Arista Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of BMG Entertainment, the North American division of German conglomerate Bertelsmann. Founded in November 1974 by Clive Davis and deactivated in 2011, Arista was re-stablished in 2018. Along with Epic Records, RCA Records, and Columbia Records, it is one of Sony Music's four flagship record labels.
PressPlay was the name of an online music store that operated from December 2001 until March 2003. It was created as a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in response to the popularity of Napster.
Vagrant Records is an American record label based in California. It was founded in 1995 by Rich Egan and Jon Cohen. The label focuses on rock, but features artists in a variety of other genres including folk, soul, electronic, and pop. It is home to artists such as The 1975, Death Spells, Eels, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, CRUISR, Active Child, PJ Harvey, School of Seven Bells, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, James Vincent McMorrow, Black Joe Lewis, Wake Owl, Blitzen Trapper, and Bombay Bicycle Club. Originally, Vagrant Records was mostly focused on emo bands such as Dashboard Confessional, Saves the Day, The Get Up Kids, Senses Fail, and Alkaline Trio. The label is considered one of the pre-eminent labels of the emo music scene.
Telstar Records was a British record label that operated from 1982 to 2004.
Bethlehem Records was an American jazz independent record label, founded by Gus Wildi in 1953.
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), simply 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. It is the recording division half of the Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.
S-Curve Records is an American record label founded in 2000 by former Mercury Records executive Steve Greenberg. It is based in New York City. In 2001 the label established a distribution and licensing agreement with EMI Records. Among the hits released by S-Curve between 2000 and 2004 were "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by Baha Men, "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne and Joss Stone's first two albums, the Soul Sessions and Mind Body & Soul. All of these artists received multiple Grammy nominations, with Baha Men winning the "Best Dance Recording" Grammy in 2001.
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is a North American music publishing company and is part of the Universal Music Group. It was formerly known as MCA Music Publishing until it merged with PolyGram.
Columbia House was an umbrella brand for Columbia Records' mail-order music clubs, the primary iteration of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by Columbia Records, and had a significant market presence in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.
The Echo Label was a British record label started by Chrysalis Group in 1994, and linked with Pony Canyon in Japan. The Chrysalis Group were the original owners of Chrysalis Records, which they sold to EMI.
William H. Mann is a Grammy-nominated American songwriter, record producer and founder of independent music publishing company Green & Bloom/Topline, as well as chairman of management firm Manncom. In 2021, alongside partner Benton James, he launched Proof Of Concept, a talent development and creative media services firm. Later that same year, in partnership with Warner Music Group’s ADA Worldwide, Mann and James announced the launch of joint venture label, icons+giants.
Salsoul Records is an American New York City based record label, founded by three brothers, Joseph Cayre, Kenneth Cayre, and Stanley Cayre. Salsoul issued about 300 singles, including many disco/post-disco 12-inch releases, and a string of albums in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Fiction Records is a British record label founded by Chris Parry in 1978, owned by Universal Music Group and based in the United Kingdom. It is best known for being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. It was originally a part of Polydor, but in January 2014, Universal restructured Fiction as a standalone label, removing it from Polydor's corporate affiliation. Fiction repertoire is now released internationally through Virgin.
Curtis Frasca is an American entrepreneur, real estate investor, record label owner, music publisher, and former multi-platinum award-winning record producer, songwriter, musician, studio owner and recording engineer.
West End Records is an American music record label based in New York City. Led by co-founder Mel Cheren, West End was one of the most prominent labels in dance music's history, along with Prelude Records, Salsoul Records, and Casablanca Records. West End Records helped introduce the twelve-inch single, the vinyl format popularized by disco music in the 1970s and promoted the nascent garage house music pioneered by DJ Larry Levan in Paradise Garage. West End Records was acquired by Verse music group in 2010. On June 29, 2015, Verse Music was acquired by BMG Rights Management.
Syco Music is a defunct division of Syco Entertainment founded by British entrepreneur and record executive Simon Cowell. Originally founded as S Records, 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.
Amazon Music is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers.
Universal Production Music (UPM), formerly known as Killer Tracks, is a company that produces and licenses production music for use in film, television, advertising and interactive media. The company was founded in Hollywood, California, in 1989 with an original catalog of 30 CDs. Today, the UPM's catalog contains over 2,000 CDs of music from 21 global libraries including Atmosphere, Killer Tracks, Koka, Match, and Network Music. The company continues to expand its catalog by acquiring new music collections and by producing over 100 new CDs of music each year.
BMG Rights Management GmbH is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label.
Golden Records was a Simon & Schuster record label based in New York City. It was conceived and founded in 1948 by the Grammy Award-winning children's music producer, Arthur Shimkin, then a new recruit in the S&S business department. Shimkin went on to found Sesame Street Records with Children's Television Workshop in 1970. Golden was one of the first children's music labels to combine story with melody. It featured music to accompany Little Golden Books. However, they were not the first instance of a published series which combined books and records. This distinction goes to Bubble Books, published between 1917 and 1922.
