Music Labels

In their 2011 report, Nielsen SoundScan noted that the "big four" controlled about 88% of the
market (this is no longer fully accurate, as it is around six years old and EMI Group closed in 2012):

Universal Music Group (USA based) 29.85%

Sony Music Entertainment (USA based) 29.29%
Warner Music Group (USA based) 19.13%
EMI Group - 9.62%

Independent labels were found to make up the additional 12.11% of the market.

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group (also known as UMG Recordings) is an American global music corporation
that is a subsidiary of the French media conglomerate Vivendi. UMG's global corporate
headquarters are in Santa Monica, California. It is considered one of the "Big Three" record labels,
along with Sony Music and Warner Music Group.

UMG has previously been known as: Decca Records (1934-1971); MCA Records (1971-1989); MCA
Music Entertainment Group (1989-1996)

Its CEO, since March 2011, is Lucian Grainge.

Subsidiaries of UMG include Interscope Records and Def Jam Recordings.

Artists under UMG include Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey and Kanye West.

UMG gained some of EMI Groups artists after the group closed in 2012.

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment is an American music company owned by Sony through Sony
Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. Its headquarters are in New York
City.

In 2014, SME had a revenue of 4.89 billion USD.

Its executives include Rob Stringer (CEO) and Kevin Kelleher (COO).

Subsidiaries of SME include Sony Music India, RCA Records and Columbia Records.

Artists under SME include George Michael, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson.
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate
headquartered in New York City. Its parent organization is Access Industries.

Its CEO, since August 2011, is Stephen Cooper.

Subsidiaries of WMG include Atlantic Records, Warner Bros. Records and Parlophone.

Artists under WMG include Ed Sheeran, Linkin Park and Coldplay.

EMI Group
EMI was a British multinational conglomerate founded in March 1931 and was based in London. At
the time of its break-up in 2012, it was the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels
in the world.

Record labels founded by EMI Group include EMI Music Publishing and Virgin EMI Records.

Artists under EMI Group included The Beatles, Pink Floyd and John Lennon.

When the group closed down in 2012, most of its artists went under Universal Music Group.

Due to the closure of EMI Group, the big three (UMG, SME, WMG) now control the vast
majority of the music industry, thought to be around 80% as of 2016.