Universal Music Group

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Universal Music Group
Type Subsidiary of Vivendi
Founded 1934 (as Decca Records USA)
1990 (MCA Music Entertainment Group formed)
1996 (first UMG incarnation)
1998 (second UMG incarnation)
Headquarters Santa Monica, California and Broadway, New York, United States
Key people Doug Morris: CEO
Lucian Grainge: Chairman and CEO UMG International
Industry Music entertainment
Revenue ▼€4.989 billion (2005)
Net income ▲€480 million (2005)
Parent Flag of France Vivendi
Website http://www.universalmusic.com

Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. With a 25.5% market share, it is one of the Big Four record labels. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivendi; Universal Studios, the movie studio, was sold in part to NBC, which itself is part of GE.

UMG's record labels have many of the world's best selling artists[1] including Wisin Y Yandel, Def Leppard, The Killers, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Fall Out Boy, Enrique Iglesias, Juanes, Bon Jovi, Queens of the Stone Age, Falco, Elton John, Eminem, Tupac Shakur, Guns N' Roses, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Marilyn Manson, Akon, Reba McEntire, Sheena Easton, Nas, Diana Ross,Barry White, Luciano Pavarotti, Rammstein, U2, the Black Eyed Peas, Nelly Furtado, ABBA, Wu-Tang Clan, George Strait, Gwen Stefani, Soulja Boy Tell Em, Maroon5, Grace Jones, The Mars Volta, Rihanna, Kanye West, Ashanti, Mims, a-ha, Amy Winehouse, Fergie and most recently New Kids On The Block. UMG now owns the largest music publishing business in the world, the Universal Music Publishing Group, (after their acquisition of BMG Music Publishing in June 2007).

Vivendi's headquarters are in Paris, France. In the United States, UMG is located in Santa Monica, California, and New York City, New York along with Universal Music Group Nashville; in the UK the group has a number of offices in London and Romford.

Contents

[edit] History

For history prior to 1996, see MCA Records.

"Universal Music" was once the music company attached to film studio Universal Pictures. Its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in 1934. MCA Inc. bought American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram and merged it with Universal Music Group in 1998. However, the name first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group.

With the 2004 acquisition of Vivendi's Vivendi Universal Entertainment by General Electric's NBC, Universal Music Group was separated entirely from its film studio namesake for the first time.

In February 2006, the group became 100% owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi SA when Vivendi purchased the last 20% from Matsushita, the group's sole owner from 1990 to 1995 and co-owner from 1995 to 2006.

On September 6, 2006 it was announced that Universal Music will purchase BMG Music Publishing (to become Universal Music Publishing Group), for €1.63 billion ($2.1 billion), subject to regulatory approval.[2]

[edit] Labels

Universal Music Group owns, or has a joint share in, a large number of record labels, including:

[edit] Interscope-Geffen-A&M

[edit] The Island Def Jam Music Group

[edit] Machete Music

[edit] Sanctuary Records

  • Antidote Records
  • Attack Records
  • Castle Home Video
  • Castle Music
  • Castle Pie
  • Castle Pulse
  • Castle Select
  • Discotheque
  • Fantastic Plastic
  • Indigo
  • Mayan Records
  • Metal-is Records
  • Noise Records
  • RAS Records
  • Rough Trade Records
  • Rough Trade Records U.S.
  • Sanctuary Records U.S.
  • Sanctuary Records UK
  • Sanctuary Classics
  • Sanctuary Special Editions
  • Sanctuary Visual Entertainment
  • Sequel
  • Slogan
  • Trojan Records
  • Vapor Records
  • Vertical Records

[edit] The Universal Motown/Universal Republic Group

  young goldie music

[edit] Decca Label Group

[edit] Universal Music Group Nashville

[edit] Verve Records

[edit] Stand-alone labels

[edit] Independent labels distributed by Universal Music Group

[edit] Labels outside of the U.S.

