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82-608: Warner Music Group (WMG) owns, has a joint share, or is associated with the record labels listed here. Rhino handles the American distribution of reissues from the UK back catalogs of Chrysalis (part), EMI Columbia, EMI, Harvest, and Parlophone. Warner Music International (formerly WEA International) is the international copyright holder and distributor for North American artists on the Warner Music record labels. An example of this

164-522: A Warner subsidiary, albums by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles alone had earned more than the entire value of the Asylum sale. Geffen's discomfort was compounded by the fact that, within six months of the sale, the value of his volatile Warner shares had plummeted from $ 4.5 million to just $ 800,000. He appealed to Steve Ross to intervene, and as part of a make-good deal, Ross agreed to pay him the difference in

246-416: A campaign to destabilize Warner Music in an effort to seize control of the company". As Morris's strongest ally, Danny Goldberg was also under threat; he was initially told that he could stay on as President of WBR as long as he refrained from office politics and concentrate on the day-to-day management of the label, but he resigned as President of Warner Bros. Records soon after to pursue "other interests", and

328-551: A different candidate in mind and Levin also reduced Morgado's power to oversee Warner's mail-order record club division and its international operations. Morris then brought in Sylvia Rhone and Seymour Stein to stabilize Elektra, settled the Metallica lawsuit and persuaded Levin to purchase an additional 25% of Interscope, although this initiative proved short-lived. The power struggle between Morgado and Morris reached

410-538: A dramatic climax in May 1995 when Morgado was asked to resign by Gerald Levin, following a welter of complaints from executives at the three major Warner Music labels, who said that Morgado was undermining Morris's authority and damaging Warner's reputation among performers. Morgado was immediately replaced by HBO chairman Michael J. Fuchs , but the corporate upheavals did not end there; in late June 1995 Fuchs abruptly dismissed Doug Morris, saying that Morris had been "leading

492-565: A further 40% of the company from its partner Siemens , and bought the remaining shares in 1987. The same year, PolyGram divested its film and publishing operations, closed PolyGram Pictures and sold Chappell Music to Warner for US$ 275 million. In 1976, Warner gained a brief early lead in digital media when it purchased the Atari computer company. WCI also blazed the trail in visual music with MTV , which it created and co-owned in partnership with American Express as Warner-Amex (which also ran

574-569: A handful of writers/performers to pen a No. 1 hit for themselves and a No. 1 for another artist. New signings in the late 1970s placed WEA in a strong position for the 1980s. A deal with Seymour Stein 's Sire Records label (which Warner Bros. Records later took over) brought in several major punk rock and new wave acts including the Pretenders , the Ramones and Talking Heads and, most importantly, rising star Madonna ; Elektra signed

656-507: A major coup by signing a distribution agreement with Island Records , which only covered the United States and select other countries. For the next 14 years (initially with Warner Bros. until 1982, then with Atlantic afterward), WEA would distribute such artists as Bob Marley , U2 , Robert Palmer , Anthrax , and Tom Waits . This relationship ended when Island was sold to PolyGram in 1989. A name-only unit appearing exclusively in

738-539: A major shareholder—found out about the contract issue he and Ertegun began pressuring Eliot Hyman to get Smith and Ostin under contract, ostensibly because they were worried that the two executives might move to rival labels—and in fact Ostin had received overtures from both MGM Records and ABC Records . In 1969, the wisdom of Hyman's investments was proved when Kinney National Company purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts for $ 400 million, more than eight times what Hyman had paid for Warner/Reprise and Atlantic combined. From

820-500: A move that reportedly infuriated Iovine. By late 1994, Morris was gaining the upper hand over his rival and media reports claimed that Morris had moved to settle with Metallica, offering a deal that was reportedly even more generous than the one they had worked out with Krasnow. Morgado now faced a showdown with Morris, who felt he was not being allowed to run WMG as he saw fit. In October 1994, Morris and 11 other Warner executives "staged an unprecedented insurrection that nearly paralyzed

