Sony Music Production Company

Sony Music Production Company

Sony Music Entertainment (SME) is an American global music conglomerate owned by Sony and is one of the 'Big Three' record companies comprised of Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. The music publishing component of the company, Sony/ATV which was formed in 1995 in collaboration with Michael Jackson, is the leading music publisher in the world. Alongside this, it owns half of SYCO Entertainment, responsible for operating some of the western world's most successful TV programmes, such as Got Talent and The X factor.

They are known to generally invest in favoured genres as they provide the safest investment but do have the capacity and abilities to produce material for all genres, ages and genders. They house a number of popular artists on the Billboard charts. SME market towards demographics but despite this there has been a growing decline in album sales perhaps due to the rising costs of producing music and the competitive nature of the industry. Their uniqueness and branding sets SME apart and gives it strength to be ahead in the competition.

Sony Music UK is a separate branch, owned by SME that has its individual operations in the UK to promote home talent and musicians.

History
Columbia was formed in 1887 which is the oldest in the history of the recording industry and from there it evolved and Sony Music was established.

It was originally founded in 1929 as 'American Record Corporation' renamed as Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938.

In 1966, Columbia was renamed as CBS Records and just 2 years later in March 1968, CBS and Sony formed CBS/Sony Records - a Japanese business joint venture.

On January 1, 1991, Sony renamed the record company Sony Music Entertainment as well as reintroducing the Columbia label worldwide after being held in North America previously.

Sony and Bertelsmann established a 50-50 joint venture known to be Sony MBG Music Entertainment, transforming two separate businesses into one singular entity. Upon this agreement the European Union gladly accepted this merger, believing it will drive growth, job creations and innovations. However, 2008 saw Sony acquire Bertelsmann's stake, reverting back to SME. Due to this buyout, Sony inherited all of BMG's labels, a catalyst for BMG's dissolution.