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Wikipedia

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group Corp.[7] (d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME). Formerly part of Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery), WMG was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries.[8] It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020, once again becoming a public company.[9] With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 3,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world.[10]

Warner Music Group Corporation
Logo used since November 2021[1]
Warner Music Group's headquarters in 1633 Broadway, New York City
Warner Music Group
Formerly
TypePublic
ISINUS9345502036
Industry
FoundedApril 6, 1958; 64 years ago (1958-04-06)
FounderWarner Bros.
Headquarters,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide (except for Russia & Belarus)
Key people
Revenue US$5.919 billion (2022)
US$0.714 billion (2022)
US$0.555 billion (2022)
Total assets US$7.828 billion (2022)
Total equity US$0.168 billion (2022)
Owners
Number of employees
5,900 (2021)
DivisionsList of Warner Music Group labels
Subsidiaries
Websitewmg.com
Footnotes / references
[4][5][6]

The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful labels in the world, including Elektra Records, Reprise Records, Warner Records, Parlophone Records (formerly owned by EMI), and Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music publishers.

Since August 2, 2018, WMG has expanded its business to digital media operation through its acquisition of Uproxx.

History

1950s and 1960s

The film studio Warner Bros. had no record label division at the time one of its contracted actors, Tab Hunter, scored a No. 1 hit song in 1957 for Dot Records, a division of rival Paramount Pictures. In order to prevent any repetition of its actors recording for rival companies, and to also capitalize on the music business, Warner Bros. Records was created in 1958.[11][12] In 1963, Warner purchased Reprise Records, which had been founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier so that he could have more creative control over his recordings.[13] With the Reprise acquisition, Warner gained the services of Mo Ostin, who was mainly responsible for the success of Warner/Reprise.[14]

After Warner Bros. was sold to Seven Arts Productions in 1967 (forming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts), it purchased Atlantic Records, founded in 1947 and WMG's oldest label (until WMG completed its acquisition of Parlophone in 2013), as well as its subsidiary Atco Records. This acquisition brought Neil Young into the company fold, initially as a member of Buffalo Springfield. Young became one of Warner's longest-established artists, recording both as a solo artist and with groups under the Warner-owned Atlantic, Atco, and Reprise labels. Young also recorded five albums for Geffen Records during that label's period of Warner distribution. The Geffen catalogue, now owned by Universal Music Group, represents Young's only major recordings not under WMG ownership.

Atlantic, its subsidiary Atco Records, and its affiliate Stax Records paved the way for Warner's rise to industry prominence. The purchase brought in Atlantic's lucrative back catalogue, which included classic recordings by Ray Charles, the Drifters, the Coasters, and many more. In the mid-1960s, Atlantic/Stax released a string of landmark soul music recordings by artists including Booker T & the MGs, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Ben E. King, and Aretha Franklin. Ultimately, the sale led to Stax leaving Atlantic because Seven Arts Productions insisted on keeping the rights to Stax recordings. Atlantic moved decisively into rock and pop in the late 1960s and 1970s, signing major British and American acts including Led Zeppelin, Cream, Crosby Stills & Nash, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Average White Band, Dr John, King Crimson, Bette Midler, Roxy Music, and Foreigner.

In 1969, two years after being purchased by Seven Arts, the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts company was sold to the Kinney National Company. In mid-1972, Kinney Music of Canada, Ltd. was renamed WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée) as the Canadian branch of the WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic) company - a division of Warner Communications Inc. Founder and president Ken Middleton ran the Canadian company until his retirement in 1982. The name remained until 1989, when in 1990, it became Warner Music Canada Ltd - a subsidiary of the US-based Warner Music International. Kinney CEO Steve Ross led the group through its most successful period until his death in 1992.

An earlier attempt by Warner Bros. Records to create an in-house distribution arm in 1958 didn't materialize. So in 1969, Elektra Records boss Jac Holzman approached Atlantic's Jerry Wexler with the idea of setting up a joint distribution network for Warner, Elektra, and Atlantic. An experimental branch was established in Southern California as a possible prototype for an expanded operation.[15]

Atlantic exerts autonomy

It was soon apparent in 1969 that Atlantic/Atco president Ahmet Ertegun viewed Warner/Reprise president Mike Maitland as a rival. Maitland believed that, as vice-president in charge of the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts music division, he should have final say over all recording operations, and he further angered Ertegun by proposing that most of Atlantic's back-office functions (such as marketing and distribution) be combined with the existing departments at Warner/Reprise. In retrospect Ertegun clearly feared that Maitland would ultimately have more power than him, and so he moved rapidly to secure his own position and remove Maitland.

Maitland had put off renegotiating the contracts of Joe Smith and Mo Ostin, the presidents of the Warner Bros. and Reprise labels, and this provided Ertegun with an effective means of undermining Maitland. When Wexler—now a major shareholder—found out about the contract issue he and Ertegun began pressuring Eliot Hyman to get Smith and Ostin under contract, ostensibly because they were worried that the two executives might move to rival labels—and in fact Ostin had received overtures from both the MGM and ABC labels.

In 1969, the wisdom of Hyman's investments was proved when Kinney National Company purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts for $400 million, more than eight times what Hyman had paid for Warner/Reprise and Atlantic combined. From the base of his family's funeral parlour business, Kinney president Steve Ross had rapidly built the Kinney company into a profitable conglomerate with interests that included comic publishing, the Ashley-Famous talent agency, parking lots and cleaning services. Following the takeover, Warners' music group briefly adopted the 'umbrella' name Kinney Music, because U.S. anti-trust laws at the time prevented the three labels from trading as one.

Ross was primarily focused on rebuilding the company's ailing movie division and was happy to defer to the advice of the managers of the company's record labels, since he knew that they were generating most of the group's profits. Ertegun's campaign against Maitland began in earnest that summer. Atlantic had agreed to help Warner Bros. in its efforts to establish its labels overseas, beginning with its soon-to-be-established Warner Bros. subsidiary in Australia, but when Warner executive Phil Rose arrived in Australia, he discovered that just one week earlier Atlantic had signed a new four-year distribution deal with a rival local label, Festival Records (owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited). Mike Maitland complained bitterly to Kinney executive Ted Ashley, but to no avail – by this time Ertegun was poised to make his move against Maitland.[16]

As he had with Hyman, Ertegun urged Steve Ross to extend Mo Ostin and Joe Smith's contracts, a recommendation Ross was happy to accept. Ostin however had received overtures from other companies including MGM Records and ABC Records and when he met with Ertegun in January 1970 and was offered Maitland's job, he was unwilling to re-sign immediately. In response, Ertegun broadly hinted that Maitland's days were numbered and that he, Ertegun, was about to take over the recording division.

Unlike the Warner/Reprise executives, Atlantic's execs the Ertegun brothers (Ahmet and Neshui) and Wexler owned stock in Kinney.[17]

Ostin was understandably concerned that, if he accepted the position, the Warner Bros. staff would feel that he had stabbed Maitland in the back, but his attorney convinced him that Maitland's departure was inevitable, regardless of whether or not he accepted the post (succinctly advising him, "Don't be a schmuck"). On Sunday January 25, Ted Ashley went to Maitland's house to tell him he had been dismissed, and Maitland declined the offer of a job at the movie studio. One week later, Mo Ostin was named as the new President of Warner Bros. Records, with Joe Smith as his executive vice-president.[18] Ertegun nominally remained the head of Atlantic, but since both Ostin and Smith owed their new positions to him, Ertegun was now the de facto head of the Warner music division. Ertegun was given the formal title of executive vice-president-Music Group.[17] Maitland moved to MCA Records later that year and successfully consolidated MCA's labels, which he couldn't do at Warner.

1970s

During the 1970s, the Kinney group built up a commanding position in the music industry. In 1970, Kinney bought Elektra Records and its sister label Nonesuch Records (founded by Jac Holzman in 1950) for $10 million, bringing in leading rock acts, including the Doors, Tim Buckley, and Love, and its historically significant folk archive, along with the successful budget Western classical-music label Nonesuch Records.

The purchase of Elektra-Nonesuch brought a rich back catalogue of folk music as well as the renowned Nonesuch catalogue of classical and world music. Elektra founder Jac Holzman ran the label under Warners for two years, but by that time, he was by his own admission "burnt out" after twenty years in the business. Kinney president Steve Ross subsequently appointed Holzman as part of a seven-person "brain trust" tasked with investigating opportunities presented by new technologies, a role Holzman was eager to accept.[19] The same year, the group established its first overseas offices in Canada and Australia. By that time the "Seven Arts" moniker was dropped from the Warner Bros. name. Warner Bros. also founded the Casablanca Records subsidiary, headed by Neil Bogart; but several years later Casablanca became independent from Warner Bros.

Warner-Elektra-Atlantic and worldwide distribution

With the Elektra acquisition, the next step was forming an in-house distribution arm for the co-owned labels. By this time, Warner-Reprise's frustrations with its current distributors had reached breaking point; Joe Smith (then executive vice-president of Warner Bros.) recalled that the Grateful Dead were becoming a major act but the distributor was constantly out of stock of their albums. These circumstances facilitated the full establishment of the group's in-house distribution arm, initially called Kinney Record Group International.[20][21] By late 1972, US anti-trust laws had changed and the company was renamed Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, WEA for short, which was renamed Warner Music in 1991 (the word "group" was added after the formation of AOL Time Warner in 2001).

WEA was an early champion of heavy metal rock music. Several such bands, including three major British pioneers Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, were all signed to WEA's labels, at least in the United States. Among the earliest American metal acts to be signed to WEA were Alice Cooper, Montrose, and Van Halen.

Up to this point the Kinney-owned record companies had relied on licensing deals with overseas record labels to manufacture, distribute and promote its products in other countries; concurrent with the establishment of its new distribution arm, the company now began establishing subsidiaries in the other major markets, beginning with the creation of Warner Bros. Records Australia in 1970, soon followed by branch offices in the UK, Europe and Japan.[22] In July 1971, the new in-house distribution company was incorporated as Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp. (WEA) and branch offices were established in eight major US cities; Joel Friedman a one-time Billboard writer who had been the head of Warner's advertising/merchandising division in its early years, was appointed to head WEA's US domestic division, and Ahmet Ertegun's brother Nesuhi was appointed to oversee its international operations. Neshui Ertegun, originally a Turkish native like his brother, displayed a global perspective and independence from its U.S. counterpart by successfully promoting international acts in their target markets worldwide. Ertegun headed WEA International until his retirement in 1987. A de facto committee of three senior marketing executives—Dave Glew from Atlantic, Ed Rosenblatt from Warner Bros. and Mel Posner from Elektra—oversaw the integration of each label's marketing and distribution through the new division,[21] but each label continued to operate totally independently in A&R matters and also applied their own expertise in marketing and advertising.[23]

On July 1, 1971, following the pattern set by similar joint ventures in Canada and Australia, the Warner labels entered into a partnership with the British arm of CBS Records to press and distribute Warner-Reprise product in the United Kingdom, although this was undertaken as a cooperative venture rather than a formally incorporated business partnership. The Billboard article that reported the new arrangement also noted that, despite their intense competition in the US market, CBS continued to press Warner-Reprise recordings in the US. However the new UK arrangement was a major blow to Warner's previous British manufacturer Pye Records, for whom Warner-Reprise had been their largest account. With the scheduled addition of the UK rights to the Atlantic catalogue, which would revert to Kinney in early 1972, Billboard predicted that the Warner-CBS partnership would have a 25–30% share of the UK music market.[24]

In April 1971, thanks mainly to the influence of Ahmet Ertegun, the Kinney group announced a major coup with its acquisition of the worldwide rights to the Rolling Stones' new label Rolling Stones Records, following the expiration of the band's contract with British Decca (then separate from the American label) and the acrimonious end to their business relationship with their former manager Allen Klein. Under the terms of the deal, Atlantic subsidiary Atco would distribute the Stones' recordings in the US, with other territories mainly handled by Warner Bros. international divisions.[25]

One of Kinney's wisest investments was Fleetwood Mac. The band signed with Reprise in the early 1970s after relocating to the US, and the label supported the group through numerous lineup changes and several lean years during which the band's records sold relatively poorly, although they remained a popular concert attraction. Ironically, after the group’s transfer to Warner Bros. in 1975 and the recruitment of new members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, the group scored a major international hit with the single "Rhiannon" and consolidated with the best selling albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk.

