Universal Music Group

1) Universal Music Group (UMG) is the largest group of record labels in the recording industry. Universal Music Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of international French media conglomerate Vivendi. Universal music groups is based in 72 countries. UMG’s corporate headquarters are located at Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica and Broadway, New York.


Founded:

1934 (as Decca Records USA)
1989 (MCA Music Entertainment Group formed)
1996 (first UMG incarnation)
1998 (second UMG incarnation)

Music Publishing: Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is the industry's largest global music publishing operation. UMPG represents music in every genre from some of the world’s hottest songwriters and catalogs including Abba, Adele, Christina Aguilera, Lily Allen, Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Bjork, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Ciara, The Clash, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, The Cure, Daughtry, Danny Elfman, Eminem, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Franz Ferdinand, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John/Bernie Taupin, Joy Division, Keane, R. Kelly, The Killers, Diana Krall, Avril Lavigne, Linkin Park, Henry Mancini, Maroon 5, Nelly, Prince, Otis Redding, Sex Pistols, Paul Simon, Britney Spears, 3 Doors Down, Justin Timberlake, T-Pain, and U2, among many others. UMPG is also a global leader in the areas of Production Music, Christian and Classical Music.

Distribution: In the U.S., Universal Music Group Distribution has been the industry market share leader for the past ten years and consists of four major divisions: Universal Music Distribution (UMD), Fontana, Vivendi Entertainment (VE), and UMGD Digital. UMD handles distribution and sales for UMG’s diverse roster of labels as well as a wide variety of associated labels. Fontana is the company’s independent sales, marketing and distribution arm, VE is its theatrical and home entertainment distribution division, and UMGD Digital manages and distributes all of Universal Music Group’s digital assets including mobile. In some markets outside the U.S., UMG companies handle their own distribution and sales. In other markets UMG companies have sub-contracted services to third parties or entered into distribution joint ventures with other record companies.

Record Labels Bought By Universal Music Group:

• Interscope Geffen A&G

• Verve Records

• Decca label Group

• Island Def Jam Music Group

• Universal Motown Republic Group

Record Labels

1a) Record labels are companies that invest in and develop musical talent in the around the world, they pay for the recording and mixing of albums (with this money being recouped through the sale and a wder expolitation of the recordings) from this they often underwrite new acts to help raise their profiles and sales of tours. They also provide an essential promotion and marketing role, which includes developing, executing and marketing campaigns aswell as promoting acts to the media. Record labels can find other ways of exploiting their recordings such as being used in movies and adverts.


b) The services that a record label provides for an artisit is a;

• promotion and marketing role
• advertising
• manufacturing and distributing the recordings
• exploitation

c) An artisit would want to be signed to a record label because it will enable the artists, through advances and marketing/sales support, to treat their music making as a full-time career. They expolit the artists recordings commercially and collect snf psy the resulting royalties on their behalf. Record labels turn to the financial community to provide money. they use royalties, tour tickets, sales of albums and singles and get banks to invest in there artist (label) 


'Big Four' (majors) 

• Sony BMG (Beyonce, Justin Timberlake) 
• Universal Music Group (Justin Bieber, Black eyed Peas)
• EMI (Kyle Minogue, Dizzee Rascal)
• Warner Music Group (Michael Buble, Madonna) 

Section B: Institutions and Audiences

For Section B, we shall be studying the music industry. We shall focus on case studies of two record labels within the contemporary music industry which target British audiences, including their patterns of production, distribution, marketing and consumption by audiences. This will be accompanied by study of the strategies used by record labels to counter the practice of file sharing and their impact on music production, marketing and consumption.

Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to contemporary media institutions, as well as, the nature of audience consumption and the relationship between audiences and institutions. In addition candidates should be familiar with:

·         the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;

·         the importance of cross media convergence and synergy, in production, distribution and marketing;

·         the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, marketing and exchange;

·         the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;

·         the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;

·         the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international and global institutions;

·         the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.