| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Genre | Various |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Gütersloh, Germany |
| Parent | Bertelsmann AG |
Bertelsmann Music Group, (BMG), was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann. It consisted of the BMG Music Publishing company, the world's third largest music publisher and the world's largest independent music publisher, and the 50% share of the joint venture with Sony Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Sony BMG).
The joint venture with Sony was set up in August 2004. It reduced the Big Five of music companies to the Big Four record labels. The company currently has a 21.5% share in the global music market. [1] Sony Music and BMG remained separate in Japan, although BMG Music Japan was wholly owned by Sony BMG.
On March 27, 2006, the New York Times reported that Bertelsmann was looking to raise money by leveraging some of its media assets, and that executives from both companies were in talks about possibly altering the current venture. Bertelsmann sold its 50% share of Sony BMG to Sony Corporation of America for a total of $1.5 billion and the company will be renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
While officially withdrawing from the business of recorded music, Bertelsmann will continue its strong presence in the music industry with the forthcoming BMG branded company, BMG Rights Management, which will specialize in music rights management by representing artists and authors. It will be focused mainly in BMG's European stronghold markets. The basis of the company will be formed through BMG's decision to withhold selected European music catalogs from the former Sony BMG joint venture and the BMG Publishing business.
Also kept separate from the acquisition by Sony Corporation of America was Sony BMG's wholly owned BMG Japan, whose shares were picked up by Sony Music Entertainment Japan instead, which also operates the Sony Music Japan banner which was never part of the Sony BMG joint venture.
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In Japan, the BMG Music brand is now operated by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, which also dually operates the Sony Music Japan business. It was previously owned and operated by Sony BMG although it was not branded as Sony BMG because of Sony Music Japan remaining independent from the Sony BMG joint venture, and thus BMG and Sony labeling were kept separate in this market.
| Founded | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Parent | Sony Music Entertainment Japan |
| Website | http://www.bmgjapan.com |
BMG Music Publishing, which was not part of the Sony BMG merger, was a business of the Bertelsmann Music Group until it was sold to Universal Music Group for €1.63bn. Universal has folded the company into its publishing business Universal Music Publishing Group with Universal Music branding.[2] The company was headquartered at 245 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor New York, 10016 and had operations in 36 offices in 25 countries.
BMG Music publishing controlled over one million copyrights. Writers/artists signed to the company included Jaguares, Dido, Avril Lavigne, Lee Ryan, Coldplay, Shakira, Powderfinger, Nelly, Britney Spears, Diana Yukawa, Rammstein, Modern Talking, R. Kelly, Shania Twain, Ville Valo, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Clannad, Linkin Park, Maroon5, Backyard Babies, Keane, HARD-Fi, Justin Timberlake, Joss Stone, Elvis Costello, Paul Weller, Sara Evans, Ne-Yo, Chad Hugo and Westlife.
The company's songwriters have written chart-topping hits for Mariah Carey, Black Eyed Peas, Kenny Chesney, The Game, Mario, Rascal Flatts, No Doubt, Thomas Anders, Jessica Simpson and 50 Cent as well as legends like Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Roselyn Sanchez.
BMG Music Publishing was the global leader in Classical music and was number one in Contemporary Christian music.
Through international subpublishing deals, BMG Music Publishing represents the catalogues of Famous Music Publishing, Walt Disney, Leiber & Stoller, Pete Waterman and Malaco in various territories.
Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing is BMG Music Publishing's Christian publisher and owns over 60,000 copyrights.
BMG Music Publishing and its assets have now been completely absorbed and folded into Universal Music Publishing Group.
BMG Rights Management will serve as a new division within Bertelsmann and as a replacement to the now defunct Bertelsmann Music Group division. Therefore the BMG brand will effectively be revived by this new Bertelsmann business venture. Also Sony Music Entertainment Japan's acquisition of BMG Music Japan will see the continuity of the BMG record label in the Japanese market.
It is unlikely that Sony BMG's BMG Label Group operations (RCA Music Group, Zomba Label Group...) now under Sony Music Entertainment will, to a large extent, become consolidated with its Sony Music Label Group operations (Columbia Records, Epic Records...) to form one giant US label group. Naturally, usage of the BMG name would be dropped.
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