Warner Communications

Due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations, Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets in 1972 (as National Kinney Corporation) and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc.[26]

In 1972, the Warner group acquired another rich prize, David Geffen's Asylum Records. The $7 million purchase brought in several acts that proved crucial to WEA’s subsequent success, including Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and later Warren Zevon. On the downside, however, it was rumored that Warner was soon concerned about its possible liability under the California State Labor Code because of Geffen's questionable status as both the manager of most of the Asylum acts and the head of the record label to which they were signed. The sale included the Asylum Records label and its recordings, as well as Geffen's lucrative music publishing assets and the interests in the royalties of some of the artists managed by Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. Geffen accepted a five-year contract with WCI and turned over his 75% share in the Geffen-Roberts management company to Roberts and Warner paid Geffen and Roberts 121,952 common shares worth $4,750,000 at the time of the sale, plus $400,000 in cash and a further $1.6 million in promissory notes convertible to common stock.[27]

Although it seemed a lucrative deal at the time, Geffen soon had reason to regret it. Uncharacteristically, he had greatly underestimated the value of his assets—within Asylum's first year as a Warner subsidiary, albums by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles alone had earned more than the entire value of the Asylum sale. Geffen's discomfort was compounded by the fact that, within six months of the sale, the value of his volatile Warner shares had plummeted from $4.5 million to just $800,000. He appealed to Steve Ross to intervene, and as part of a make-good deal, Ross agreed to pay him the difference in the share value over five years. Acting on Jac Holzman's suggestion that Kinney should take Asylum from Atlantic and merge it with Elektra, Ross then appointed Geffen to run the new combined label.[28]

In 1976, Warner gained a brief early lead in digital media when it purchased the Atari computer company, and in 1981 it bought The Franklin Mint company. WCI also blazed the trail in visual music with MTV, which it created and co-owned in partnership with American Express. In 1984–85, Warner rapidly divested many of these recent acquisitions, including Atari, Franklin Mint, Panavision, MTV Networks and a cosmetics business.

In 1977, Warner Bros. Music, led by president Ed Silvers, formed Pacific Records for their composers and distributed (appropriately) by Atlantic Records. Alan O'Day was the first artist signed to the label, and the first release was "Undercover Angel". The song, which he described as a "nocturnal novelette", was released in February 1977. Within a few months it had become No. 1 in the country, and has sold approximately two million copies. It was also a hit in Australia, reaching No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart. "Undercover Angel" also landed O'Day in an exclusive club as one of only a handful of writers/performers to pen a No. 1 hit for themselves and a No. 1 for another artist.[29][30]

New signings in the late 1970s placed WEA in a strong position for the 1980s. A deal with Seymour Stein's Sire Records label (which Warner Bros. Records later took over) brought in several major punk rock and new wave acts including the Pretenders, the Ramones and Talking Heads and, most importantly, rising star Madonna; Elektra signed the Cars and Warner Bros. signed Prince, giving WEA several of the biggest-selling acts of the decade.

WEA's labels also distributed a number of otherwise independent labels. For example, Warner Bros. distributed Straight Records, DiscReet Records, Bizarre Records, Bearsville Records, and Geffen Records (the latter was sold to MCA in 1990). Atlantic Records distributed Swan Song Records. In 1975, WEA scored a major coup by signing a distribution agreement with Island Records, which only covered the United States and select other countries. For the next 14 years (initially with Warner Bros. until 1982, then with Atlantic afterward), WEA would distribute such artists as Bob Marley, U2, Robert Palmer, Anthrax, and Tom Waits. This relationship ended when Island was sold to PolyGram in 1989.

1980s

 
Logo of WEA International

A name-only unit appearing exclusively in the copyright, WEA International Inc., was created in early 1982, to handle distribution of all Warner Bros., Elektra, and Atlantic (all these namings accounting for the initials in the title "WEA") releases for international countries.

A proposed 1983 international merger between PolyGram and WEA was forbidden by both the US Federal Trade Commission and West Germany's cartel office, so PolyGram's half-owner Philips then purchased a further 40% of the company from its partner Siemens, and bought the remaining shares in 1987. The same year, PolyGram divested its film and publishing operations, closed PolyGram Pictures and sold Chappell Music to Warner for US$275 million.

WEA formed WEA Manufacturing in 1986.[31] In 1988 WEA took over the German classical label Teldec and the British Magnet label.

In 1989, it was announced that Warner Communications was to merge with Time Inc. to form Time Warner, a transaction that was completed in 1990. Following the merger, WEA continued acquiring independent labels, buying CGD Records (Italy) and MMG Records (Japan) in 1989.[32]

1990s

Through the 1990s, Time Warner was the largest media company in the world, with assets in excess of US$20 billion and annual revenues in the billions of dollars; by 1991, Warner's music labels were generating sales valued at more than US$3 billion, with operating profits of $550 million, and by 1995, its music division dominated the US music industry with a 22% share of the domestic market.[33][34] Acquisitions and corporate changes within the Warner group of labels continued after the Time Warner merger—in 1990, WEA purchased French label Carrere Records, in 1992 it bought the leading French classical label Erato, and in 1993, it bought the Spanish DRO Records, Hungary's Magneoton label, the Swedish Telegram Records, Brazil's Continental Records and Finnish label Fazer Musiikki. WEA was renamed Warner Music in 1991.

Atlantic launched two new subsidiary labels in the early 1990s: East West Records and Interscope Records. In 1995, East West absorbed Atco Records and was eventually folded into Elektra Records. In 1996, after causing much controversy, Interscope was purchased by MCA Music Entertainment.

During 1992, Warner Music faced one of the most serious public-relations crises in its history when a major controversy erupted over the provocative Warner Bros. recording "Cop Killer" from the self-titled album by Body Count, a heavy metal/rap fusion band led by Ice-T. Unfortunately for Warner, the song (which mentioned the Rodney King case) was issued just before the controversial acquittal of the police charged with King's beating, which sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and the confluence of events put the song under the national spotlight. Complaints escalated over the summer—conservative police associations called for a boycott of Time Warner products, politicians including President George H. W. Bush denounced the label for releasing the song, Warner executives received death threats, Time Warner stockholders threatened to pull out of the company and the New Zealand police commissioner unsuccessfully tried to have the record banned there. Although Ice-T later voluntarily reissued Body Count without "Cop Killer", the furor seriously rattled Warner Music and in January 1993 the label made an undisclosed deal releasing Ice-T from his contract and returning the Body Count master tapes to him.[35]

Also in 1992, the Rhino Records label signed a distribution agreement with Atlantic Records and Time Warner bought a 50% stake in the Rhino Records label. The distribution agreement allowed Rhino to begin reissuing recordings from Atlantic's back catalogue.

In 1994, Canadian beverage giant Seagram bought a 14.5% stake in Time Warner, and the Warner publishing division — now called Warner/Chappell Music – acquired CPP/Belwin, becoming the world's largest owner of song copyrights and the world's largest publisher of printed music. In 1996, Time Warner made another dramatic expansion of its media holdings, taking over the Turner Broadcasting System, which by then included the Turner cable TV network, CNN and the screen production houses Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema, acquisitions that brought huge profits into the Warner Group thanks to content assets like Seinfeld and the highly successful The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

By the early 1990s, senior Warner staff like Ostin and Waronker had remained in their positions for several decades—a highly unusual situation in the American music industry—but the death of Steve Ross destabilized the Time Warner hierarchy, and over the next few years the music group was increasingly disrupted by internal power struggles, leading to a string of major executive upheavals in 1994–95, which The New York Times described as "a virtual civil war".[36]

The central conflict was between Mo Ostin and Warner Music Group chairman Robert Morgado, who had joined the Warner group in the late 1980s. Because of his political background (he had been the chief-of-staff to former New York governor Hugh L. Carey) and his lack of music industry experience — especially compared to the widely revered Ostin—Morgado was viewed as an outsider at Warner. Nevertheless, he gained favour with Ross and Levin and was promoted in 1985 to oversee the Warner international music division after helping the company slash costs in its computer game sector.[34]

Since his appointment as head of WBR, Ostin had always reported directly to Steve Ross and his successor Gerald Levin, but in late 1993, when Ostin's contract came up for renewal, Morgado asserted his authority, insisting that Ostin should now report directly to him. The tensions between them reached boiling point in July 1994 when Morgado appointed former Atlantic chief Doug Morris to head the Warner Music Group in the US, a decision that many saw as a deliberate move to hasten the departure of Ostin and Elektra head Robert Krasnow.[34] Morgado's new structure was announced in August 1994 and Bob Krasnow resigned from Elektra the next day. Within days, after more than 30 years with the Warner music group and more than 20 years as president and chairman of Warner Bros. Records, Ostin announced he would not renew his current contract and would leave Warners when it expired on December 31, 1994. There was more negative publicity the following month, when leading Elektra act Metallica launched a lawsuit against the label, seeking a release from their contract and ownership of their master tapes, and claiming that Morgado had refused to honor a deal they had worked out with Krasnow before he quit.

Ostin's departure marked a seismic shift in the corporate culture at WBR and the news was greeted with dismay by industry insiders and the many artists whose careers he had helped to nurture. Lenny Waronker had agreed to take over as WBR chairman and CEO but in October 1994 he announced that he would not be taking up the position; he initially said that he would remain as President of WBR, but by this time there was already widespread speculation that he would leave, and he did so soon afterwards.[37] The following year he re-joined Ostin and son Michael as joint head of the newly launched DreamWorks label.[38]

Beginning in August 1994, Morgado alienated Morris by his clumsy handling of Warner's relationship with Interscope Records, the successful label founded by Ted Field and Jimmy Iovine and part-owned by Warner. Morgado had resisted making a decision about increasing the Warner stake in Interscope, which encouraged other companies to make overtures to the label; in response, Morgado threatened to send cease-and-desist notices to executives at several record companies, demanding that they stop approaching Interscope with buyout offers, a move that reportedly infuriated Iovine.[34]

By late 1994, Morris was gaining the upper hand over his rival and media reports claimed that Morris had moved to settle with Metallica, offering a deal that was reportedly even more generous than the one they had worked out with Krasnow. Morgado now faced a showdown with Morris, who felt he was not being allowed to run WMG as he saw fit. In October 1994, Morris and 11 other Warner executives "staged an unprecedented insurrection that nearly paralyzed the world's largest record company".[34] This led to a climactic meeting between Morris and Gerald Levin in late October, at which Morris reportedly threatened to quit if he had to continue to report to Morgado.[39]

Morgado gave in to the demand that Morris be granted autonomy to run the North American operations and he was forced to upgrade Morris's position from chief operating officer to Chief Executive of Warner Music Group (US); Morris promptly named Danny Goldberg, former president of Atlantic Records, to run WBR in defiance of Morgado, who had a different candidate in mind and Levin also reduced Morgado's power to oversee Warner's mail-order record club division and its international operations.[40][34] Morris then brought in Sylvia Rhone and Seymour Stein to stabilize Elektra, settled the Metallica lawsuit and persuaded Levin to purchase an additional 25% of Interscope, although this initiative proved short-lived.[34]

The power struggle between Morgado and Morris reached a dramatic climax in May 1995 when Morgado was asked to resign by Gerald Levin, following a welter of complaints from executives at the three major Warner Music labels, who said that Morgado was undermining Morris's authority and damaging Warner's reputation among performers.[40] Morgado was immediately replaced by HBO chairman Michael J. Fuchs but the corporate upheavals did not end there; in late June 1995 Fuchs abruptly dismissed Doug Morris, saying that Morris had been "leading a campaign to destabilize Warner Music in an effort to seize control of the company". As Morris's strongest ally, Danny Goldberg was also under threat; he was initially told that he could stay on as President of WBR as long as he refrained from office politics and concentrate on the day-to-day management of the label, but he resigned as President of Warner Bros. Records soon after to pursue "other interests", and was replaced by WBR vice-chairman Russ Thyret.

