Parlophone Records Limited is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss, the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. They 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, the Spice Girls, 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.
EMI Group Limited was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its acquisition by Universal Music in 2012, it was the fourth largest business group and record label conglomerate in the music industry, and was one of the "Big Four" record companies. Its labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records, and Capitol Records, which are now referenced under Universal Music due to their acquisition with the exception of Parlophone, as it is now owned by Warner Music.
Capitol Records, LLC, and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California.
Harvest Records is a British-American record label belonging to Capitol Music Group, originally created by EMI in 1969.
Universal Music Group N.V. is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its operational headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California. The biggest music company in the world, it is one of the "Big Three" record labels, along with Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group. Tencent acquired ten percent of Universal Music Group in March 2020 for €3 billion and acquired an additional ten percent stake in January 2021. Pershing Square Holdings later acquired ten percent of UMG prior to its IPO on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The company went public on September 21, 2021, at a valuation of €46 billion.
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the 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.
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.
Vertigo Records is a British record company. It was a subsidiary of the Philips/Phonogram record label, launched in 1969 to specialise in progressive rock and other non-mainstream musical styles. Today, it is operated by Universal Music Germany, and the UK catalogue was folded into Mercury Records, which was absorbed in 2013 by Virgin EMI Records, which returned to the EMI Records name in June 2020.
EMI Records is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia and Parlophone record labels. The label was later launched worldwide. It has a branch in India called EMI Records India, run by director Mohit Suri. In 2014, Universal Music Japan revived the label in Japan as the successor to EMI Records Japan. In June 2020, Universal revived the label as the successor to Virgin EMI, with Virgin Records now operating as an imprint of EMI Records. In February 2024, UMG Philippines relaunched EMI as a successor to the former EMI Philippines label after 22 years.
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 the Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.
Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC is the largest music publisher in the world, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021. US-based, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is itself owned by Sony Entertainment. The company was formed as Sony/ATV in 1995 by the merger of the original incarnation of Sony Music Publishing and ATV Music, which was owned by late entertainer Michael Jackson. Jackson had purchased ATV Music, which included the Lennon–McCartney song catalog, in 1985.
Charles Koppelman was an American musician, music producer, and businessman. He held executive positions at EMI and Steve Madden, and he was Chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. At the time of his death, he was the CEO of CAK Entertainment.
Manhattan Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and operates as a branch of Interscope Capitol Labels Group.
Capitol Latin is a brand of Universal Music Latin Entertainment, a division of Universal Music Group. Previously, it was a subsidiary of EMI.
Famous Music Corporation was the worldwide music publishing division of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global since 1994. Its copyright holdings span several decades and include music from such Academy Award-winning motion pictures as The Godfather and Forrest Gump.
Gary Klein is an American songwriter and Grammy Award-nominated record producer. He graduated from Long Island University with a Bachelor of Arts in music.
EMI Music Publishing Ltd. is a British multinational music publishing company headquartered in London, owned by Sony Group Corporation.
CBS Records International was the international arm of the Columbia Records unit of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS) formed in 1961 and launched in 1962. Previously, Columbia Records had licensed other record companies to manufacture and distribute Columbia recordings outside North America, such as Philips Records and its subsidiary Fontana in Europe.
Martin Neal Bandier is an American music industry executive who was the CEO/Chairman of Sony/ATV Music Publishing for 11 years from 2007 until 2019. Prior to that he was the chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing Worldwide from 1991 to 2006. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
