Music

Industry Case
Study

4 Major Producers

Sony Corporation
Sony Corporation is a multinational
conglomeration based in Tokyo, Japan.
Sony corporation is the electronics unit and
parent company of Sony Group.
Sony Group consists of Sony (electronics), Sony
Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer
Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony
Mobile Communications and Sony Financial.
They produce consumer elctronics,
telecommunications, communications and
information equipment, semiconductor,
electronic devices, battery chemicals, Play
Station, films, television and music.

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony is the second largest of the big four
producers.
Founded in 1929 as the American Record
Corporation.
Renamed the company Sony Music
Entertainment in 1991.
In 2004 entered joint venture with
Bertelsmann by merging to create Sony BMG
Music Entertainment.
In 2008 Sony bought Bertelsmann's 50%
stake in Sony BMG and became Sony Music
Entertainment again.

 Their headquarters are in New York but

they have a total of 42 offices across the
globe from Chile to Thailand to the UK so
produce music worldwide.
The executives of the company are Doug
Morris, Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin
Kelleher, Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer.
Morris was previously the head of
Universal Music but became Chairman
and CEO on July 1st 2011 and
reconstructed Sony upon arrival.
It has a revenue of $5,672 million and an
operating income of $469 million in 2010.

Labels
They have a number of labels across the world such as these
major ones:
Columbia Records
Epic Records
RCA Records
Sony Music Nashville
Provident Label Group
Verity Gospel Music Group
Sony Music Latin
Sony Masterworks
Legacy Recordings
Columbia Records UK
RCA Label Group
Syco Music
RED Distribution
JG3 Records

What do they produce?

Sony Music produces hundreds of artists from
around the globe through their numerous
labels and studios that they own.
Their artists include: ACDC
Michael Jackson
Foo Fighters
Franz Ferdinand
One Direction
Shakira
Jimi Hendrix
Oasis
Mariah Carey

Distribution
Sony aim to use vertical integration within their
company. They do this by having complete control of
where their products are distributed and producing
their own physical copies of music such as CDs and
by producing music software and devices such as the
walkman in the late 90s. This means that they have
control over the distribution of their products and
have to pay no expenses to outside companies.
However as the music industry has changed
drastically with the increase of downloading music
through online stores such as Itunes Sony now has
to distribute through other corporations such as
Apple.

 To combat this issue Sony uses new media

technology and creates its own software and
online programs.
For example Sony has recently made Music
Unlimited. It offers instant access to millions of
songs on Sony devices such as Play Station 3,
Android, Xperia phones, Bravios TVs, Blu-Ray
disc players, PSPs and any PCs. This is used
to combat software such as Spotify which
shows that Sony is adapting to the rapidly
changing industry.

Universal Music Group

Universal Music group is the largest of the big four
music corporations after acquiring BMG Music
Publishing in 2007.
Owned by the French media conglomeration Vivendi
and completely separate from Universal Studios.
Its headquarters are located in California USA.
It has a revenue of $4449 million and an operating
income of $140 million in 2010.
Founded in 1934 as Deca Records and became
Universal Music Group in 1996.

Divisions
Universal Music Group is a multinational
conglomeration and has a number of divisions such
as:
Universal Music Publishing Group
Universal Music Group Distribution
Interscope-Geffen-A&M
The Island Def Jam Music Group
Universal Republic Records
Universal Music Group Nashville
Verve Music Group
Decca Label Group
Universal Music Latin Entertainment
Universal Music Enterprises
Universal Strategic Marketing
Show Dog-Universal Music

V2/Co-operative Music
Polydor Records
Mercury Music Group
Island Records Group
Universal Music TV
London Records
Bravado
Twenty-First Artists
eLabs
Silver Scope

Labels
Universal Music Group has a number of labels across
the globe with 38 labels outside of the US and 10 in
the US.
Labels include:
Interscope Geffen A&M
The Island Def Jam Music Group
Universal Republic Records
Universal Music Group Nashville
Decca Label Group
The Verve Music Group
Universal Music UK

Universal Music Publishing

Universal Music Publishing is a music
publishing group which is part of UMG.
UMP owns or administrates over 1
million copyrights and are the largest
music publishing business in the world.
They have more than 47 offices in 41
countries.