Despite early success with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and Morris's decision to increase Warner's stake to 50%, by the mid-1990s Interscope Records was being seen as a liability for the Warner group. Time Warner's board and investors had already been bruised by the damaging 1992 "Cop Killer" controversy and now they were faced with renewed criticism about the gangsta rap genre, in which Interscope's associate imprint Death Row Records was a key label. In mid-1995, Time Warner refused to distribute the Interscope album Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound, forcing the label to seek outside distribution, and late in the year TW sold its stake in Death Row back to co-owners Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field and soon after it sold off its share in Interscope to MCA Music Entertainment.[41]

The upheaval at Warner was beneficial to its rivals, who picked up valuable executives who had left Warner. Goldberg moved over to Mercury Records; Morris joined MCA Music Entertainment Group and led its reorganization into Universal Music Group, now the world's largest record company. In November 1995, Fuchs was himself sacked by Levin, leaving the company with a reported US$60 million "golden parachute", and Time Warner co-chairmen Robert A. Daly and Terry Semel took over the running of the music division.[42][43][44]

In 1998, Seagram boss Edgar Bronfman Jr. held talks aimed at merging Seagram's Universal Music, headed by Morris, with the venerable British recording company EMI, but the discussions came to nothing; Bronfman then oversaw Universal's takeover by Vivendi. WEA meanwhile continued to expand its publishing empire, buying a 90% stake in the Italian recording and music publishing group Nuova Fonit Cetra.[45]

Also in 1998, Time Warner bought the remaining 50% of the Rhino Records label they did not own. The Rhino Records retail store in Los Angeles was not included. Rhino then began reissuing the back catalogues of the Warner/Reprise and Elektra/Asylum labels. In 1999, Rhino launched Rhino Handmade, which released limited-edition reissues of lesser-known but still-significant recordings from the WEA labels.

2000s

 
Edgar Bronfman Jr., scion of the Canadian-based Bronfman family, took control of WMG in 2004.

In 2000, Time Warner merged with leading American internet service provider AOL to create AOL Time Warner. The new conglomerate again tried (and failed) to acquire EMI, and subsequent discussions about the takeover of BMG stalled, with Bertelsmann eventually offloading BMG into a joint venture with Sony. In 2002, AOLTW further consolidated its hold over the publishing industry, buying 50% of music publisher Deston Songs from Edel AG. By the early 2000s, however, the effects of the dot-com crash had eroded AOL's profits and stock value, and in 2003 the Time Warner board sidelined its under-performing partner by dropping AOL from its business name.[46]

As a result of the CD price fixing issue, a settlement was reached in 2002 involving the music publishers and distributors; Sony Music, WMG, Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI Music, Universal Music. In restitution for price fixing they agreed to pay a $67.4 million fine and distribute $75.7 million in CDs to public and non-profit groups but admitted no wrongdoing.[47]

 
The "Big W" logo designed by Saul Bass, formerly used as the logo of Warner Bros. Entertainment, now used as the corporate logo of Warner Music Group

Looking to reduce its debt load, Time Warner — the corporate successor to Warner Communications — sold Warner Music Group in 2004 to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. for US$2.6 billion. This spinoff was completed on February 27, 2004. In the 2004 transition to independent ownership, WMG hired record industry heavyweight Lyor Cohen from Universal Music Group (the result of the merger between the PolyGram and MCA label families) to attempt to reduce cost and increase performance. Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery) no longer retains any ownership in WMG, though it had the option to reacquire up to 20% of WMG for three years following the closing of the transaction. WMG did, however, have a royalty-free license to use the Warner Bros. shield for 15 years, as well as the old Warner Communications logo as WMG's main logo.[48] With the expiration of the royalty-free license in May 2019, Warner Bros. Records (which became separate from the eponymous film studio after the spinoff) was renamed Warner Records and a new logo was introduced to replace the WB shield.[49]

Once free of Time Warner, WMG began cutting costs by offloading loss-making or low-earning divisions. Like its rival EMI, Warner reacted to the growth of the digital music market by making a historic change, moving out of record production by closing or selling off disc-pressing plants, particularly in territories such as the US and the Netherlands, where production costs are high. The US manufacturing operations were sold to Cinram in 2003, before the purchase from Time Warner.

In 2005, the Miami-based Warner Bros. Publications, which printed and distributed a broad selection of sheet music, books, educational material, orchestrations, arrangements and tutorials, was sold to Alfred Music Publishing, although the sale excluded the print music business of WMG's Word Music (church hymnals, choral music and associated instrumental music).

On May 3, 2006, WMG apparently rejected a buyout offer from EMI.[50] Then WMG offered to buy EMI and it also rejected the offer. In August 2007, EMI was purchased by Terra Firma Capital Partners.[51] Talk of a possible WMG acquisition of EMI was fanned once again in 2009 after WMG executed a bond offering for $1.1 billion, which brought to light WMG's relatively strong financial position, which was contrasted with the weakened and debt-laden state of EMI.[52] The same year WMG acquired Rykodisc and Roadrunner Records.

In September 2006, after pulling its content from the service earlier in the year, WMG entered into a new licensing deal with the video streaming service YouTube. Under the deal, WMG would be able to handle advertising sales for its artists' music videos on the service (as well as monetize user-created videos that include WMG-owned recordings) and partake in revenue sharing with YouTube, and also collaborate with YouTube on building a "premium" user experience for its content and associated channels.[53][54]

On December 27, 2007, Warner announced that it would sell digital music without digital rights management through AmazonMP3, making it the third major label to do so.[55] In 2008, The New York Times reported that WMG's Atlantic Records became the first major record label to generate more than half of its music sales in the U.S. from digital products.[56] In 2010, Fast Company magazine detailed the company's transformation efforts in its recorded music division, where it has redefined the relationships it has with artists and diversified its revenue streams through its expansion into growing areas of the music business.[57]

In 2008, WMG and several other major labels made investments in the new music streaming service Spotify.[58][non-primary source needed]

Due to licensing deal negotiations between Google and WMG in 2008, music video content licensed by WMG was removed from YouTube.[59][60] In 2009, it was announced that the companies had reached a deal, and videos would be re-added to YouTube.[61] As of 2017, WMG had extended its deal with YouTube.[62]

In 2009, Warner Music took over its South-East Asian and Korean distribution of EMI audio and video products, including newer domestic releases, which was announced in September 2008. The two companies already enjoyed a successful partnership in India, the Middle East and North Africa, where EMI marketed and distributed Warner Music's physical product from 2005.[63]

2010s

 
Leonard Blavatnik, founder of Access Industries, purchased WMG in 2011.

WMG formed a partnership with MTV Networks in June 2010 that allowed MTVN to exclusively sell ads on WMG's premium content; in turn, views of WMG videos would be counted as views for MTVN.[64]

In May 2011, WMG announced its sale to Access Industries, a conglomerate controlled by Soviet-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, for US$3.3 billion in cash.[65] The price represented $8.25 a share; a 34% premium over the six-month-before average price, and a 4% premium over the day-before price. Overall, this was a drop of over 70% since 2007.[66] According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal ended a three-month sale process in which as many as 10 bidders, including Los Angeles-based brothers Tom and Alec Gores, and Sony Corp. vied for the company.[67] Blavatnik was a shareholder and former board member of WMG at the time of the purchase announcement.[68] The purchase was completed on July 20, 2011, and the company became private.[69] In August 2011, Stephen Cooper became CEO of Warner Music Group replacing Edgar Bronfman Jr., who became chairman of the company.[70] Bronfman Jr. stepped down as chairman of the company on January 31, 2012.[71]

EMI label purchase and divestment

In 2013, Warner acquired longtime EMI division Parlophone, along with EMI Classics and some regional EMI operations, from UMG for £487 million (around $764.54 million US).[72][73] This news came after reports that WMG was in talks to acquire EMI's recorded music business, which was eventually bought by Universal.[74] The European Commission approved the sale in May 2013, and Warner closed the acquisition on July 1.[75][76] The EMI Classics roster was absorbed into Warner Classics and the Virgin Classics roster was absorbed into the revived Erato Records.[77] In November 2013, WMG paid Universal an additional €30 million for Parlophone, following an arbitration process in respect to the original sale price.[78]

In order to accommodate a deal made with IMPALA and the Merlin Network when it acquired Parlophone, WMG agreed to offload over $200 million worth in catalogues to various independent labels.[79] The labels had until February 28, 2014, to inform Warner Music of which artist catalogues they were interested in acquiring, and said artists had to approve of the divestments.[80] By March 2015, over 140 independent labels had placed bids on over 11,000 Warner Music artists valuing $6 billion, far higher than expectations.[81] In March 2016, Curb Records acquired Warner Music's 80% share of Word Entertainment, though WMG would continue to distribute the label.[82] In April 2016, the first confirmed sale of a Warner Music artist was the back catalogue of English band Radiohead to XL Recordings.[83] As of the end of May 2016, WMG had sold the catalogue of Chrysalis Records to Blue Raincoat Music, as well as the catalogues of ten other artists, including Everything But the Girl, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, and Lucinda Williams.[84][85][86][87] In September 2016, Nettwerk acquired the rights to albums by Guster and Airbourne from Warner Music.[88]

In April 2017, Warner Music agreed to sell the independent distributor Zebralution back to its founders.[89] On June 1, 2017, WMG divested additional artists, including the catalogues of Hot Chip and Buzzcocks to Domino Recording Company; Tom Waits to Anti-; and Howard Jones, Dinosaur Jr., and Kim Wilde to Cherry Red Records.[90] Cosmos Music Group acquired the rights to Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson, while Neil Finn's catalogue moved to his Lester Records label.[91] On July 6, 2017, Because Music acquired 10 French artists, most of London Records' back catalogue, and The Beta Band, while Concord Music acquired albums by Jewel, Sérgio Mendes, R.E.M., the Traveling Wilburys, and several rock, blues, and jazz artists.[92][93][94][95] In August 2017, The Lemonheads and The Groundhogs were transferred to Fire Records.[96] In October 2017, Strut Records acquired albums by Patrice Rushen and Miriam Makeba.[97]

In November 2017, T.I.'s catalogue was sold to Cinq Music Group.[98] Woah Dad! acquired over 20 catalogues, including those of Ziggy Marley, Estelle, and several Swedish artists, while Believe Digital acquired the rights to EMF and several French artists.[99] In April 2018, RT Industries acquired seven catalogues from WMG, including Sugar Ray and Fat Joe.[100] In May 2018, New State Music acquired the catalogues of Paul Oakenfold and Dirty Vegas.[101] Other winning bidders included The Echo Label (Thomas Dolby, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Supergrass), Nature Sounds (Roy Ayers), The state51 Conspiracy (Donovan), PIAS Recordings (Failure), Evolution Music Group (Mr. Big), Playground Music Scandinavia (Olle Adolphson), Metal Blade Records (King Diamond), Snapper Music (Mansun) and its sublabel Kscope (Porcupine Tree), Phoenix Music International (Lulu), Kobalt Label Services (HIM), and Tommy Boy Music (which reclaimed its pre-2002 catalogue and the rights to Brand Nubian, Handsome Boy Modeling School’s White People, Grand Puba, and Club Nouveau). All the labels had to complete their deals by September 30, 2017; though a few announcements came after that date.[102]

Expansion

In October 2012, WMG became one of the last major labels to sign with Google's music service. It was also one of the last labels to reach an agreement with Spotify.[103]

In June 2013, WMG expanded into Russia by acquiring Gala Records, best known as the longtime distributor of EMI.[104] Later that year, Warner Music Russia agreed to locally distribute releases by Disney Music Group[105] and Sony Music.[106] Later that year, WMG closed a deal with Clear Channel Media that saw its artists paid for terrestrial radio play for the first time. Clear Channel would get preferential rates for streaming songs through its iHeartRadio service and other online platforms. It was believed that the agreement would put pressure on other big labels, including Sony and Universal, to reach similar deals.[107]

In 2017, WMG formed a TV and film division, Warner Music Entertainment, led by former MGM executive Charlie Cohen. In March 2020, it hired Kate Shepherd, the former head of entertainment at Ridley Scott Creative Group.[108] This division paired with Imagine Entertainment on a Nat Geo limited series Genius: Aretha, which led to a co-producing and co-financing agreement for a music slate in July 2020.[109]

International labels

On November 14, 2013, it was determined that Warner Music's releases in the Middle East would be distributed by Universal Music as a result of the integration of EMI's branch in said region.[110] Sony Music India would assume distribution of WMG in India, Sri Lanka, and rest of SAARC countries except Bangladesh.[111] In December 2013, Warner Music began operating the wholly owned South African subsidiary after acquiring the Gallo's stakes that it did not own.[112] In April 2014, WMG announced that it had acquired Chinese record label Gold Typhoon.[113]

In April 2016, WMG agreed to distribute most of BMG Rights Management's catalogue worldwide through Warner's ADA division, though a few frontline releases would remain distributed by other labels.[114][115]

Around the end of May 2016, WMG acquired the Indonesian label PT Indo Semar Sakti.[116] Warner Music UK launched The Firepit in May 2016, a creative content division, innovation centre and recording studio located at their United Kingdom headquarters in London.[117] On June 2, 2016, Warner Music acquired Swedish compilation label X5 Music Group.[118]