902-485: A new four-year distribution deal with a rival local label, Festival Records (owned by Rupert Murdoch 's News Limited ). Mike Maitland complained bitterly to Kinney executive Ted Ashley , but to no avail – by this time Ertegun was poised to make his move against Maitland. As he had with Hyman, Ertegun urged Steve Ross to extend Mo Ostin and Joe Smith's contracts, a recommendation Ross was happy to accept. Ostin however had received overtures from other companies (including

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984-445: A rich back catalogue of folk music as well as the renowned Nonesuch catalogue of classical and world music. Elektra founder Jac Holzman ran the label under Warners for two years, but by that time, he was by his own admission "burnt out" after twenty years in the business. Kinney president Steve Ross subsequently appointed Holzman as part of a seven-person " brain trust " tasked with investigating opportunities presented by new technologies,

1066-646: A role Holzman was eager to accept. The same year, the group established its first overseas offices in Canada and Australia. By that time the "Seven Arts" moniker was dropped from the Warner Bros. name. Warner Bros. also founded the Casablanca Records subsidiary, headed by Neil Bogart ; but several years later Casablanca became independent from Warner Bros. With the Elektra acquisition, the next step

1148-471: 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 (later known as WarnerMedia , now Warner Bros. Discovery ), WMG was publicly traded on

1230-399: Is on the credits for the American artists albums which states i.e. "Warner Bros. Records, Inc. for the U.S. and WEA International, Inc. for the world outside the U.S." WEA is also referred to as Warner Music International or Warner Music Entertainment and has divisions worldwide such as Australia, Japan and all over Europe. These branches are usually called Warner Music followed by the name of

1312-628: The Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1964. ATCO also released an album entitled Ain't She Sweet which featured the other two tracks by Sheridan and The Beatles from the Hamburg session and filled out by eight other songs covered by The Swallows . In 1966, ATCO released " Substitute " by the Who . The song was issued through an arrangement with UK Polydor Records because of the dispute The Who

1394-644: The Body Count master tapes to him. Also in 1992, the Rhino Records label signed a distribution agreement with Atlantic Records and Time Warner Entertainment bought a 50% stake in the Rhino Records label. The distribution agreement allowed Rhino to begin reissuing recordings from Atlantic's back catalogue. In 1994, Canadian beverage giant Seagram bought a 14.5% stake in Time Warner, and

1476-475: The New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries . It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020, once again becoming a public company. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 4,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world. The company owns and operates some of

1558-571: The 1970s, the Kinney group built up a commanding position in the music industry. In 1970, Kinney bought Elektra Records and its sister label Nonesuch Records (founded by Jac Holzman in 1950) for $ 10 million, bringing in leading rock acts, including the Doors , Tim Buckley , and Love , and its historically significant folk archive, along with the successful budget Western classical-music label Nonesuch Records . The purchase of Elektra-Nonesuch brought

1640-535: The ATCO name was dropped and the label reverted to the EastWest Records America branding. During this time, EastWest moved its operations to Atlantic's sister label Elektra Records . As a result of Elektra's takeover of EastWest, ATCO's back catalog and retained artists were now under its control. In the decade to come, the ATCO name and logo would be occasionally used on reissues of past material, but

1722-480: The Cars and Warner Bros. signed Prince , giving WEA several of the biggest-selling acts of the decade. WEA's labels also distributed a number of otherwise independent labels. For example, Warner Bros. distributed Straight Records , DiscReet Records , Bizarre Records , Bearsville Records , and Geffen Records (the latter was sold to MCA in 1990). Atlantic Records distributed Swan Song Records . In 1975, WEA scored

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1804-504: The Geffen-Roberts management company to Roberts and Warner paid Geffen and Roberts 121,952 common shares worth $ 4,750,000 at the time of the sale, plus $ 400,000 in cash and a further $ 1.6 million in promissory notes convertible to common stock. Although it seemed a lucrative deal at the time, Geffen soon had reason to regret it. Uncharacteristically, he had greatly underestimated the value of his assets—within Asylum's first year as

