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Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Music |
Predecessor | Concord Records (1973–2004) |
Founded | 2004 |
Defunct | 2015 |
Successor | Concord (2015–present) |
Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California |
Key people | Glen Barros (CEO) [1] |
Website | concord![]() |
Concord Music Group was an American independent music company based in Beverly Hills, California, with worldwide (including the U.S.) distribution through Universal Music Group. [2] [3] The company specialized in recordings and music publishing. On April 1, 2015, Concord Music Group merged with Bicycle Music Company to become Concord Bicycle Music. [4]
In 2004, Concord Records acquired Fantasy, Inc., owner of the Prestige, Fantasy, Milestone, Riverside, Specialty, and the post-Atlantic Stax catalog. Concord then combined with Fantasy to form the independent Concord Music Group (CMG). [5] Also in 2004, CMG partnered with Starbucks to release the Ray Charles album Genius Loves Company , [6] which won eight GRAMMY Awards, including Album of the Year. [7] In 2005, CMG bought Telarc. [8] On December 18, 2006, CMG announced the re-launch of the soul label Stax; rights to the name were formerly held by Fantasy. New singers included Isaac Hayes and Angie Stone. [9]
On March 12, 2007, Concord Music Group and Starbucks jointly founded the Hear Music label. [10] Paul McCartney's album Memory Almost Full was released in June 2007. [11] Hear Music went on to release albums by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Alanis Morissette, Carly Simon and John Mellencamp.
In 2008, Village Roadshow Pictures Group (VRPG) and CMG completed their merger resulting in the creation of the new diversified entertainment group, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group. [12] In April 2010 it was announced that Paul McCartney transferred the distribution rights of his post-Beatles output to Concord from EMI. [13]
CMG purchased Rounder Records in 2010. [14] In 2012, Concord Music Group designated four distinct operating units: Fantasy Label Group (Hear Music, Stax, Fantasy), Rounder Label Group, Concord-Telarc Label Group (Concord Jazz/Heads-Up/Telarc) and Prestige Group.
Esperanza Spalding was honored with the Best New Artist GRAMMY in 2011, a first for Concord Records. [15] CMG artists won 8 GRAMMY Awards at the 2013 Awards ceremony, the most of any label group. [16]
On March 25, 2013, Wood Creek Capital Management, (now Barings LLC, an affiliate of MassMutual Financial Group), purchased Concord Music Group from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group. [17] On October 31, 2013, music publisher The Bicycle Music Company acquired Wind-up Records back catalog including the master recordings of 1,600 songs including albums by Creed, Evanescence, Seether and Alter Bridge. The Bicycle Music Company then entered into a service agreement deal with sister company Concord Music Group to market the acquired Wind-up Records and other back catalogs to retailers and consumers. [18]
On July 1, 2014, Tom Whalley's label, Loma Vista Recordings (home to St. Vincent, Little Dragon, Spoon, Cut Copy, Marilyn Manson, Ghost, and the GRAMMY-nominated Django Unchained soundtrack, among others) agreed to a new multi-year, worldwide strategic partnership with Concord Music Group. Under the terms of the agreement, CMG provided funding for new talent relationships and artist development, as well as comprehensive label services for Loma Vista. [19] On July 8, 2014, Concord Music Group announced the acquisition of the Vee-Jay Records catalog including over 5,000 master recordings from Little Richard, John Lee Hooker, Betty Everett, Jimmy Reed, Jerry Butler, The Staple Singers, Gene Chandler and the Dells, among many others. [20]
On April 1, 2015, it was announced that Concord Music Group merged with the Bicycle Music Company, a leading independent music publisher, record label and rights manager to form the fully integrated recorded music and publishing company Concord Bicycle Music. Concord Music and Bicycle Music operated as individual divisions within Concord Bicycle Music (CBM), with Concord Music Group being primarily responsible for recorded music activities and Bicycle overseeing publishing and rights management. [4] CBM then immediately announced that it had acquired Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records from the Welk Music Group. [4]
Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in September 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records.
Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists have won 14 GRAMMY Awards and 88 GRAMMY nominations.
Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal jazz, folk, and blues musicians. The Bach Guild was a subsidiary label.
Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Thorogood, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck, in addition to re-releases of seminal albums by artists such as the Carter Family, Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie. "Championing and preserving the music of artists whose music falls outside of the mainstream," Rounder releases have won 54 Grammy Awards representing diverse genres, from bluegrass, folk, reggae, and gospel to pop, rock, Americana, polka and world music. Acquired by Concord in 2010, Rounder is based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2016, The Rounder Founders were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
Ranwood Records is an American record label started in 1968 by Randy Wood and Lawrence Welk. Lawrence Welk owned all of the recordings that he released on Dot as they were produced and manufactured by Teleklew Productions and leased to Dot. These were repackaged for reissue on Ranwood. Welk did not own or buy those recordings he made for Coral and they continue to be owned by Universal Music.
Wind-up Records, LLC was an American independent record label founded by Alan and Diana Meltzer in 1997. It was based in New York City and was distributed by BMG Distribution. Wind-up's best-selling artists worldwide were Creed and Evanescence.
John Paul Pizzarelli Jr. is an American jazz guitarist and vocalist. He has recorded over twenty solo albums and has appeared on more than forty albums by other recording artists, including Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Rosemary Clooney; his father, jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli; and his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey.
Hear Music was a record label that was founded in 2007 in a partnership between Concord Music Group and Starbucks. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.
Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile independent record label founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the label has had a long association with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Although it started as a classical music label, Telarc has released jazz, blues and country music recordings.
Discos Musart, known as Musart Records in English, is a Mexican record label founded in 1948 in Mexico City. It is headquartered in Miami, FL and is a leading independent producer, publisher and distributor of Latin music, managing over 72,000 copyrights and 5,000 master recordings with a particular emphasis on the Regional Mexican genre. Musart has long been the centerpiece of the music industry in Mexico, with an unparalleled catalog of classic, timeless songs from the region's most celebrated artists, including Joan Sebastian, Antonio Aguilar, Chalino Sánchez, Pepe Aguilar, Paquita la del Barrio and Grupo Laberinto. Originally founded by Eduardo Baptista Covarrubias, the Baptista family built the Group into one of the most dynamic vehicles for both well-established and developing Mexican artists.
Capitol Music Group is an American front-line umbrella label operating as a unit of Interscope Capitol Labels Group, itself a division of Universal Music Group. Inherited from UMG's acquisition of EMI's catalog in 2013, it oversees the handling of record labels assigned to UMG's Capitol Records division. The current chair and CEO is Tom March.
Memory Almost Full is the fourteenth solo studio album by English musician Paul McCartney. It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later. The album was the first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label. It was produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Henson Recording Studios, AIR Studios, Hog Hill Mill Studios and RAK Studios between October 2003, and from 2006 to February 2007. In between the 2003 and 2006 sessions, McCartney was working on another studio album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005), with producer Nigel Godrich.
Heads Up International is a jazz record label that was formed in Cleveland, Ohio. It was bought by the Concord Music Group in 2005.
Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth, Wind and Fire is a tribute album to the R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire produced by Maurice White and released in March of 2007 on Stax Records. The album reached No. 28 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Steve Barnett is the former Chairman and CEO of Capitol Music Group.
Act III Communications is an American media and entertainment company owned by the estate of producer and screenwriter Norman Lear. It was started in 1985 following Lear's sale of Embassy Communications to The Coca-Cola Company. In a Wall Street Journal interview in 1988, Lear explained the name by noting that in a Shakespeare play, there are always more than three acts and that he expects there to be an Act IV and V. Act III served as Lear's business vehicle, unconnected to his other activities as a political activist and philanthropist.
Loma Vista Recordings is a record label founded by Tom Whalley, former chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records and Executive of A&R at Interscope Records. The label was initially a joint venture with Republic Records and is based in Beverly Hills and Brooklyn.
Craft Recordings is a record label owned by Concord. Like UMe, Legacy Recordings and Rhino Entertainment, Craft specialized in reissues of Concord's back catalog. The imprint was founded in 2017, along with an online store by the same name offering a curated selection of deluxe CD and vinyl box sets, stand-alone LPs, and legacy label and artist merchandise. Its first release was a deluxe vinyl edition of Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane’s Complete 1957 Recordings. Sig Sigworth is the president of Craft Recordings.
Concord, the assumed business name of Alchemy Copyrights LLC, is the world's leading independent music company dealing in creative rights primarily in the music industry. It develops, manages and acquires sound recordings, music publishing rights, theatrical performance rights and narrative content. It is a private company funded by long-term institutional capital and by members of its management team.