In September 2017, one week after acquiring American rock label Artery Recordings, WMG acquired the Dutch EDM label Spinnin' Records.[119] In February 2018, Warner Music launched a division in the Middle East, based in Beirut, Lebanon. Warner Music Middle East will cover 17 markets across North Africa and the Middle East.[120]

In January 2019, WMG signed a Turkish distribution deal with Doğan Media Group, which will represent the record company for physical and digital releases.[121]

In May 2019, Warner Music Finland acquired the hip-hop label Monsp Records.[122] In July 2019, Warner Music Slovakia acquired Forza Music, which owned the former state-owned label Opus Records.[123] In February 2021, WMG purchased a minority stake in the Saudi Arabian record label Rotana Records.[124]

Elektra Music Group and further investments

In July 2017, Warner Music acquired the concert discovery website Songkick.[125] In May, news media reported that Warner Music led an investment round in Hooch, a popular subscription-lifestyle application including blockchain-based payment technology.[126]

Announced on June 18, 2018, but effective on October 1, 2018, Warner Music Group launched Elektra Music Group as a stand-alone staffed music company with the labels Elektra Records, Fueled By Ramen, Low Country Sound, Black Cement, and Roadrunner Records. A handful of major artists would transfer from Atlantic. This returned the group back to the Warner-Elektra-Atlantic (WEA) triad that had marked the original company organization for decades.[127]

On August 2, 2018, Warner Music announced that it acquired Uproxx Media Group and its properties (except for BroBible, which will continue to publish independently) for an undisclosed sum, although Uproxx has raised around $43m (£33m) from previous investment, which provides some sense of the firm's valuation.[128] In September 2018, WMG acquired German merchandise retailer EMP Merchandising from Sycamore Partners for $180 million.[129]

In October 2018, Warner Music Group announced the launch of the WMG Boost seed venture fund.[130] Several labels of Warner Music moved into the Los Angeles Arts District in 2019 where the company had purchased a former Ford Motor Company assembly plant.[131]

2020s

On March 9, 2020, WMG expanded to India, creating the Warner Music India unit based in Mumbai and handling business in other countries for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Jay Mehta (former executive of Sony Music India) would take change of the unit as the managing director in April.[132] Before the division's foundation, Warner's releases were distributed in the country by EMI/Virgin Records (India) Pvt., and by Sony Music India since EMI's breakup.

In August 2020, Warner Music acquired Tel Aviv- and New York-based IMGN Media in a deal worth approximately $100 million.[133] In September 2020, WMG acquired the online hip-hop magazine HipHopDX.[134] In 2021, WMG invested an eight figure sum into global multiplayer gaming platform Roblox. This followed WMG artist Ava Max's live performance on the platform the previous year.[135]

Warner Music Group had planned an IPO of current investors' stock in March 2020, but withdrew its IPO just before the March 2 kick off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[136] On June 3, 2020, it completed its IPO on Nasdaq, raising almost $2 billion with a valuation of $12.75 billion, making WMG once again a publicly traded company after previously going private in 2011.[8][9] On June 12, 2020, Tencent announced that it had purchased 10.4% of Warner Music's Class A shares, or 1.6% of the company.[137] Tencent already owns 10% of shares of WMG's largest competitor, Universal Music Group, which it acquired from Vivendi in March. Also, this makes Sony Music the only major music company not directly owned in any percentage by a Chinese company (it is wholly owned by the Japanese conglomerate Sony).[138]

In December 2020, WMG signed a partnership deal with TikTok to provide music to their platform for users to use for their content. The deal is expected to help their revenue grow.[139][140]

In January 2023, Stephen Cooper was succeeded by Robert Kyncl as CEO of WMG.[141]

Arts Music

On June 6, 2017, Warner Music Group launched a new division, Arts Music, Inc., which consists of labels for classical, jazz, and children's music, plus musical theater and film scores. The division was placed under president Kevin Gore, who reports to Eliah Seton, President of ADA Worldwide, the group's independent distribution and services arm. At the same time, Warner Classics, including the Erato label, while remaining based in Paris and continuing under president Alain Lanceron, were transferred into the new division. Also, a joint venture with Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records, the theatrical music company, was formed, with founder/president Kurt Deutsch being named as senior vice president of theatrical and catalog development for Warner/Chappell Music.[142]

In November 2018, Arts Music signed a multi-year deal with Sesame Workshop to revive the Sesame Street Records label starting early 2019.[143] In June 2019, WMG purchased First Night Record, a musical-theater cast recording company, and placed the company within Arts Music.[144] On June 24, 2019, the division launched the licensed Cloudco Entertainment label with the release of the current Holly Hobbie theme song as a part of a multi-season deal.[145] Build-A-Bear Workshop teamed up with Arts Music and Warner Chappell Music in July 2019 to partner on the Build-A-Bear label, with Patrick Hughes and Harvey Russell.[146]

On May 1, 2020, toy manufacturer and entertainment company Mattel Inc. struck an agreement with Arts Music to become the exclusive distributor of its music catalogue.[147][148] The agreement was to make hundreds of never-before-released and newly released albums and singles available for existing Mattel properties/brands for digital distribution, beginning with the launch of Thomas & Friends' birthday album on May 8.[149] Consequently, the soundtrack album of Monster High: Boo York, Boo York and other Mattel albums previously released by Universal Music Group through its film distribution agreement with Universal Pictures would be re-released by the label Mattel/Arts Music via ADA Worldwide.[150][151]

Music publishing

Warner Chappell Music dates back to 1811 and the creation of Chappell & Company, a sheet music and instrument merchant in London. In 1929, Jack L. Warner, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Inc., founded Music Publishers Holding Company (MPHC) to acquire music copyrights as a means of providing inexpensive music for films and, in 1987, Warner Bros.' corporate parent, Warner Communications, acquired Chappell & Company from PolyGram. Its printed music operation, Warner Bros. Publications, was sold to Alfred Music on June 1, 2005.

Among the historic compositions of which the publishing rights are controlled by WMG are the works of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. In the 1930s and 1940s, Chappell Music also ran a profitable orchestration division for Broadway musicals, with house arrangers of the caliber of Robert Russell Bennett, Don Walker, Ted Royal and Hans Spialek. Between them they had orchestrated about 90% of the productions seen up to late 1941.[152]

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Bibliography

  • Fred Goodman (1997). The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce. Jonathan Cape/Random House. ISBN 978-0679743774.

External links

  • Official website
  • Business data for Warner Music Group:
    • Bloomberg
    • Google
    • Reuters
    • SEC filings
    • Yahoo!