1886-531: The German classical label Teldec and the British Magnet label. In 1989, it was announced that Warner Communications was to merge with Time Inc. to form Time Warner , a transaction that was completed in 1990. Following the merger, WEA continued acquiring independent labels, buying CGD Records (Italy) and MMG Records (Japan) in 1989. Through the 1990s, Time Warner was the largest media company in

1968-505: The Reprise acquisition, Warner gained the services of Mo Ostin , who was mainly responsible for the success of Warner/Reprise. After Warner Bros. was sold to Seven Arts Productions in 1967 (forming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts ), it purchased Atlantic Records , founded in 1947 and WMG's oldest label (until WMG completed its acquisition of Parlophone in 2013), as well as its subsidiary Atco Records . This acquisition brought Neil Young into

2050-654: The Time Warner merger—in 1990, WEA purchased French label Carrere Records , in 1992 it bought the leading French classical label Erato , and in 1993, it bought the Spanish DRO Records , Hungary's Magneoton label, the Swedish Telegram Records, Brazil's Continental Records and Finnish label Fazer Musiikki. WEA was renamed Warner Music in 1991. Atlantic launched two new subsidiary labels in the early 1990s: East West Records and Interscope Records . In 1995, East West absorbed Atco Records and

2132-596: The United Kingdom, although this was undertaken as a cooperative venture rather than a formally incorporated business partnership. The Billboard article that reported the new arrangement also noted that, despite their intense competition in the US market, CBS continued to press Warner-Reprise recordings in the US. However the new UK arrangement was a major blow to Warner's previous British manufacturer Pye Records , for whom Warner-Reprise had been their largest account. With

2214-485: The United States. Among the earliest American metal acts to be signed to WEA were Alice Cooper , Montrose , and Van Halen . Up to this point the Kinney-owned record companies had relied on licensing deals with overseas record labels to manufacture, distribute and promote its products in other countries; concurrent with the establishment of its new distribution arm, the company now began establishing subsidiaries in

2296-526: The Warner Group thanks to content assets like Seinfeld and the highly successful The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. By the early 1990s, senior Warner staff like Ostin and Waronker had remained in their positions for several decades—a highly unusual situation in the American music industry—but the death of Steve Ross destabilized the Time Warner hierarchy, and over the next few years the music group

2378-639: The Warner Music Group in the US, a decision that many saw as a deliberate move to hasten the departure of Ostin and Elektra head Robert Krasnow . Morgado's new structure was announced in August 1994 and Bob Krasnow resigned from Elektra the next day. Within days, after more than 30 years with the Warner music group and more than 20 years as president and chairman of Warner Bros. Records, Ostin announced he would not renew his current contract and would leave Warners when it expired on December 31, 1994. There

2460-548: The Warner group acquired another rich prize, David Geffen 's Asylum Records . The $ 7 million purchase brought in several acts that proved crucial to WEA's subsequent success, including Linda Ronstadt , the Eagles , Jackson Browne , Joni Mitchell , and later Warren Zevon . On the downside, however, it was rumored that Warner was soon concerned about its possible liability under the California State Labor Code because of Geffen's questionable status as both

2542-650: The Warner publishing division — now called Warner/Chappell Music – acquired CPP/Belwin, becoming the world's largest owner of song copyrights and the world's largest publisher of printed music. In 1996, Time Warner Entertainment made another dramatic expansion of its media holdings, taking over the Turner Broadcasting System , which by then included the Turner cable TV network, CNN and the screen production houses Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema , acquisitions that brought huge profits into

List of Warner Music Group labels - Misplaced Pages Continue

2624-615: The aforementioned offers from MGM and ABC) and when he met with Ertegun in January 1970 and was offered Maitland's job, he was unwilling to re-sign immediately. In response, Ertegun broadly hinted that Maitland's days were numbered and that he, Ertegun, was about to take over the recording division. Unlike the Warner/Reprise executives, Atlantic's execs the Ertegun brothers (Ahmet and Neshui) and Wexler owned stock in Kinney. Ostin

