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Sony Music

Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Sony Entertainment and managed by the American umbrella division of multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of the Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing.[4]

For the Japanese operations using this name, see Sony Music Entertainment Japan.

Formerly

Various

September 9, 1929 (1929-09-09)

Louis G. Sylvester

Worldwide

Increase US$8.86 billion [1] (FY 2020)

Increase US$1.74 billion [1] (FY 2020)

11,100 (2023[2])

Founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation, it was acquired by the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938 and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. Sony bought the company in 1991 and renamed it SME. In 2004, Sony and Bertelsmann established a 50–50 joint venture known as Sony BMG to handle the operations of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), but Sony bought out Bertelsmann's stake 4 years later and reverted to using the 1991 company name. This buyout led to labels formerly under BMG ownership, including Arista, Jive, LaFace and J Records into former BMG and currently Sony's co-flagship record label, RCA Records, in 2011 and led to the relaunch of BMG as BMG Rights Management. Arista Records would later be revived in 2018.


On July 17, 2019, Sony announced a merger of Sony Music Entertainment and music publishing arm Sony/ATV to form the Sony Music Group.[5] The merger was completed on August 1, 2019.[6][7]


As of 2023, Sony Music Entertainment is the second largest of the "Big Three" record companies, behind Universal Music Group and followed by Warner Music Group. Its music publishing division Sony Music Publishing (formerly Sony/ATV) is the largest music publisher in the world.[8][9]

Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited

January 4, 1980 (1980-01-04)

United Kingdom

2 Canal Reach, London, UK

Sony Music Russia

Сони Мьюзик Энтертейнмент

Soni Myuzik Enterteynment

Music recording

1999 (1999)

March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)

Russia

Arina Dmitrieva (CEO)[86]

US$42.7 million (FY 2021)[86]

US$2.22 million (FY 2021)[86]

Sony

40-50 (2022)[87]

SBME Holdings B.V.[86]

Official website (archived)

Columbia Records

RCA Records

Epic Records

Arista Records

List of Sony Music artists

Sony Music Publishing

Sony BMG

Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal

Sony Music Entertainment Japan

Sony Music Australia

Sony Music UK

Sony Music India

Tero Entertainment

Lists of record labels

Official website

via Yahoo! Business

Yahoo! – Sony Music Entertainment Company Profile

on YouTube

Sony Music's channel

Sony Music TV

publishing catalog at MusicBrainz

Sony Music