warner, music, group, corp, commonly, abbreviated, american, multinational, entertainment, record, label, conglomerate, headquartered, york, city, three, recording, companies, third, largest, global, music, industry, after, universal, music, group, sony, music. Warner Music Group Corp 7 d b a Warner Music Group commonly abbreviated as WMG is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City It is one of the big three recording companies and the third largest in the global music industry after Universal Music Group UMG and Sony Music Entertainment SME Formerly part of Time Warner now Warner Bros Discovery WMG was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011 when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries 8 It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020 once again becoming a public company 9 With a multibillion dollar annual turnover WMG employs more than 3 500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world 10 Warner Music Group CorporationLogo used since November 2021 1 Warner Music Group s headquarters in 1633 Broadway New York CityTrade nameWarner Music GroupFormerlyWarner Bros Records 1958 1967 1970 1971 Warner Bros Seven Arts 1967 1970 Warner Elektra Atlantic 1971 1991 Warner Music 1991 2001 TypePublicTraded asNasdaq WMGISINUS9345502036IndustryMusicEntertainmentFoundedApril 6 1958 64 years ago 1958 04 06 FounderWarner Bros Headquarters1633 Broadway New York City New York U S Area servedWorldwide except for Russia amp Belarus Key peopleMichael Lynton Chairman Len Blavatnik Vice chairman Robert Kyncl CEO RevenueUS 5 919 billion 2022 Operating incomeUS 0 714 billion 2022 Net incomeUS 0 555 billion 2022 Total assetsUS 7 828 billion 2022 Total equityUS 0 168 billion 2022 OwnersAccess Industries 86 3 equity interest 99 2 voting power 2 Tencent 1 6 3 Number of employees5 900 2021 DivisionsList of Warner Music Group labelsSubsidiariesArts Music Inc Warner Chappell Music 615 Music Warner Records Inc Warner Classics Warner Music SwedenWebsitewmg wbr comFootnotes references 4 5 6 The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful labels in the world including Elektra Records Reprise Records Warner Records Parlophone Records formerly owned by EMI and Atlantic Records WMG also owns Warner Chappell Music one of the world s largest music publishers Since August 2 2018 WMG has expanded its business to digital media operation through its acquisition of Uproxx Contents 1 History 1 1 1950s and 1960s 1 1 1 Atlantic exerts autonomy 1 2 1970s 1 2 1 Warner Elektra Atlantic and worldwide distribution 1 2 2 Warner Communications 1 3 1980s 1 4 1990s 1 5 2000s 1 6 2010s 1 6 1 EMI label purchase and divestment 1 6 2 Expansion 1 6 3 International labels 1 6 4 Elektra Music Group and further investments 1 7 2020s 2 Arts Music 3 Music publishing 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External linksHistory Edit1950s and 1960s Edit The film studio Warner Bros had no record label division at the time one of its contracted actors Tab Hunter scored a No 1 hit song in 1957 for Dot Records a division of rival Paramount Pictures In order to prevent any repetition of its actors recording for rival companies and to also capitalize on the music business Warner Bros Records was created in 1958 11 12 In 1963 Warner purchased Reprise Records which had been founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier so that he could have more creative control over his recordings 13 With the Reprise acquisition Warner gained the services of Mo Ostin who was mainly responsible for the success of Warner Reprise 14 After Warner Bros was sold to Seven Arts Productions in 1967 forming Warner Bros Seven Arts it purchased Atlantic Records founded in 1947 and WMG s oldest label until WMG completed its acquisition of Parlophone in 2013 as well as its subsidiary Atco Records This acquisition brought Neil Young into the company fold initially as a member of Buffalo Springfield Young became one of Warner s longest established artists recording both as a solo artist and with groups under the Warner owned Atlantic Atco and Reprise labels Young also recorded five albums for Geffen Records during that label s period of Warner distribution The Geffen catalogue now owned by Universal Music Group represents Young s only major recordings not under WMG ownership Atlantic its subsidiary Atco Records and its affiliate Stax Records paved the way for Warner s rise to industry prominence The purchase brought in Atlantic s lucrative back catalogue which included classic recordings by Ray Charles the Drifters the Coasters and many more In the mid 1960s Atlantic Stax released a string of landmark soul music recordings by artists including Booker T amp the MGs Sam amp Dave Wilson Pickett Otis Redding Ben E King and Aretha Franklin Ultimately the sale led to Stax leaving Atlantic because Seven Arts Productions insisted on keeping the rights to Stax recordings Atlantic moved decisively into rock and pop in the late 1960s and 1970s signing major British and American acts including Led Zeppelin Cream Crosby Stills amp Nash Yes Emerson Lake amp Palmer Genesis Average White Band Dr John King Crimson Bette Midler Roxy Music and Foreigner In 1969 two years after being purchased by Seven Arts the Warner Bros Seven Arts company was sold to the Kinney National Company In mid 1972 Kinney Music of Canada Ltd was renamed WEA Music of Canada Ltd French WEA Musique du Canada Ltee as the Canadian branch of the WEA Warner Elektra Atlantic company a division of Warner Communications Inc Founder and president Ken Middleton ran the Canadian company until his retirement in 1982 The name remained until 1989 when in 1990 it became Warner Music Canada Ltd a subsidiary of the US based Warner Music International Kinney CEO Steve Ross led the group through its most successful period until his death in 1992 An earlier attempt by Warner Bros Records to create an in house distribution arm in 1958 didn t materialize So in 1969 Elektra Records boss Jac Holzman approached Atlantic s Jerry Wexler with the idea of setting up a joint distribution network for Warner Elektra and Atlantic An experimental branch was established in Southern California as a possible prototype for an expanded operation 15 Atlantic exerts autonomy Edit It was soon apparent in 1969 that Atlantic Atco president Ahmet Ertegun viewed Warner Reprise president Mike Maitland as a rival Maitland believed that as vice president in charge of the Warner Bros Seven Arts music division he should have final say over all recording operations and he further angered Ertegun by proposing that most of Atlantic s back office functions such as marketing and distribution be combined with the existing departments at Warner Reprise In retrospect Ertegun clearly feared that Maitland would ultimately have more power than him and so he moved rapidly to secure his own position and remove Maitland Maitland had put off renegotiating the contracts of Joe Smith and Mo Ostin the presidents of the Warner Bros and Reprise labels and this provided Ertegun with an effective means of undermining Maitland When Wexler now a major shareholder found out about the contract issue he and Ertegun began pressuring Eliot Hyman to get Smith and Ostin under contract ostensibly because they were worried that the two executives might move to rival labels and in fact Ostin had received overtures from both the MGM and ABC labels In 1969 the wisdom of Hyman s investments was proved when Kinney National Company purchased Warner Bros Seven Arts for 400 million more than eight times what Hyman had paid for Warner Reprise and Atlantic combined From the base of his family s funeral parlour business Kinney president Steve Ross had rapidly built the Kinney company into a profitable conglomerate with interests that included comic publishing the Ashley Famous talent agency parking lots and cleaning services Following the takeover Warners music group briefly adopted the umbrella name Kinney Music because U S anti trust laws at the time prevented the three labels from trading as one Ross was primarily focused on rebuilding the company s ailing movie division and was happy to defer to the advice of the managers of the company s record labels since he knew that they were generating most of the group s profits Ertegun s campaign against Maitland began in earnest that summer Atlantic had agreed to help Warner Bros in its efforts to establish its labels overseas beginning with its soon to be established Warner Bros subsidiary in Australia but when Warner executive Phil Rose arrived in Australia he discovered that just one week earlier Atlantic had signed a new four year distribution deal with a rival local label Festival Records owned by Rupert Murdoch s News Limited Mike Maitland complained bitterly to Kinney executive Ted Ashley but to no avail by this time Ertegun was poised to make his move against Maitland 16 As he had with Hyman Ertegun urged Steve Ross to extend Mo Ostin and Joe Smith s contracts a recommendation Ross was happy to accept Ostin however had received overtures from other companies including MGM Records and ABC Records and when he met with Ertegun in January 1970 and was offered Maitland s job he was unwilling to re sign immediately In response Ertegun broadly hinted that Maitland s days were numbered and that he Ertegun was about to take over the recording division Unlike the Warner Reprise executives Atlantic s execs the Ertegun brothers Ahmet and Neshui and Wexler owned stock in Kinney 17 Ostin was understandably concerned that if he accepted the position the Warner Bros staff would feel that he had stabbed Maitland in the back but his attorney convinced him that Maitland s departure was inevitable regardless of whether or not he accepted the post succinctly advising him Don t be a schmuck On Sunday January 25 Ted Ashley went to Maitland s house to tell him he had been dismissed and Maitland declined the offer of a job at the movie studio One week later Mo Ostin was named as the new President of Warner Bros Records with Joe Smith as his executive vice president 18 Ertegun nominally remained the head of Atlantic but since both Ostin and Smith owed their new positions to him Ertegun was now the de facto head of the Warner music division Ertegun was given the formal title of executive vice president Music Group 17 Maitland moved to MCA Records later that year and successfully consolidated MCA s labels which he couldn t do at Warner 1970s Edit During the 1970s the Kinney group built up a commanding position in the music industry In 1970 Kinney bought Elektra Records and its sister label Nonesuch Records founded by Jac Holzman in 1950 for 10 million bringing in leading rock acts including the Doors Tim Buckley and Love and its historically significant folk archive along with the successful budget Western classical music label Nonesuch Records The purchase of Elektra Nonesuch brought a rich back catalogue of folk music as well as the renowned Nonesuch catalogue of classical and world music Elektra founder Jac Holzman ran the label under Warners for two years but by that time he was by his own admission burnt out after twenty years in the business Kinney president Steve Ross subsequently appointed Holzman as part of a seven person brain trust tasked with investigating opportunities presented by new technologies a role Holzman was eager to accept 19 The same year the group established its first overseas offices in Canada and Australia By that time the Seven Arts moniker was dropped from the Warner Bros name Warner Bros also founded the Casablanca Records subsidiary headed by Neil Bogart but several years later Casablanca became independent from Warner Bros Warner Elektra Atlantic and worldwide distribution Edit With the Elektra acquisition the next step was forming an in house distribution arm for the co owned labels By this time Warner Reprise s frustrations with its current distributors had reached breaking point Joe Smith then executive vice president of Warner Bros recalled that the Grateful Dead were becoming a major act but the distributor was constantly out of stock of their albums These circumstances facilitated the full establishment of the group s in house distribution arm initially called Kinney Record Group International 20 21 By late 1972 US anti trust laws had changed and the company was renamed Warner Elektra Atlantic WEA for short which was renamed Warner Music in 1991 the word group was added after the formation of AOL Time Warner in 2001 WEA was an early champion of heavy metal rock music Several such bands including three major British pioneers Led Zeppelin Black Sabbath and Deep Purple were all signed to WEA s labels at least in the United States Among the earliest American metal acts to be signed to WEA were Alice Cooper Montrose and Van Halen Up to this point the Kinney owned record companies had relied on licensing deals with overseas record labels to manufacture distribute and promote its products in other countries concurrent with the establishment of its new distribution arm the company now began establishing subsidiaries in the other major markets beginning with the creation of Warner Bros Records Australia in 1970 soon followed by branch offices in the UK Europe and Japan 22 In July 1971 the new in house distribution company was incorporated as Warner Elektra Atlantic Distributing Corp WEA and branch offices were established in eight major US cities Joel Friedman a one time Billboard writer who had been the head of Warner s advertising merchandising division in its early years was appointed to head WEA s US domestic division and Ahmet Ertegun s brother Nesuhi was appointed to oversee its international operations Neshui Ertegun originally a Turkish native like his brother displayed a global perspective and independence from its U S counterpart by successfully promoting international acts in their target markets worldwide Ertegun headed WEA International until his retirement in 1987 A de facto committee of three senior marketing executives Dave Glew from Atlantic Ed Rosenblatt from Warner Bros and Mel Posner from Elektra oversaw the integration of each label s marketing and distribution through the new division 21 but each label continued to operate totally independently in A amp R matters and also applied their own expertise in marketing and advertising 23 On July 1 1971 following the pattern set by similar joint ventures in Canada and Australia the Warner labels entered into a partnership with the British arm of CBS Records to press and distribute Warner Reprise product in the United Kingdom although this was undertaken as a cooperative venture rather than a formally incorporated business partnership The Billboard article that reported the new arrangement also noted that despite their intense competition in the US market CBS continued to press Warner Reprise recordings in the US However the new UK arrangement was a major blow to Warner s previous British manufacturer Pye Records for whom Warner Reprise had been their largest account With the scheduled addition of the UK rights to the Atlantic catalogue which would revert to Kinney in early 1972 Billboard predicted that the Warner CBS partnership would have a 25 30 share of the UK music market 24 In April 1971 thanks mainly to the influence of Ahmet Ertegun the Kinney group announced a major coup with its acquisition of the worldwide rights to the Rolling Stones new label Rolling Stones Records following the expiration of the band s contract with British Decca then separate from the American label and the acrimonious end to their business relationship with their former manager Allen Klein Under the terms of the deal Atlantic subsidiary Atco would distribute the Stones recordings in the US with other territories mainly handled by Warner Bros international divisions 25 One of Kinney s wisest investments was Fleetwood Mac The band signed with Reprise in the early 1970s after relocating to the US and the label supported the group through numerous lineup changes and several lean years during which the band s records sold relatively poorly although they remained a popular concert attraction Ironically after the group s transfer to Warner Bros in 1975 and the recruitment of new members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks the group scored a major international hit with the single Rhiannon and consolidated with the best selling albums Fleetwood Mac Rumours and Tusk Warner Communications Edit Due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations Kinney National spun off its non entertainment assets in 1972 as National Kinney Corporation and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc 26 In 