Artists
They produce a wide range of international and local artists of all
genres across the globe.
Their current top artists are:
1. Lady Gaga
Other artists include:
2. Lil Wayne

Florence + the Machine

Bombay Bicycle Club
Lana Del Ray
LMFAO
U2
The Chemical Brothers
Prince
Stereophonics

3. Eminem
4. Justin Bieber
5. Keri Hilson
6. Kid Cudi
7. Enrique Iglesias
8. Rihanna
9. Taylor Swift
10. Nicki Minaj

Universal & New Media

Technology
Universal Music Group co-developed
Vevo, a site designed for music videos.
It allows free ad-supported streaming of
music videos at a higher quality than
found on youtube.

EMI
EMI is the fourth largest of the big four and is a
British owned multinational music company with its
headquarters in London.
It was set up in 1931 by the merging of Columbia
Graphophone Company and the Gramophone
Company with its record label.
Its owned by Citigroup and has a revenue of $1.65
billion in 2009. It was taken over by Citigroup in 2011
when it was in more than $4 billion in debt.
In 2011 Citigroup announced a deal to sell off the
music part to Sony and the publishing business selling
to UMG for a total $4.1 billion.

Labels
EMI again has a number of labels across the
globe such as:
Angel
EMI Classics
Astralwerks
EMI CMG
Blue Note
EMI Records
Capitol
EMI Records Nashville
Capitol Latin
Manhattan
Capitol Records
Parlophone
Nashville
Virgin Classics
Virgin Records

Artists
EMI also has a wide variety of artists such as:
Lily Allen

Norah Jones

Bat For Lashes

Lady Antebellum

The Beatles

Massive Attack

Beastie Boys

Kylie Minogue

Luke Bryan

Katy Perry

Coldplay

Pink Floyd

Gorillaz

Snoop Dogg

David Guetta

Tinie Tempah

Iron Maiden

Thirty Seconds To
Mars

Production
EMI also owns EMI Music Publishing.
Billboards Publisher of the Year for the
last 12 years in the United States.
1.3 million songs in its publishing
catalogue.

EMI and New Media

Technology

History of EMI linked to the very beginnings of recorded

sound.
When digital music began to take off in the 90s EMIs
first music websites went live in 1993/4.
In 1998 EMI streamed first complete album.
In 1999 it was the first company to release a digital
album download.
Launched the first internet single in 2001.
In 2007 EMI was the first major music company to make
its music available without digital rights management
software.
Has agreements with hundreds of digital partners to
distribute music across the globe.

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is the third largest of the big
four.
Its headquarters are based in New York, USA
and it has a net income of $56 million in 2009.
It was founded in 1958 as Warner Bros. Records
then later became Warner Bros.-Elektra-Atlantic
Records in 1978. It became Warner Music Group
in 2004 when it was made completely separate
from Time Warner despite the name.
In 2011 the company was sold to Access
Industries Inc.

Labels
WMG has a number of labels across the
globe such as these main ones:
Atlantic Records Group
Warner Bros. Recording Group
Rhino Entertainment
Warner Music Nashville
Independent Label Group

Production
Warner Music Group's music publishing
business includes Warner/Chappell Music
(which includes Non-Stop Music, a music
production library) and Word Music
Publishing.
Music publishing is an integral component
of WMG's broader digital strategy and a
key element in our effort to redefine the
role of the modern music company. WMG

Artists
WMG produces work from a vast array of
artists such as:
Aerosmith
Gnarls Barkley
Michele Buble
Johnny Cash
Dragon Force
Led Zepplin
Morrissey
Muse
Panic At The Disco
Ramones
Red Hot Chilli
Peppers