2706-476: The base of his family's funeral parlour business, Kinney president Steve Ross had rapidly built the Kinney company into a profitable conglomerate with interests that included comic publishing , the Ashley-Famous talent agency, parking lots and cleaning services. Following the takeover, Warners' music group briefly adopted the 'umbrella' name Kinney Music, because U.S. anti-trust laws at the time prevented

2788-615: The company fold, initially as a member of Buffalo Springfield . Young became one of Warner's longest-established artists, recording both as a solo artist and with groups under the Warner-owned Atlantic, Atco, and Reprise labels. Young also recorded five albums for Geffen Records during that label's period of Warner distribution. The Geffen catalogue, now owned by Universal Music Group , represents Young's only major recordings not under WMG ownership. Atlantic, its subsidiary Atco Records , and its affiliate Stax Records paved

2870-622: The company from military service. The label was also intended as a home for acts that did not fit the format of the main Atlantic brand, which was releasing blues , jazz , rhythm and blues and soul . The planned name for the label was Atlas. But it was changed to ATCO when it was discovered there was already an Atlas Records. The ATCO name is an abbreviation of AT lantic CO rporation. ATCO also provided distribution for other labels, including RSO , Volt , Island , Modern , Ruthless , Hansa , and Rolling Stones . For most of its history, ATCO

2952-648: The company's cable television systems, including the interactive TV experiment QUBE , which MTV spun-off from). By 1984, however, Warner rapidly divested many of these recent acquisitions, including Atari, The Franklin Mint , Panavision , MTV Networks and a cosmetics business; this was due in large part to the 1983 video game crash , which Atari had played a central role in, and the resulting loss of profits and investor confidence (Warner-Amex's cable system expansion also contributed to Warner's financial downturn). WEA formed WEA Manufacturing in 1986. In 1988 WEA took over

3034-527: The copyright, WEA International Inc., was created in early 1982, to handle distribution of all Warner Bros., Elektra, and Atlantic (all these namings accounting for the initials in the title " WEA ") releases for international countries. A proposed 1983 international merger between PolyGram and WEA was forbidden by both the US Federal Trade Commission and West Germany 's cartel office, so PolyGram's half-owner Philips then purchased

3116-423: The country. Some labels have more than one record company for example the UK has Warner Bros. Records UK and Atlantic Records UK but both trade through Warner Music UK, Limited. These labels market and distribute artists in those specific regions are all part of WEA International/Warner Music International Africa/Asia/Pacific Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. , commonly abbreviated as WMG ,

3198-433: The existing departments at Warner/Reprise. In retrospect Ertegun clearly feared that Maitland would ultimately have more power than him, and so he moved rapidly to secure his own position and remove Maitland. Maitland had put off renegotiating the contracts of Joe Smith and Mo Ostin, the presidents of the Warner Bros. and Reprise labels, and this provided Ertegun with an effective means of undermining Maitland. When Wexler—now

3280-471: The expiration of the band's contract with British Decca (then separate from the American label) and the acrimonious end to their business relationship with their former manager Allen Klein . Under the terms of the deal, Atlantic subsidiary Atco would distribute the Stones' recordings in the US, with other territories mainly handled by Warner Bros. international divisions. One of Kinney's wisest investments

3362-419: The first artists signed to the label. Garfunkel issued Some Enchanted Evening on January 30, 2007. Johansson issued Anywhere I Lay My Head on May 20, 2008. Queensrÿche released its American Soldier album on ATCO on March 31, 2009. The New York Dolls released its album Cause I Sez So on ATCO on May 5, 2009. Shortly thereafter, ATCO would become dormant again. In 2020, ATCO returned to

List of Warner Music Group labels - Misplaced Pages Continue

3444-489: The first verse vs. second), a substitute lyric ("I try walking forward but my feet walk back" in place of "I look all white but my dad was black"). During the 1970s, Atlantic Records began to broaden the range of its own roster, causing ATCO to become deemphasized as many of its acts would eventually have their material released under the main Atlantic brand. In the middle 1970s, ATCO became increasingly used for hard rock acts and some British and European bands. During this time,