1972 the Warner group acquired another rich prize David Geffen s Asylum Records The 7 million purchase brought in several acts that proved crucial to WEA s subsequent success including Linda Ronstadt the Eagles Jackson Browne Joni Mitchell and later Warren Zevon On the downside however it was rumored that Warner was soon concerned about its possible liability under the California State Labor Code because of Geffen s questionable status as both the manager of most of the Asylum acts and the head of the record label to which they were signed The sale included the Asylum Records label and its recordings as well as Geffen s lucrative music publishing assets and the interests in the royalties of some of the artists managed by Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts Geffen accepted a five year contract with WCI and turned over his 75 share in the Geffen Roberts management company to Roberts and Warner paid Geffen and Roberts 121 952 common shares worth 4 750 000 at the time of the sale plus 400 000 in cash and a further 1 6 million in promissory notes convertible to common stock 27 Although it seemed a lucrative deal at the time Geffen soon had reason to regret it Uncharacteristically he had greatly underestimated the value of his assets within Asylum s first year as a Warner subsidiary albums by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles alone had earned more than the entire value of the Asylum sale Geffen s discomfort was compounded by the fact that within six months of the sale the value of his volatile Warner shares had plummeted from 4 5 million to just 800 000 He appealed to Steve Ross to intervene and as part of a make good deal Ross agreed to pay him the difference in the share value over five years Acting on Jac Holzman s suggestion that Kinney should take Asylum from Atlantic and merge it with Elektra Ross then appointed Geffen to run the new combined label 28 In 1976 Warner gained a brief early lead in digital media when it purchased the Atari computer company and in 1981 it bought The Franklin Mint company WCI also blazed the trail in visual music with MTV which it created and co owned in partnership with American Express In 1984 85 Warner rapidly divested many of these recent acquisitions including Atari Franklin Mint Panavision MTV Networks and a cosmetics business In 1977 Warner Bros Music led by president Ed Silvers formed Pacific Records for their composers and distributed appropriately by Atlantic Records Alan O Day was the first artist signed to the label and the first release was Undercover Angel The song which he described as a nocturnal novelette was released in February 1977 Within a few months it had become No 1 in the country and has sold approximately two million copies It was also a hit in Australia reaching No 9 on the Australian Singles Chart Undercover Angel also landed O Day in an exclusive club as one of only a handful of writers performers to pen a No 1 hit for themselves and a No 1 for another artist 29 30 New signings in the late 1970s placed WEA in a strong position for the 1980s A deal with Seymour Stein s Sire Records label which Warner Bros Records later took over brought in several major punk rock and new wave acts including the Pretenders the Ramones and Talking Heads and most importantly rising star Madonna Elektra signed the Cars and Warner Bros signed Prince giving WEA several of the biggest selling acts of the decade WEA s labels also distributed a number of otherwise independent labels For example Warner Bros distributed Straight Records DiscReet Records Bizarre Records Bearsville Records and Geffen Records the latter was sold to MCA in 1990 Atlantic Records distributed Swan Song Records In 1975 WEA scored a major coup by signing a distribution agreement with Island Records which only covered the United States and select other countries For the next 14 years initially with Warner Bros until 1982 then with Atlantic afterward WEA would distribute such artists as Bob Marley U2 Robert Palmer Anthrax and Tom Waits This relationship ended when Island was sold to PolyGram in 1989 1980s Edit Logo of WEA International A name only unit appearing exclusively in the copyright WEA International Inc was created in early 1982 to handle distribution of all Warner Bros Elektra and Atlantic all these namings accounting for the initials in the title WEA releases for international countries A proposed 1983 international merger between PolyGram and WEA was forbidden by both the US Federal Trade Commission and West Germany s cartel office so PolyGram s half owner Philips then purchased a further 40 of the company from its partner Siemens and bought the remaining shares in 1987 The same year PolyGram divested its film and publishing operations closed PolyGram Pictures and sold Chappell Music to Warner for US 275 million WEA formed WEA Manufacturing in 1986 31 In 1988 WEA took over the German classical label Teldec and the British Magnet label In 1989 it was announced that Warner Communications was to merge with Time Inc to form Time Warner a transaction that was completed in 1990 Following the merger WEA continued acquiring independent labels buying CGD Records Italy and MMG Records Japan in 1989 32 1990s Edit Through the 1990s Time Warner was the largest media company in the world with assets in excess of US 20 billion and annual revenues in the billions of dollars by 1991 Warner s music labels were generating sales valued at more than US 3 billion with operating profits of 550 million and by 1995 its music division dominated the US music industry with a 22 share of the domestic market 33 34 Acquisitions and corporate changes within the Warner group of labels continued after the Time Warner merger in 1990 WEA purchased French label Carrere Records in 1992 it bought the leading French classical label Erato and in 1993 it bought the Spanish DRO Records Hungary s Magneoton label the Swedish Telegram Records Brazil s Continental Records and Finnish label Fazer Musiikki WEA was renamed Warner Music in 1991 Atlantic launched two new subsidiary labels in the early 1990s East West Records and Interscope Records In 1995 East West absorbed Atco Records and was eventually folded into Elektra Records In 1996 after causing much controversy Interscope was purchased by MCA Music Entertainment During 1992 Warner Music faced one of the most serious public relations crises in its history when a major controversy erupted over the provocative Warner Bros recording Cop Killer from the self titled album by Body Count a heavy metal rap fusion band led by Ice T Unfortunately for Warner the song which mentioned the Rodney King case was issued just before the controversial acquittal of the police charged with King s beating which sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and the confluence of events put the song under the national spotlight Complaints escalated over the summer conservative police associations called for a boycott of Time Warner products politicians including President George H W Bush denounced the label for releasing the song Warner executives received death threats Time Warner stockholders threatened to pull out of the company and the New Zealand police commissioner unsuccessfully tried to have the record banned there Although Ice T later voluntarily reissued Body Count without Cop Killer the furor seriously rattled Warner Music and in January 1993 the label made an undisclosed deal releasing Ice T from his contract and returning the Body Count master tapes to him 35 Also in 1992 the Rhino Records label signed a distribution agreement with Atlantic Records and Time Warner bought a 50 stake in the Rhino Records label The distribution agreement allowed Rhino to begin reissuing recordings from Atlantic s back catalogue In 1994 Canadian beverage giant Seagram bought a 14 5 stake in Time Warner and the Warner publishing division now called Warner Chappell Music acquired CPP Belwin becoming the world s largest owner of song copyrights and the world s largest publisher of printed music In 1996 Time Warner made another dramatic expansion of its media holdings taking over the Turner Broadcasting System which by then included the Turner cable TV network CNN and the screen production houses Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema acquisitions that brought huge profits into the Warner Group thanks to content assets like Seinfeld and the highly successful The Lord of the Rings film trilogy By the early 1990s senior Warner staff like Ostin and Waronker had remained in their positions for several decades a highly unusual situation in the American music industry but the death of Steve Ross destabilized the Time Warner hierarchy and over the next few years the music group was increasingly disrupted by internal power struggles leading to a string of major executive upheavals in 1994 95 which The New York Times described as a virtual civil war 36 The central conflict was between Mo Ostin and Warner Music Group chairman Robert Morgado who had joined the Warner group in the late 1980s Because of his political background he had been the chief of staff to former New York governor Hugh L Carey and his lack of music industry experience especially compared to the widely revered Ostin Morgado was viewed as an outsider at Warner Nevertheless he gained favour with Ross and Levin and was promoted in 1985 to oversee the Warner international music division after helping the company slash costs in its computer game sector 34 Since his appointment as head of WBR Ostin had always reported directly to Steve Ross and his successor Gerald Levin but in late 1993 when Ostin s contract came up for renewal Morgado asserted his authority insisting that Ostin should now report directly to him The tensions between them reached boiling point in July 1994 when Morgado appointed former Atlantic chief Doug Morris to head the Warner Music Group in the US a decision that many saw as a deliberate move to hasten the departure of Ostin and Elektra head Robert Krasnow 34 Morgado s new structure was announced in August 1994 and Bob Krasnow resigned from Elektra the next day Within days after more than 30 years with the Warner music group and more than 20 years as president and chairman of Warner Bros Records Ostin announced he would not renew his current contract and would leave Warners when it expired on December 31 1994 There was more negative publicity the following month when leading Elektra act Metallica launched a lawsuit against the label seeking a release from their contract and ownership of their master tapes and claiming that Morgado had refused to honor a deal they had worked out with Krasnow before he quit Ostin s departure marked a seismic shift in the corporate culture at WBR and the news was greeted with dismay by industry insiders and the many artists whose careers he had helped to nurture Lenny Waronker had agreed to take over as WBR chairman and CEO but in October 1994 he announced that he would not be taking up the position he initially said that he would remain as President of WBR but by this time there was already widespread speculation that he would leave and he did so soon afterwards 37 The following year he re joined Ostin and son Michael as joint head of the newly launched DreamWorks label 38 Beginning in August 1994 Morgado alienated Morris by his clumsy handling of Warner s relationship with Interscope Records the successful label founded by Ted Field and Jimmy Iovine and part owned by Warner Morgado had resisted making a decision about increasing the Warner stake in Interscope which encouraged other companies to make overtures to the label in response Morgado threatened to send cease and desist notices to executives at several record companies demanding that they stop approaching Interscope with buyout offers a move that reportedly infuriated Iovine 34 By late 1994 Morris was gaining the upper hand over his rival and media reports claimed that Morris had moved to settle with Metallica offering a deal that was reportedly even more generous than the one they had worked out with Krasnow Morgado now faced a showdown with Morris who felt he was not being allowed to run WMG as he saw fit In October 1994 Morris and 11 other Warner executives staged an unprecedented insurrection that nearly paralyzed the world s largest record company 34 This led to a climactic meeting between Morris and Gerald Levin in late October at which Morris reportedly threatened to quit if he had to continue to report to Morgado 39 Morgado gave in to the demand that Morris be granted autonomy to run the North American operations and he was forced to upgrade Morris s position from chief operating officer to Chief Executive of Warner Music Group US Morris promptly named Danny Goldberg former president of Atlantic Records to run WBR in defiance of Morgado who had a different candidate in mind and Levin also reduced Morgado s power to oversee Warner s mail order record club division and its international operations 40 34 Morris then brought in Sylvia Rhone and Seymour Stein to stabilize Elektra settled the Metallica lawsuit and persuaded Levin to purchase an additional 25 of Interscope although this initiative proved short lived 34 The power struggle between Morgado and Morris reached a dramatic climax in May 1995 when Morgado was asked to resign by Gerald Levin following a welter of complaints from executives at the three major Warner Music labels who said that Morgado was undermining Morris s authority and damaging Warner s reputation among performers 40 Morgado was immediately replaced by HBO chairman Michael J Fuchs but the corporate upheavals did not end there in late June 1995 Fuchs abruptly dismissed Doug Morris saying that Morris had been leading a campaign to destabilize Warner Music in an effort to seize control of the company As Morris s strongest ally Danny Goldberg was also under threat he was initially told that he could stay on as President of WBR as long as he refrained from office politics and concentrate on the day to day management of the label but he resigned as President of Warner Bros Records soon after to pursue other interests and was replaced by WBR vice chairman Russ Thyret Despite early success with Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg and Morris s decision to increase Warner s stake to 50 by the mid 1990s Interscope Records was being seen as a liability for the Warner group Time Warner s board and investors had already been bruised by the damaging 1992 Cop Killer controversy and now they were faced with renewed criticism about the gangsta rap genre in which Interscope s associate imprint Death Row Records was a key label In mid 1995 Time Warner refused to distribute the Interscope album Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound forcing the label to seek outside distribution and late in the year TW sold its stake in Death Row back to co owners Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field and soon after it sold off its share in Interscope to MCA Music Entertainment 41 The upheaval at Warner was beneficial to its rivals who picked up valuable executives who had left Warner Goldberg moved over to Mercury Records Morris joined MCA Music Entertainment Group and led its reorganization into Universal Music Group now the world s largest record company In November 1995 Fuchs was himself sacked by Levin leaving the company with a reported US 60 million golden parachute and Time Warner co chairmen Robert A Daly and Terry Semel took over the running of the music division 42 43 44 In 1998 Seagram boss Edgar Bronfman Jr held talks aimed at merging Seagram s Universal Music headed by Morris with the venerable British recording company EMI but the discussions came to nothing Bronfman then oversaw Universal s takeover by Vivendi WEA meanwhile continued to expand its publishing empire buying a 90 stake in the Italian recording and music publishing group Nuova Fonit Cetra 45 Also in 1998 Time Warner bought the remaining 50 of the Rhino Records label they did not own The Rhino Records retail store in Los Angeles was not included Rhino then began reissuing the back catalogues of the Warner Reprise and Elektra Asylum labels In 1999 Rhino launched Rhino Handmade which released limited edition reissues of lesser known but still significant recordings from the WEA labels 2000s Edit Edgar Bronfman Jr scion of the Canadian based Bronfman family took control of WMG in 2004 In 2000 Time Warner merged with leading American internet service provider AOL to create AOL Time Warner The new conglomerate again tried and failed to acquire EMI and subsequent discussions about the takeover of BMG stalled with Bertelsmann eventually offloading BMG into