| Pinnacle Entertainment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | Windsong International |
| Status | Defunct |
| Distributor(s) | Pinnacle |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Location | Orpington, England |
| Official website | www |
Pinnacle Entertainment was an entertainment group based in the United Kingdom spanning many divisions and primarily known as one of the UK's leading independent record labels and distributors.
In 1996, Windsong/Pinnacle was purchased by the Zomba Group.[ citation needed ] When Zomba was subsequently purchased by BMG in 2002, Windsong/Pinnacle was moved under Bertelsmann's group Arvato AG. In January 2008, Windsong completed a buyout from Arvato, gaining independent ownership again. [1] [2] During the Great Recession, the company went into administration, effective December 3, 2008. It was then that Windsong Exports purchased the group and turned it into the UK's leading music distributor. [3] Following that, the companies were usually referred to jointly as Windsong/Pinnacle.
Pinnacle's music division Audio Services Ltd., was primarily known for the distribution of over 400 independent record labels in the UK, but it also consisted of its own record label, label management for distributed labels, and marketing and sales divisions. [4]
Formed in 1992, Pinnacle Software serves as a publishing company that represents many computer software companies such as 3MV, New Note, Shellshock and Beechwood. [4] It provides retail, sales, marketing and logistics services to its publishing partners. Deals with Electronic Arts and Ubisoft helped introduce an exclusive distribution model to the UK Software market. Some brands associated with Pinnacle Software include FIFA, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia. [6]
Formed in 1996, Gauntlet Entertainment was a distributor of video games. Formed by Peter Rezon to create a focused distribution model for video games, similar to what Pinnacle Software had been doing with other UK software companies. The distribution model they pioneered became the de facto model used by most major software publishers in the UK. Gauntlet Entertainment succeeded in doing so with ground breaking deals with Sierra, NovaLogic, THQ International, CDV Software and many other International Publishing houses. It has been associated with many of the top brands in the market place, including WWE Smackdown!, Cossacks, Rugrats, Warcraft, Half Life, Scooby Doo, Tetris and many more. [7]
Jive Records was 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.
Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008.
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational major music record label and entertainment company formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a holding for their record companies, and was renamed "PolyGram" in 1972. The name was chosen to reflect the Siemens interest Polydor Records and the Philips interest Phonogram Records. The company traced its origins through Deutsche Grammophon back to the inventor of the flat disc gramophone, Emil Berliner.
Reunion Records is a contemporary Christian record label based in Brentwood, Tennessee, that operates under the Provident Label Group. It was founded in 1982 by Dan Harrell and Mike Blanton.
V2 Records is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007, sold to PIAS in 2013 and partially acquired by Universal in 2022. In 2024, Universal acquired the remaining 51% of PIAS that it didn’t already own. In Benelux, V2 would operate separately from PIAS from 2013 to 2022, since the label was bought from Universal in 2007, henceforth Universal Music Group fully owns V2.
Volcano Entertainment is an American all-round music record label founded in 1996 which released albums by Tool, 311, Survivor and "Weird Al" Yankovic. The Volcano Records catalog is owned by RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Sony Entertainment and managed by the American umbrella division of multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.
The music industry refers to the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, represent and supply music creators. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate in the industry are: the songwriters and composers who write songs and musical compositions; the singers, musicians, conductors, and bandleaders who perform the music; the record labels, music publishers, recording studios, music producers, audio engineers, retail and digital music stores, and performance rights organizations who create and sell recorded music and sheet music; and the booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew, and audio engineers who help organize and sell concerts.
The Zomba Group of Companies was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009 and was placed under the RCA/Jive Label Group umbrella. In 2011, the RCA/Jive Label Group was split in half. Multiple Jive Label Group artists were moved to Epic Records while others stayed with Jive as it moved under the RCA Music Group. In October 2011 Jive Records was shut down and their artists were moved to RCA Records.
Mastertronic was originally a publisher and distributor of low-cost computer game software founded in 1983. Their first games were launched on April 2, 1984. At its peak the label was one of the largest software publishers in the UK, achieved by selling cassette-based software at £1.99. As well as supplying leading retailers such as Woolworth's and Toys "R" Us, Mastertronic sold software in outlets such as newsagents which had not been previously associated with the software market.
RED Music, stylized RED MUSIC, formerly RED Distribution, LLC was a Sony-owned sales and marketing division that merged under The Orchard in 2017. RED previously handled releases for more than sixty independent record labels.
Ingram Content Group is an American service provider to the book publishing industry, based in La Vergne, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries.
The Rajon Music Group was formed in July 2000 by John Evans after the merger of 3 leading independent record labels. Consequently, the group became one of the largest independent record labels in Australia.
CIC Video was a home video distributor, established in 1980, owned by Cinema International Corporation, and operated in some countries by local operators. Outside North America, it distributed films by Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures, CIC's partners. DreamWorks films were added to the company output in 1998, as the fledgling studio had a worldwide video distribution deal with Universal.
RCA/Jive Label Group was an 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.
2 Entertain Video Limited, trading as BBC Studios Home Entertainment, is a British video and music publisher founded in 2004 following the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International by BBC Worldwide & Woolworths Group respectively.
Cargo Records was a Canadian independent record label and distributor, active in the 1980s and 1990s. Based in Montreal, the company both released albums directly as a label, and distributed albums on behalf of many other small independent labels, making it one of the largest and most influential Canadian record companies of the alternative rock era.
Ingrooves Music Group was a global independent music marketing service and distribution company which provided custom services for artists and independent record labels, owned by Universal Music Group. They used proprietary distribution systems and focused on analytics and reporting technologies, as well as their own platform that artists and labels used to manage business.
MNRK Music Group, formerly known as Koch Records and Entertainment One (eOne) Music/Records, is an American independent record label and music management company based in New York City. It was formed in 1987 as a music division of Koch Entertainment, which was acquired by and absorbed into Entertainment One in 2004. eOne was acquired by toy and multimedia company Hasbro in 2019, absorbed its family brands division in the process and announced the sale of this division to The Blackstone Group in April 2021, which then adopted this name. Hasbro then sold the remains of eOne to Lionsgate, who then rebranded it initially as eOne Canada and then Lionsgate Canada.
| International | |
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| Other | |
