Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group Inc. (WMG), also known as Warner Music, 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 WarnerMedia), the company was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange until May 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries, which was completed in July 2011. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 3,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world.
The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful labels in the world, including Elektra Records, Warner Bros. Records, Parlophone, 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===
====Atlantic exerts autonomy====
===1970s===
====Worldwide distribution====
====Warner Communications====
===1980s===
===1990s===
===2000s===
===2010s===
====Sale to Access Industries====
====EMI label purchase and divestment====
====Expansion====
====International labels====
====Elektra Music Group and further investments====
==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 Publishing 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.
==See also==
* List of record labels
* List of Warner Music Group artists
* List of Warner Music Group labels
==External links==
;Official websites
* Warner Music Group
* Warner Bros. Records
* Warner Music Italy
* Warner Music Latina
* Warner Music China
* Warner Music Korea
* Warner Music Indonesia
* Warner Music Japan
;Other resources
* Warner Music Group company profile at Yahoo Business
* SEC filings at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
 
Category:American record labels
Category:Soundtrack record labels
Category:Record label distributors
Category:Entertainment companies based in New York City
Category:IFPI members
Category:Media companies based in New York City
Category:Multi-channel networks
Category:Companies based in Manhattan
Category:American companies established in 1958
Category:Entertainment companies established in 1958
Category:Holding companies established in 1958
Category:Media companies established in 1958
Category:Record labels established in 1958
Category:1958 establishments in New York (state)
Category:Bain Capital companies
Category:Providence Equity Partners companies
Category:Private equity portfolio companies
Category:Former Time Warner subsidiaries
Category:2011 mergers and acquisitions