a joint venture with Sony In 2002 AOLTW further consolidated its hold over the publishing industry buying 50 of music publisher Deston Songs from Edel AG By the early 2000s however the effects of the dot com crash had eroded AOL s profits and stock value and in 2003 the Time Warner board sidelined its under performing partner by dropping AOL from its business name 46 As a result of the CD price fixing issue a settlement was reached in 2002 involving the music publishers and distributors Sony Music WMG Bertelsmann Music Group EMI Music Universal Music In restitution for price fixing they agreed to pay a 67 4 million fine and distribute 75 7 million in CDs to public and non profit groups but admitted no wrongdoing 47 The Big W logo designed by Saul Bass formerly used as the logo of Warner Bros Entertainment now used as the corporate logo of Warner Music Group Looking to reduce its debt load Time Warner the corporate successor to Warner Communications sold Warner Music Group in 2004 to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr for US 2 6 billion This spinoff was completed on February 27 2004 In the 2004 transition to independent ownership WMG hired record industry heavyweight Lyor Cohen from Universal Music Group the result of the merger between the PolyGram and MCA label families to attempt to reduce cost and increase performance Time Warner now Warner Bros Discovery no longer retains any ownership in WMG though it had the option to reacquire up to 20 of WMG for three years following the closing of the transaction WMG did however have a royalty free license to use the Warner Bros shield for 15 years as well as the old Warner Communications logo as WMG s main logo 48 With the expiration of the royalty free license in May 2019 Warner Bros Records which became separate from the eponymous film studio after the spinoff was renamed Warner Records and a new logo was introduced to replace the WB shield 49 Once free of Time Warner WMG began cutting costs by offloading loss making or low earning divisions Like its rival EMI Warner reacted to the growth of the digital music market by making a historic change moving out of record production by closing or selling off disc pressing plants particularly in territories such as the US and the Netherlands where production costs are high The US manufacturing operations were sold to Cinram in 2003 before the purchase from Time Warner In 2005 the Miami based Warner Bros Publications which printed and distributed a broad selection of sheet music books educational material orchestrations arrangements and tutorials was sold to Alfred Music Publishing although the sale excluded the print music business of WMG s Word Music church hymnals choral music and associated instrumental music On May 3 2006 WMG apparently rejected a buyout offer from EMI 50 Then WMG offered to buy EMI and it also rejected the offer In August 2007 EMI was purchased by Terra Firma Capital Partners 51 Talk of a possible WMG acquisition of EMI was fanned once again in 2009 after WMG executed a bond offering for 1 1 billion which brought to light WMG s relatively strong financial position which was contrasted with the weakened and debt laden state of EMI 52 The same year WMG acquired Rykodisc and Roadrunner Records In September 2006 after pulling its content from the service earlier in the year WMG entered into a new licensing deal with the video streaming service YouTube Under the deal WMG would be able to handle advertising sales for its artists music videos on the service as well as monetize user created videos that include WMG owned recordings and partake in revenue sharing with YouTube and also collaborate with YouTube on building a premium user experience for its content and associated channels 53 54 On December 27 2007 Warner announced that it would sell digital music without digital rights management through AmazonMP3 making it the third major label to do so 55 In 2008 The New York Times reported that WMG s Atlantic Records became the first major record label to generate more than half of its music sales in the U S from digital products 56 In 2010 Fast Company magazine detailed the company s transformation efforts in its recorded music division where it has redefined the relationships it has with artists and diversified its revenue streams through its expansion into growing areas of the music business 57 In 2008 WMG and several other major labels made investments in the new music streaming service Spotify 58 non primary source needed Due to licensing deal negotiations between Google and WMG in 2008 music video content licensed by WMG was removed from YouTube 59 60 In 2009 it was announced that the companies had reached a deal and videos would be re added to YouTube 61 As of 2017 WMG had extended its deal with YouTube 62 In 2009 Warner Music took over its South East Asian and Korean distribution of EMI audio and video products including newer domestic releases which was announced in September 2008 The two companies already enjoyed a successful partnership in India the Middle East and North Africa where EMI marketed and distributed Warner Music s physical product from 2005 63 2010s Edit Leonard Blavatnik founder of Access Industries purchased WMG in 2011 WMG formed a partnership with MTV Networks in June 2010 that allowed MTVN to exclusively sell ads on WMG s premium content in turn views of WMG videos would be counted as views for MTVN 64 In May 2011 WMG announced its sale to Access Industries a conglomerate controlled by Soviet born billionaire Len Blavatnik for US 3 3 billion in cash 65 The price represented 8 25 a share a 34 premium over the six month before average price and a 4 premium over the day before price Overall this was a drop of over 70 since 2007 66 According to the Wall Street Journal the deal ended a three month sale process in which as many as 10 bidders including Los Angeles based brothers Tom and Alec Gores and Sony Corp vied for the company 67 Blavatnik was a shareholder and former board member of WMG at the time of the purchase announcement 68 The purchase was completed on July 20 2011 and the company became private 69 In August 2011 Stephen Cooper became CEO of Warner Music Group replacing Edgar Bronfman Jr who became chairman of the company 70 Bronfman Jr stepped down as chairman of the company on January 31 2012 71 EMI label purchase and divestment Edit In 2013 Warner acquired longtime EMI division Parlophone along with EMI Classics and some regional EMI operations from UMG for 487 million around 764 54 million US 72 73 This news came after reports that WMG was in talks to acquire EMI s recorded music business which was eventually bought by Universal 74 The European Commission approved the sale in May 2013 and Warner closed the acquisition on July 1 75 76 The EMI Classics roster was absorbed into Warner Classics and the Virgin Classics roster was absorbed into the revived Erato Records 77 In November 2013 WMG paid Universal an additional 30 million for Parlophone following an arbitration process in respect to the original sale price 78 In order to accommodate a deal made with IMPALA and the Merlin Network when it acquired Parlophone WMG agreed to offload over 200 million worth in catalogues to various independent labels 79 The labels had until February 28 2014 to inform Warner Music of which artist catalogues they were interested in acquiring and said artists had to approve of the divestments 80 By March 2015 over 140 independent labels had placed bids on over 11 000 Warner Music artists valuing 6 billion far higher than expectations 81 In March 2016 Curb Records acquired Warner Music s 80 share of Word Entertainment though WMG would continue to distribute the label 82 In April 2016 the first confirmed sale of a Warner Music artist was the back catalogue of English band Radiohead to XL Recordings 83 As of the end of May 2016 WMG had sold the catalogue of Chrysalis Records to Blue Raincoat Music as well as the catalogues of ten other artists including Everything But the Girl Steve Harley amp Cockney Rebel and Lucinda Williams 84 85 86 87 In September 2016 Nettwerk acquired the rights to albums by Guster and Airbourne from Warner Music 88 In April 2017 Warner Music agreed to sell the independent distributor Zebralution back to its founders 89 On June 1 2017 WMG divested additional artists including the catalogues of Hot Chip and Buzzcocks to Domino Recording Company Tom Waits to Anti and Howard Jones Dinosaur Jr and Kim Wilde to Cherry Red Records 90 Cosmos Music Group acquired the rights to Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson while Neil Finn s catalogue moved to his Lester Records label 91 On July 6 2017 Because Music acquired 10 French artists most of London Records back catalogue and The Beta Band while Concord Music acquired albums by Jewel Sergio Mendes R E M the Traveling Wilburys and several rock blues and jazz artists 92 93 94 95 In August 2017 The Lemonheads and The Groundhogs were transferred to Fire Records 96 In October 2017 Strut Records acquired albums by Patrice Rushen and Miriam Makeba 97 In November 2017 T I s catalogue was sold to Cinq Music Group 98 Woah Dad acquired over 20 catalogues including those of Ziggy Marley Estelle and several Swedish artists while Believe Digital acquired the rights to EMF and several French artists 99 In April 2018 RT Industries acquired seven catalogues from WMG including Sugar Ray and Fat Joe 100 In May 2018 New State Music acquired the catalogues of Paul Oakenfold and Dirty Vegas 101 Other winning bidders included The Echo Label Thomas Dolby Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Supergrass Nature Sounds Roy Ayers The state51 Conspiracy Donovan PIAS Recordings Failure Evolution Music Group Mr Big Playground Music Scandinavia Olle Adolphson Metal Blade Records King Diamond Snapper Music Mansun and its sublabel Kscope Porcupine Tree Phoenix Music International Lulu Kobalt Label Services HIM and Tommy Boy Music which reclaimed its pre 2002 catalogue and the rights to Brand Nubian Handsome Boy Modeling School s White People Grand Puba and Club Nouveau All the labels had to complete their deals by September 30 2017 though a few announcements came after that date 102 Expansion Edit In October 2012 WMG became one of the last major labels to sign with Google s music service It was also one of the last labels to reach an agreement with Spotify 103 In June 2013 WMG expanded into Russia by acquiring Gala Records best known as the longtime distributor of EMI 104 Later that year Warner Music Russia agreed to locally distribute releases by Disney Music Group 105 and Sony Music 106 Later that year WMG closed a deal with Clear Channel Media that saw its artists paid for terrestrial radio play for the first time Clear Channel would get preferential rates for streaming songs through its iHeartRadio service and other online platforms It was believed that the agreement would put pressure on other big labels including Sony and Universal to reach similar deals 107 In 2017 WMG formed a TV and film division Warner Music Entertainment led by former MGM executive Charlie Cohen In March 2020 it hired Kate Shepherd the former head of entertainment at Ridley Scott Creative Group 108 This division paired with Imagine Entertainment on a Nat Geo limited series Genius Aretha which led to a co producing and co financing agreement for a music slate in July 2020 109 International labels Edit On November 14 2013 it was determined that Warner Music s releases in the Middle East would be distributed by Universal Music as a result of the integration of EMI s branch in said region 110 Sony Music India would assume distribution of WMG in India Sri Lanka and rest of SAARC countries except Bangladesh 111 In December 2013 Warner Music began operating the wholly owned South African subsidiary after acquiring the Gallo s stakes that it did not own 112 In April 2014 WMG announced that it had acquired Chinese record label Gold Typhoon 113 In April 2016 WMG agreed to distribute most of BMG Rights Management s catalogue worldwide through Warner s ADA division though a few frontline releases would remain distributed by other labels 114 115 Around the end of May 2016 WMG acquired the Indonesian label PT Indo Semar Sakti 116 Warner Music UK launched The Firepit in May 2016 a creative content division innovation centre and recording studio located at their United Kingdom headquarters in London 117 On June 2 2016 Warner Music acquired Swedish compilation label X5 Music Group 118 In September 2017 one week after acquiring American rock label Artery Recordings WMG acquired the Dutch EDM label Spinnin Records 119 In February 2018 Warner Music launched a division in the Middle East based in Beirut Lebanon Warner Music Middle East will cover 17 markets across North Africa and the Middle East 120 In January 2019 WMG signed a Turkish distribution deal with Dogan Media Group which will represent the record company for physical and digital releases 121 In May 2019 Warner Music Finland acquired the hip hop label Monsp Records 122 In July 2019 Warner Music Slovakia acquired Forza Music which owned the former state owned label Opus Records 123 In February 2021 WMG purchased a minority stake in the Saudi Arabian record label Rotana Records 124 Elektra Music Group and further investments Edit In July 2017 Warner Music acquired the concert discovery website Songkick 125 In May news media reported that Warner Music led an investment round in Hooch a popular subscription lifestyle application including blockchain based payment technology 126 Announced on June 18 2018 but effective on October 1 2018 Warner Music Group launched Elektra Music Group as a stand alone staffed music company with the labels Elektra Records Fueled By Ramen Low Country Sound Black Cement and Roadrunner Records A handful of major artists would transfer from Atlantic This returned the group back to the Warner Elektra Atlantic WEA triad that had marked the original company organization for decades 127 On August 2 2018 Warner Music announced that it acquired Uproxx Media Group and its properties except for BroBible which will continue to publish independently for an undisclosed sum although Uproxx has raised around 43m 33m from previous investment which provides some sense of the firm s valuation 128 In September 2018 WMG acquired German merchandise retailer EMP Merchandising from Sycamore Partners for 180 million 129 In October 2018 Warner Music Group announced the launch of the WMG Boost seed venture fund 130 Several labels of Warner Music moved into the Los Angeles Arts District in 2019 where the company had purchased a former Ford Motor Company assembly plant 131 2020s Edit On March 9 2020 WMG expanded to India creating the Warner Music India unit based in Mumbai and handling business in other countries for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Jay Mehta former executive of Sony Music India would take change of the unit as the managing director in April 132 Before the division s foundation Warner s releases were distributed in the country by EMI Virgin Records India Pvt and by Sony Music India since EMI s breakup In August 2020 Warner Music acquired Tel Aviv and New York based IMGN Media in a deal worth approximately 100 million 133 In September 2020 WMG acquired the online hip hop magazine HipHopDX 134 In 2021 WMG invested an eight figure sum into global multiplayer gaming platform Roblox This followed WMG artist Ava Max s live performance on the platform the previous year 135 Warner Music Group had planned an IPO of current investors stock in March 2020 but withdrew its IPO just before the March 2 kick off due to the COVID 19 pandemic 136 On June 3 2020 it completed its IPO on Nasdaq raising almost 2 billion with a valuation of 12 75 billion making WMG once again a publicly traded company after previously going private in 2011 8 9 On June 12 2020 Tencent announced that it had purchased 10 4 of Warner Music s Class A shares or 1 6 of the company 137 Tencent already owns 10 of shares of WMG s largest competitor Universal Music Group which it acquired from Vivendi in March Also this makes Sony Music the only major music company not directly owned in any percentage by a Chinese company it is wholly owned by the Japanese conglomerate Sony 138 In December 2020 WMG signed a partnership deal with TikTok to provide music to their platform for users to use for their content The deal is expected to help their revenue grow 139 140 In January 2023 Stephen Cooper was succeeded by Robert Kyncl as CEO of WMG 141 Arts Music EditOn June 6 2017 Warner Music Group launched a new division Arts Music Inc which consists of labels for classical jazz and children s music plus