Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwide success over time, with the success of platinum performers Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Devo, Tangerine Dream, Genesis, Phil Collins, OMD, the Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, Lenny Kravitz, the Sex Pistols, and Mike Oldfield among others, meaning that by the time it was sold, it was regarded as a major label, alongside other large international independents such as A&M and Island Records.
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. From 1961 to 1991, its recordings were released outside North America under the name CBS Records to avoid confusion with EMI's Columbia Graphophone Company. Columbia is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels: Epic Records, and former longtime rivals, RCA Records and Arista Records as the latter two were originally owned by BMG before its 2008 relaunch after Sony's acquisition alongside other BMG labels.
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.
Jive Records is a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, and dance acts in the 1980s and 1990s, along with teen pop and boy bands during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953, but later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of genres, including pop, R&B, rock, and hip hop.
Whatever and Ever Amen is the second album by Ben Folds Five, released in 1997. Three singles were released from the album, including the lead single, "Battle of Who Could Care Less", which received significant airplay on alternative radio and on MTV, and peaked at #26 on the UK Singles Chart and #22 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and the band's biggest hit, "Brick", which was a top-40 song in numerous countries.
Sony Music is an American multinational music company owned by Sony Entertainment and managed by the American umbrella division of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony. It is the recording division half of the Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.
Sylvia Rhone is an American music industry executive. Since 2019, she is the chair and CEO of Epic Records, a label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
"Candy" is a song by American pop singer Mandy Moore. Serving as Moore's debut single, it was released as the lead single from her first studio album, So Real (1999), on August 17, 1999, by Epic Records and 550 Music. Internationally, the song was released as the first single from I Wanna Be with You (2000). The song was written and composed by Denise Rich, Dave Katz, Denny Kleiman, and produced by Jive Jones, Tony Battaglia, and Shaun Fisher.
Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short, is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is operating independently from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry. Its subsidiaries include the Japanese animation production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in September 1995 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid '90s producing and licensing music for animated series such as Roujin Z from acclaimed Japanese comic artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's Street Fighter animated series.
Flop was an American rock band from Seattle. The band formed in 1990, released recordings on the Frontier and Sony 550 record labels, and made a brief appearance in Doug Pray's motion picture documentary Hype!.
RCA/Jive Label Group was a short-lived American record label group, owned by Sony Music Entertainment and representing the merger of the RCA Music Group and JIVE Label Group. The umbrella group was formed in 2007 under the name BMG Label Group, was rebranded as RCA/Jive Label Group in 2009. In July 2011 it was finally dissolved into two separate labels: the RCA Music Group and Epic Records which took Jive subsidiaries until October 2011 when it retired Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. The artists on those three labels were moved to RCA Records.
"Bad Day" is a song by American rock band Fuel, originally released from their second album, Something Like Human (2000), as the third single in May 2001. It was the final single released from Something Like Human and peaked at number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart that year. Immediately following the September 11 attacks, Clear Channel deemed the song inappropriate for radio airplay because of its lyrical content.
Epic Records Japan is a Japanese record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Its founder was Shigeo Maruyama.
Syco Music, originally S Records, was a division of Syco Entertainment founded by British entrepreneur and record executive Simon Cowell. Founded in 2002, the label launched while Cowell was still employed by BMG, the label oversaw music releases by Robson & Jerome, Five, Westlife and Teletubbies. A year later, BMG, now named Sony BMG, bought Cowell's share in both Syco Music and Syco Television. Later in 2010, Cowell and Sony Music entered a joint venture agreement that would see Cowell and Sony each own 50% of the new Syco Entertainment company which encompassed both the previous Syco TV and Syco Music divisions. The brand had multiple well-known acts signed such as Fifth Harmony, Camila Cabello, One Direction, Little Mix and CNCO. In July 2020, Sony sold the rights to the television formats and assets back to Cowell, effectively divesting all of Syco's non-music divisions. As part of the venture, Syco Music, its current roster and back catalog remains with Sony Music as a wholly owned subsidiary. However, as of September 2020, and according to industry magazine Music Week, the label is now defunct, with staff either leaving or being redeployed elsewhere within the Sony Music group.
Passenger Records was a New York City-based boutique record label that released music by adult album alternative artists. A subsidiary of Caroline Records, it was owned by Virgin Records/EMI. Its albums were distributed by Caroline Distribution in the US and Virgin or a variety of smaller labels throughout Europe, Australia, Japan and other markets. Passenger most notably represented Ben Folds Five for Caroline, releasing the band's 1995 self-titled debut album. Other artists represented by the label include the defunct Philadelphia band The Low Road.
Whenever You're Ready is the second studio album by Seattle rock band Flop. The band's only major label release, the album was released in September 1993.