[edit] Vintage label catalogs owned by Universal

  • ABC
  • ABC/Paramount
  • ABC/Dunhill
  • Dot
  • Paramount
  • Duke/Peacock
  • Phillips
  • Mercury
  • RSO
  • Casablanca
  • Geffen
  • Vertigo
  • Command
  • Impulse
  • Steed
  • Atca
  • Uni
  • Decca
  • Congress
  • Kapp
  • Wing
  • Verve
  • Verve Forcast
  • Smash
  • Chess
  • Checker
  • Argo
  • Cadet
  • Cadet Concept
  • Fontana
  • Motown
  • Soul
  • Tamla
  • Ric Tic
  • Golden World
  • Backbeat
  • Gordy
  • V.I.P.
  • Rare Earth
  • Prodigal
  • Melodyland/Hittsville
  • MGM
  • Lionel
  • Cub
  • MGM-South
  • Amaret
  • Stormy Forest
  • Sunflower
  • Polydor
  • MoWest
  • Natrual Resources
  • Moonglow
  • I.R.S.
  • Bluesway
  • Banana
  • Blue Thumb
  • Grand Award
  • Black Forem
  • Capricorn
  • Choclate City
  • 20th Century Fox
  • Wingate
  • London
  • Parrot
  • Deram
  • Press
  • Threshold

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Payola

In May 2006, an investigation led by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer concluded with a determination that Universal bribed radio stations to play songs from Ashlee Simpson, Brian McKnight, Big Tymers, Lindsay Lohan and other performers working for Universal labels. The company paid $12 million to the state in settlement. [4]

[edit] Pay-per-listen

In September 2007, Universal came up with a new way of tackling music piracy by "paying the pirates", beginning with a pilot of tracks from will.i.am (will.i.am Music Group). [5]

[edit] MySpace.com

In December 2007, Colbie Caillat inadverdently announced that The Universal Music Group recently enacted a new policy on MySpace.com that will reduce all songs from artists within The Universal Music Group to 90 seconds. [2]

[edit] Imeem.com

In December 2007 The Label announced a deal with Imeem which allows users of the social network to listen to any track from Universal's catalogue for free with a portion of the advertising generated by the music being shared with the record label[6]. Two weeks after the deal was announced Michael Robertson speculated on the secret terms of the deal and argued that ultimately this was a bad deal for imeem. This speculation lead to a flame war on the Pho digital media email list as imeem representatives denied his claims and dismissed his theories as unfounded.[7]

[edit] Artists

[edit] International Music Feed (IMF)

On January 7, 2008 UMG had announced that the IMF channel would be going off the air as the music group had sold the channel to another network dedicated to showcases of the fine arts. As of January 9, 2008, Channel 157 on Dish Network had officially become Ovation TV.[8]

[edit] YouTube

UMG continues to target individual users using any video that contains any music they own, regardless of context.[citation needed] Some users have reported that UMG has allowed their YouTube videos containing UMG content to remain on the service, as long as UMG has the right to disable externial embedding and place advertising on those pages in return.


If your video has been cited for a violation, you may receive an e-mail notification such as the following:

Dear YouTube Member:

UMG has claimed some or all audio content in your video [VIDEO NAME HERE]. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program.

Your video is still live because UMG has authorized the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

Claim Details: Copyright owner: UMG Content claimed: Some or all of the audio content Policy:

  • Allow this content to remain on YouTube.
  • Place advertisements on this video's watch page.


Applies to these locations: Everywhere

UMG claimed this content as a part of the YouTube Content Identification program. YouTube allows partners to review YouTube videos for content to which they own the rights. Partners may use our automated video / audio matching system to identify their content, or they may manually review videos.

If you believe that this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you can dispute this claim with UMG and view other options in the Video ID Matches section of your YouTube account. Please note that YouTube does not mediate copyright disputes between YouTube owners. Learn more about video identification disputes.

Sincerely, The YouTube Content Identification Team

[edit] References

  1. ^ Universal Music Group - Artists
  2. ^ BBC NEWS | Business | Universal to buy BMG publishing
  3. ^ Decca Label Group
  4. ^ Garrity, Brian (2006-05-11). UMG Settles With Spitzer. Mediaweek. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.
  5. ^ Pay-per-listen innovation from Black Eyed Peas man (thelondonpaper)
  6. ^ [1][dead link]
  7. ^ Digital Music War Gets Dirtier - News Blog - Daily Brief - Portfolio.com
  8. ^ StrategyWire :: Universal Music sells music channel to Ovation

[edit] External links

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Vivendi
Directors
Jean-René Fourtou · Henri Lachmann · Claude Bébéar · Gérard Brémond · Fernando Falcó y Fernández de Córdova · Sarah Franck · Gabriel Hawawini · Patrick Kron · Andrzej Olechowski · Pierre Rodocanachi · Karel Van Miert
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SFR
Universal Music Group
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Other assets
NBC Universal (20%) · Neuf Cegetel (35%)
Employees: 34,031 (2005) · Stock Symbol:(Euronext: VIV) · Website: www.vivendi.com