warner may still have some ownership of Warner music because WMG does not license its trademarks from its former parent company.

Contents

List of Warner labels

WEA International Inc.

Trivia

See also

External links

List of Warner labels

Warner Music Group's labels include the following. It should be noted that some labels are actually divisions of other labels than in the order listed; this order reflects the current order of each label's administration.
===Atlantic Records Group===

★ 143 Records—founded in 1994 by David Foster.

★ Atlantic Records—founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson.

★ Bad Boy Records—founded in 1993 by Sean "Diddy" Combs.

★ Elektra Records—founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman.

★ Lava Records—founded in 1995 by Jason Flom

★ Roadrunner Records—founded in 1980 by Cees Wessels.
===Independent Label Group===

★ Asylum Records—founded in 1971 by David Geffen.

★ East West Records—founded in 1955 (today serves as an umbrella label for various indie labels.)

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★ Adeline Records

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★ Better Looking Records

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★ The Bevonshire Label

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★ Born & Bred Records

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★ Broken English

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★ Floodgate Records

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★ Liberty & Lament

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★ Montalban Hotel

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★ One Eleven Records

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★ Perfect Game Recording Co.

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★ Tent Show

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★ Triple Crown Records

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★ Volcom Entertainment

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★ We Put Out Records

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★ Rhymesayers Entertainment

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===Rhino Entertainment Company===

★ Atco Records

★ Rhino Records

★ Rhino Home Video

★ Warner Custom Products

★ Warner Music Group Soundtracks

★ WMG Film, Television & Commercial Licensing
===Ryko Corporation===

★ Rykodisc Records

★ Ryko Distribution

★ Cordless Recordings
===Warner Bros. Records Inc.===

★ Warner Bros. Records—launched by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1958.

★ Blacksmith Records—founded by Talib Kweli in 2005.

★ Maverick Records—founded by Freddy DeMann and Madonna in 1991.

★ Nonesuch Records—founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 (but is technically a subsidiary of Elektra Records because of its UPC prefix]].

★ Reprise Records—founded by Frank Sinatra in 1960

★ RuffNation Records

★ Sire Records—founded by Seymour Stein in 1966.

★ Word Entertainment

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★ Squint Entertainment

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★ Word Label Group

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★ Word Records— founded by Jarrell McCracken in 1951

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★ Word Publishing

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★ Word Distribution

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★ Word Music

WEA International Inc.

WEA International Inc. has divisions worldwide such as Australia, Japan and all over Europe. These branches are usually called Warner Music followed by the name of the country. Some labels have more than one record company for example the UK has Warner Bros. UK and Atlantic UK.

★ Warner Music UK

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★ Warner Bros. Records UK

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★ Atlantic Records UK

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★ London Records (originally the U.S. label for Decca)

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★ 679 Recordings

★ Warner Music Gallo Africa

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★ Gallo Record Company—the largest South African record label

★ 1967 Ltd

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★ Must Destroy Records (distribution)

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★ The Beats (labels deal)

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★ Warner Strategic Marketing (warner.esp)
===Labels distributed by Warner Music Group through Alternative Distribution Alliance===

★ Chiyun Records

★ Vice Records

★ Lightyear Entertainment

★ Sub Pop

★ New Line Records

★ Green label records

★ SaraBellum Records

★ VMG Recordings

★ Teleprompt Records

★ Rhymesayers Entertainment

Trivia

★ Warner Music Group is the only one of the Big Four label groups that does not trace its roots back to the pre-1900 labels Columbia Records and Berliner Gramophone. Those U.S. labels' British licensees merged to become EMI in 1931. Then, in 2004, the successors to the original labels merged to form Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Universal Music Group's oldest label, Deutsche Grammophon, was founded in 1898 as the German licensee of Berliner Gramophone. In contrast, all of WMG's major labels were founded after World War II.

★ Warner Music Group is also the only one of the Big Four label groups that does not have a substantial link to European ownership. EMI is headquartered in London, Sony BMG is half owned by Bertelsmann (headquarted in Germany) and Universal Music Group is 100% owned by Vivendi SA (headquartered in Paris)

See also

★ List of record labels

★ Warner Music Group artists

External links

★ Warner Music Group official site

★ Warner Bros. Records official site

★ Reprise records official site

★ Rhino TV official site

★ Sire Records official site

★ Yahoo! - Warner Music Group Company Profile

★ SEC filings