Universal Music Group:
Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. With a 25.5% market share, it is one of the Big Four record labels. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivendi; Universal Studios, the movie studio, was sold in part to NBC, which itself is part of GE.
UMG owns the largest music publishing business in the world, Universal Music Publishing Group, following the acquisition of BMG Music Publishing in May 2007.
Vivendi's headquarters are in Paris, France. In the United States, UMG is located in Santa Monica, California, and New York City, along with Universal Music Group Nashville; in the UK the group has a number of offices in London and Romford.
Universal Music has announced that it will develop an online site for music videos inspired by Hulu.com, the site setup by News Corp. and NBC that allows free, ad-supported streaming of TV shows [2]
[edit] History
"Universal Music" was once the music company attached to film studio Universal Pictures. Its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in 1934.[3] MCA Inc. bought American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram and merged it with Universal Music Group in 1998. However, the name first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group.
With the 2004 acquisition of Vivendi's Vivendi Universal Entertainment by General Electric's NBC, Universal Music Group was separated entirely from its film studio namesake for the first time.
In February 2006, the group became 100% owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi SA when Vivendi purchased the last 20% from Matsushita, the group's sole owner from 1990 to 1995 and co-owner from 1995 to 2006.
On May 25, 2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion ($2.4 billion) purchase of BMG Music Publishing, after receiving European Union regulatory approval, having announced the acquisition on September 6, 2006.[4][5]
[edit] Labels
- Further information: Record labels owned by Universal Music Group
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Payola
In May 2006, an investigation led by then New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, concluded with a determination that Universal bribed radio stations to play songs from Ashlee Simpson, Brian McKnight, Big Tymers, Nick Lachey, Lindsay Lohan and other performers working for Universal labels. The company paid $12 million to the state in settlement.[6]
[edit] Pay-per-listen
In September 2007, Universal came up with a new way of tackling music piracy by "paying the pirates", beginning with a pilot of tracks from will.i.am (will.i.am music group). [7]
[edit] MySpace.com
In December 2007, Colbie Caillat inadvertently announced that The Universal Music Group recently enacted a new policy on MySpace.com that will reduce all songs from artists within The Universal Music Group to 90 seconds. [2]
[edit] Imeem.com
In December 2007 The Label announced a deal with Imeem which allows users of the social network to listen to any track from Universal's catalogue for free with a portion of the advertising generated by the music being shared with the record label[8]. Two weeks after the deal was announced Michael Robertson speculated on the secret terms of the deal and argued that ultimately this was a bad deal for imeem. This speculation lead to a flame war on the Pho digital media email list as imeem representatives denied his claims and dismissed his theories as unfounded.[9]
[edit] International Music Feed (IMF)
On January 7, 2008 UMG had announced that the IMF channel would be going off the air as the music group had sold the channel to another network dedicated to showcases of the fine arts. As of January 9, 2008, Channel 157 on Dish Network had officially become Ovation TV.[10]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ "Universal Music Group FAQ". New.UMusic.com. Universal Music Group. Retrieved on 20 November 2008.
- ^ Exclaim News: Universal to Create Hulu-like Music Video Site
- ^ "US Decca LP Labels". HeroInc.0Catch.com. Daniels, Frank (2003). Retrieved on 20 November 2008.
- ^ Adegoke, Yinka (25 May 2007). "Universal Music closes on BMG". Reuters.com. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved on 20 November 2008.
- ^ "Universal to buy BMG publishing". News.BBC.co.uk. BBC News (06 September 2006). Retrieved on 20 November 2008.
- ^ Garrity, Brian (11 May 2006). "UMG Settles With Spitzer". Billboard.biz. MediaWeek. Retrieved on 20 November 2008.
- ^ Pay-per-listen innovation from Black Eyed Peas man (thelondonpaper)
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ Digital Music War Gets Dirtier - News Blog - Daily Brief - Portfolio.com
- ^ StrategyWire :: Universal Music sells music channel to Ovation
[edit] External links
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