Buena Vista Music Group

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The subject of this article is a corporate group of record labels, not to be confused with Lake Buena Vista, Buena Vista Distribution or Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group

The Buena Vista Music Group is a collection of affiliated record labels all subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company. The chairman of the group is Bob Cavallo, who reports to Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios.

[edit] Labels

The group includes;

• Walt Disney Records, the flagship label of the group, founded in 1956 (as Disneyland Records) to release records of the music to Mickey Mouse shorts. It now releases a broad range of Disney-themed music for kids, teens and families such as soundtracks to movies made by Walt Disney Pictures, original music from artists such as They Might Be Giants, and compilations of music made popular by Radio Disney.
• Hollywood Records, primarily focusing on pop music, and teen artists. The label originally released soundtracks of Hollywood Pictures films, but under the guidance of Bob Cavallo and Abbey Konowitch now releases records from major artists such as Queen, Hilary Duff, Aly & AJ, Jesse McCartney, Raven Symone, and Vanessa Hudgens.
• Lyric Street Records, a Nashville-based country music label with artists such as Rascal Flatts and SHeDAISY.
• Mammoth Records, formerly based in North Carolina, still has well-known artists such as Los Lobos in its stable.
• Walt Disney Music Publishing which controls music compositions for Disney's music heard in movies and theme parks. Divisions include Walt Disney Music Company and Wonderland Music Company.

[edit] Distribution

Buena Vista Music Group doesn't have its own distribution network, instead, relying on Universal and EMI to distribute their work. The EMI tie up was announced in September 2005, and makes sense as Queen, are signed to Hollywood Records in the US and EMI or Parlophone for the rest of the World. Queen are one of EMI and Hollywoods' most important acts, and it's unlikely, given the relatively small size of Buena Vista Music Group, that Sony or Universal would be interested (or allowed by competition regulators) in distributing Hollywood material.

It's possible that EMI's North American subsidiary, Capitol Records, may take over Hollywood Distribution in the USA and Canada after the existing agreement with Universal expires.

In the UK, EMI are licensing Hollywood Records albums and branding them as EMI recordings, however North American recordings retain the more distinctive Hollywood Records branding.

[edit] The future

Much talk abounds regarding the Warner Music Group and EMI merger which, even if both companies agree to merge, could still be prevented by anti-trust commissions in the UK, EU and USA. This could leave Buena Vista Music Group an attractive target for a takeover, or indeed see The Walt Disney Company look to takeover Warner Music Group or EMI in an attempt to compete with Universal and Sony, two major film studios that own significant music businesses.