musical theater and film scores The division was placed under president Kevin Gore who reports to Eliah Seton President of ADA Worldwide the group s independent distribution and services arm At the same time Warner Classics including the Erato label while remaining based in Paris and continuing under president Alain Lanceron were transferred into the new division Also a joint venture with Sh K Boom Ghostlight Records the theatrical music company was formed with founder president Kurt Deutsch being named as senior vice president of theatrical and catalog development for Warner Chappell Music 142 In November 2018 Arts Music signed a multi year deal with Sesame Workshop to revive the Sesame Street Records label starting early 2019 143 In June 2019 WMG purchased First Night Record a musical theater cast recording company and placed the company within Arts Music 144 On June 24 2019 the division launched the licensed Cloudco Entertainment label with the release of the current Holly Hobbie theme song as a part of a multi season deal 145 Build A Bear Workshop teamed up with Arts Music and Warner Chappell Music in July 2019 to partner on the Build A Bear label with Patrick Hughes and Harvey Russell 146 On May 1 2020 toy manufacturer and entertainment company Mattel Inc struck an agreement with Arts Music to become the exclusive distributor of its music catalogue 147 148 The agreement was to make hundreds of never before released and newly released albums and singles available for existing Mattel properties brands for digital distribution beginning with the launch of Thomas amp Friends birthday album on May 8 149 Consequently the soundtrack album of Monster High Boo York Boo York and other Mattel albums previously released by Universal Music Group through its film distribution agreement with Universal Pictures would be re released by the label Mattel Arts Music via ADA Worldwide 150 151 Music publishing EditWarner Chappell Music dates back to 1811 and the creation of Chappell amp Company a sheet music and instrument merchant in London In 1929 Jack L Warner president of Warner Bros Pictures Inc founded Music Publishers Holding Company MPHC to acquire music copyrights as a means of providing inexpensive music for films and in 1987 Warner Bros corporate parent Warner Communications acquired Chappell amp Company from PolyGram Its printed music operation Warner Bros Publications was sold to Alfred Music on June 1 2005 Among the historic compositions of which the publishing rights are controlled by WMG are the works of Cole Porter Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart In the 1930s and 1940s Chappell Music also ran a profitable orchestration division for Broadway musicals with house arrangers of the caliber of Robert Russell Bennett Don Walker Ted Royal and Hans Spialek Between them they had orchestrated about 90 of the productions seen up to late 1941 152 See also Edit Companies 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the original on November 17 2012 Retrieved January 14 2012 Updated Edgar Bronfman Jr to Step Down as Warner Music Group Chairman No Successor Named Billboard December 5 2011 Archived from the original on January 11 2012 Retrieved January 14 2012 Warner Music Group to acquire the Parlophone Label Group WMG Archived from the original on August 17 2014 Retrieved February 7 2013 Sisario Ben February 7 2013 Warner Music Group Buys EMI Assets for 765 Million Media Decoder Blog Archived from the original on August 1 2018 Retrieved July 31 2018 Sisario Ben September 21 2012 Universal Takeover of EMI Music Is Approved The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on August 1 2018 Retrieved July 31 2018 Updated Warner Music Group s Acquisition of Parlophone Approved by European Commission Billboard November 1 2012 Retrieved July 22 2013 Warner Music Group Closes on Acquisition of Parlophone Label Group Billboard July 1 2013 Archived from the original on July 8 2013 Retrieved July 22 2013 Warner clarifies future of EMI and Virgin Classics artists classical music com Archived from the original on November 29 2014 Retrieved January 3 2014 Ingham Tim August 3 2015 Warner Music Group paid more money for Parlophone than we thought Music Business Worldwide Archived from the original on August 6 2015 Retrieved August 5 2015 Warner Music Begins Auctioning Off Assets to Indies Following Parlophone Acquisition Billboard Archived from the original on August 1 2018 Retrieved July 31 2018 Warner Music Begins Auctioning Off Assets to Indies Following Parlophone Acquisition Billboard com Archived from the original on November 15 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Ingham Tim March 19 2015 Warner 50 times oversubscribed as 140 indies bid for assets Music Business Worldwide Archived from the original on August 16 2015 Retrieved August 5 2015 Curb Records acquires Word Entertainment The Tennessean Radiohead s back catalog purchased by XL Recordings Report Billboard April 4 2016 Archived from the original on April 5 2016 Retrieved April 5 2016 Warner sells Chrysalis Records back to Chris Wright and Blue Raincoat Music Business Worldwide June 1 2016 Archived from the original on June 3 2016 Retrieved June 1 2016 Garner George July 18 2017 Girl power Inside Chrysalis new deal for Everything But The Girl s catalogue Music Week Archived from the original on September 24 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Now Warner sells records by Athlete Steve Harley and more to Chrysalis Music Business Worldwide Musicweek com July 7 2016 Archived from the original on July 6 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Chrysalis acquires Parlophone catalogues under divestment deal Musicweek com Archived from the original on December 4 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Warner sells assets to Nettwerk as divestment process picks up pace Music Business Worldwide September 28 2016 Archived from the original on March 16 2017 Retrieved March 15 2017 Warner Music Sells Digital Distributor Zebralution Billboard Archived from the original on April 3 2017 Retrieved April 3 2017 Cherry Red set to capitalise on Warner divestment Music Week Archived from the original on August 14 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Warner sells flurry of copyrights as indie divestment process heads towards finish line Music Business Worldwide June 1 2017 Archived from the original on June 6 2017 Retrieved June 6 2017 Because confirms acquisition of London Records catalogue Music Business Worldwide July 6 2017 Archived from the original on September 12 2018 Retrieved July 7 2017 Bananarama rejoint le label de Christine and The Queen Lesechos fr August 10 2017 Archived from the original on October 17 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Because buys Beta Band catalogue other deals imminent as Warner divestment deadline day looms Music Week Archived from the original on December 3 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Concord buys yet again in multi million dollar deal with Warner Music Business Worldwide July 6 2017 Archived from the original on July 15 2019 Retrieved July 7 2017 Warner sells Atlantic s The Lemonheads catalogue to Fire Records Music Business Worldwide August 14 2017 Archived from the original on June 18 2018 Retrieved December 9 2017 K7 Music picks up catalogues in Parlophone divestment Musicweek com Archived from the original on October 19 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Cinq Music Acquires T I Catalog Plans Paper Trail Reissue Exclusive Billboard com Archived from the original on November 13 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Goteborgsbolaget Woah dad satsar internationellt Gp se November 15 2017 Archived from the original on November 21 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Jones Rhian April 17 2018 Independent label RT Industries launches with divestments from Warner Music Business Worldwide Archived from the original on August 9 2020 Retrieved September 4 2018 Proper makes trio of hires signs up NewState Recordoftheday com May 16 2018 Archived from the original on September 20 2018 Retrieved September 4 2018 Everything must go Warner Music s indie divestment will end September 30 Music Week Archived from the original on December 2 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Sisario Ben October 29 2012 Google Signs Deal With Warner Music Group Media Decoder Blog Archived from the original on March 8 2013 Retrieved February 18 2013 Warner Music se implanta en Rusia tras comprar el sello Gala Radio Bio Bio June 18 2013 Archived from the original on June 20 2013 Retrieved July 22 2013 Kozlov Vladimir November 25 2013 Disney Warner Music Strike Russia Distribution Deal The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on February 27 2014 Retrieved June 5 2014 Cooke Chris Warner to handle CD distribution for Sony in Russia Complete Music Update Archived from the original on October 1 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Atkinson Claire September 12 2013 Warner artists get paid for radio play under landmark Clear Channel deal New York Post Archived from the original on September 16 2013 Retrieved September 14 2013 Aswad Jem Davis Rebecca June 12 2020 Tencent Acquires 200 Million Stake in Warner Music Variety Archived from the original on July 8 2020 Retrieved July 7 2020 Littleton Cynthia July 6 2020 Imagine Sets Production and Financing Pact With Warner Music Group EXCLUSIVE Variety Archived from the original on July 6 2020 Retrieved July 7 2020 EMI Music Arabia Archived December 3 2013 at the Wayback Machine November 14 2013 Retrieved on December 1 2013 Jagannathan K T December 11 2013 Sony Warner ink licensing deal The Hindu Chennai India Archived from the original on December 16 2013 Retrieved December 14 2013 Warner announces launch of new South African business Complete Music Update December 6 2013 Archived from the original on January 13 2015 Retrieved December 13 2013 Warner Acquires Gold Typhoon Group To Grow China Presence Billboard Archived from the original on May 1 2014 Retrieved April 30 2014 Warner Music Group Lands Distribution For BMG Catalog Allaccess com Archived from the original on December 10 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 BMG moves distribution of 8 000 albums to Warner s ADA Music Business Worldwide March 7 2017 Archived from the original on March 13 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Warner Music Group does deals with Times Music and PT Indo Semar Sakti Complete Music Update Archived from the original on June 2 2016 Retrieved June 1 2016 Warner Music U K Launches Creative Content Division The Firepit Billboard com Archived from the original on October 14 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Warner Music Group Acquires Digital Compilation Company X5 The Hollywood Reporter June 2 2016 Archived from the original on December 22 2017 Retrieved December 20 2017 WMG acquires Spinnin Records Music Week Archived from the original on January 8 2018 Retrieved December 9 2017 Warner Music Group launches record company in the Middle East Music Business Worldwide February 1 2018 Archived from the original on December 29 2018 Retrieved February 2 2018 Stassen Murray January 30 2019 Warner Music inks wide ranging deal with Istanbul based Dogan Group Music Business Worldwide Archived from the original on January 30 2019 Retrieved January 30 2019 Warner Music Finland Acquires Indie Hip Hop Label Monsp Records Forbes com Archived from the original on June 3 2019 Retrieved June 3 2019 Warner Music Acquires Slovakia s Forza Music Billboard Archived from the original on July 9 2019 Retrieved July 9 2019 Warner Music Group buys minority stake in Saudi Arabia s Rotana Music February 16 2021 Archived from the original on February 16 2021 Retrieved February 18 2021 Warner Music Acquires Songkick the Concert Discovery App Billboard com Archived from the original on November 19 2017 Retrieved December 9 2017 Hooch Plans to Launch Blockchain Powered Tap Coin Cheddar TV Archived from the original on June 18 2018 Retrieved June 6 2018 Aswad Jem June 18 2018 Warner to Launch Elektra Music Group as Stand Alone Company Variety Archived from the original on June 18 2018 Retrieved June 18 2018 Maytom Tim August 3 2018 Uproxx Media Group Acquired by Warner Music Group Mobile Marketing Magazine Archived from the original on August 4 2018 Retrieved August 4 2018 Warner Music to Acquire EMP Merchandising for 180 Million Variety com September 17 2018 Archived from the original on September 17 2018 Retrieved September 17 2018 Bowenbank Starr October 5 2018 Warner Music Announces WMG Boost An Investment Fund for Start Ups Billboard Archived from the original on October 6 2018 Retrieved October 8 2018 Vincent Roger April 7 2019 Warner Music turns former Ford assembly plant into Arts District music factory Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on April 8 2019 Retrieved April 8 2019 Warner Music Launches in India With Former Sony Exec Jay Mehta at the Helm Variety March 9 2020 Archived from the original on April 7 2020 Retrieved May 1 2020 Warner Music acquires IMGN a social media publishing platform for under 100M TechCrunch August 14 2020 Retrieved September 17 2020 Warner Music Group acquires hip hop media platform HipHopDX Music Business Worldwide September 15 2020 Archived from the original on November 17 2020 Retrieved November 15 2020 Roblox Raises 520M From Warner Music Group and Others Billboard Archived from the original on January 13 2021 Retrieved January 16 2021 Franklin Joshua March 2 2020 Warner Music Cole Haan delay IPOs amid coronavirus jitters sources CNBC Archived from the original on April 4 2020 Retrieved May 1 2020 Tencent buys 200m stake in Warner Music Group update Music Business Worldwide June 12 2020 Archived from the original on November 27 2020 Retrieved November 15 2020 Ingham Tim July 13 2020 What s Sony Planning in Music and Will It Involve Tencent Rolling Stone Archived from the original on March 8 2021 Retrieved March 8 2021 Warner Music Group Modernized And Ready To Play In The New Streaming World seekingalpha com April 15 2021 Archived from the original on April 15 2021 Retrieved April 15 2021 Warner Music signs with TikTok as more record companies jump on social media bandwagon themusicnetwork com January 7 2021 Archived from the original on April 29 2021 Retrieved January 7 2021 Marshall Elizabeth Dilts November 22 2022 Warner Music s Outgoing CEO Steve Cooper Sees New Golden Age of Music Ahead Billboard Retrieved January 11 2023 Aswad Jem June 6 2017 Warner Announces Arts Music Division for Classical Musicals Jazz Variety Archived from the original on November 28 2018 Retrieved November 28 2018 Warner Music Group and Sesame Workshop team up to relaunch Sesame Street Records Music Business Worldwide November 27 2018 Archived from the original on July 16 2019 Retrieved July 16 2019 Warner Music Acquires Musical Theater Indie First Night Records Variety July 15 2019 Archived from the original on July 16 2019 Retrieved July 16 2019 Foster Elizabeth June 24 2019 Holly Hobbie sings a new tune Kidscreen Archived from the original on July 24 2019 Retrieved July 24 2019 Cirisano Tatiana July 9 2019 Build A Bear Workshop Launches New Record Label With Warner Music Group amp Warner Chappell Billboard Archived from the original on July 9 2019 Retrieved July 16 2019 Millman Ethan May 1 2020 Warner Music s Newest Artists Are Hot Wheels and Barbie Rolling Stone Retrieved June 1 2020 Mattel and Warner Music Group Announce Exclusive Global Distribution Partnership Press release Mattel May 1 2020 Archived from the original on September 28 2020 Retrieved May 23 2020 Warner Music Strikes Distribution Deal With Mattel for 1 000 Songs From Barbie Thomas amp Friends More Variety Penske Media Corporation May 1 2020 Archived from the original on May 1 2020 Retrieved May 1 2020 Mattel and Warner Music Group Announce Exclusive Global Distribution Partnership Press release Warner Music Group May 1 2020 Retrieved June 1 2020 Warner Music Group signs distribution partnership with Mattel Music Ally May 4 2020 Retrieved May 23 2020 The Boys That Make the Noise Time July 5 1943 Bibliography EditFred Goodman 1997 The Mansion on the Hill Dylan Young Geffen Springsteen and the Head on Collision of Rock and Commerce Jonathan Cape Random House ISBN 978 0679743774 External links EditOfficial website Business data for Warner Music Group BloombergGoogleReutersSEC filingsYahoo Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Warner Music Group amp oldid 1146403497, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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