3526-401: The group scored a major international hit with the single "Rhiannon" and consolidated with the best selling albums Fleetwood Mac , Rumours and Tusk . Due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations, Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets in 1972 (as National Kinney Corporation ) and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc. In 1972,

3608-505: The group's in-house distribution arm, initially called . By late 1972, US anti-trust laws had changed and the company was renamed Warner-Elektra-Atlantic , WEA for short, which was renamed Warner Music in 1991 (the word "group" was added after the formation of AOL Time Warner in 2001). WEA was an early champion of heavy metal rock music. Several such bands, including three major British pioneers Led Zeppelin , Black Sabbath , and Deep Purple , were all signed to WEA's labels, at least in

3690-649: The head of Warner's advertising/merchandising division in its early years, was appointed to head WEA's US domestic division, and Ahmet Ertegun's brother Nesuhi was appointed to oversee its international operations. Neshui Ertegun, originally a Turkish native like his brother, displayed a global perspective and independence from its U.S. counterpart by successfully promoting international acts in their target markets worldwide. Ertegun headed WEA International until his retirement in 1987. A de facto committee of three senior marketing executives—Dave Glew from Atlantic, Ed Rosenblatt from Warner Bros. and Mel Posner from Elektra—oversaw

3772-705: The idea of setting up a joint distribution network for Warner, Elektra, and Atlantic. An experimental branch was established in Southern California as a possible prototype for an expanded operation. It was soon apparent in 1969 that Atlantic/Atco president Ahmet Ertegun viewed Warner/Reprise president Mike Maitland as a rival. Maitland believed that, as vice-president in charge of the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts music division, he should have final say over all recording operations, and he further angered Ertegun by proposing that most of Atlantic's back-office functions (such as marketing and distribution) be combined with

3854-599: The imprint itself was now dormant. In 2005, after more than a decade in hibernation, ATCO (in a joint venture with Rhino Records ) released the soundtrack of the Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea , which starred Kevin Spacey and featured his renditions of Darin's songs. This led to Warner Music Group reactivating the label in 2006 in conjunction with Rhino. Scarlett Johansson , Keith Sweat and Art Garfunkel were among

3936-567: The integration of each label's marketing and distribution through the new division, but each label continued to operate totally independently in A&;R matters and also applied their own expertise in marketing and advertising. On July 1, 1971, following the pattern set by similar joint ventures in Canada and Australia, the Warner labels entered into a partnership with the British arm of CBS Records to press and distribute Warner-Reprise product in

4018-513: The label for releasing the song, Warner executives received death threats, Time Warner stockholders threatened to pull out of the company and the New Zealand police commissioner unsuccessfully tried to have the record banned there. Although Ice-T later voluntarily reissued Body Count without "Cop Killer", the furor seriously rattled Warner Music and in January 1993 the label made an undisclosed deal releasing Ice-T from his contract and returning

4100-419: The label in conjunction with Ruthless Records), while steadily becoming less active overall. The last number one hit on ATCO was " If Wishes Came True " by Sweet Sensation in 1990. The following year, Atlantic Records Senior VP Sylvia Rhone orchestrated the merger of ATCO with Atlantic's fledgling EastWest Records America label and briefly operated the combination as Atco/EastWest Records. By 1994, however,

4182-472: The label issued early albums from AC/DC . Starting in 1978, however, AC/DC releases were issued on Atlantic until their contract with the label ended in the 1990s. In 1980, ATCO's visibility rose with strong chart performances from Pete Townshend's Empty Glass album and the song " Cars " by Gary Numan . As the 1980s wore on, ATCO continued to have streamlined success with artists such as Sweet Sensation , JJ Fad and Michel'le (the latter who were signed to

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4264-595: The label to seek outside distribution, and late in the year TW sold its stake in Death Row back to co-owners Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field and soon after it sold off its share in Interscope to MCA Music Entertainment . The upheaval at Warner was beneficial to its rivals, who picked up valuable executives who had left Warner. Goldberg moved over to Mercury Records ; Morris joined MCA Music Entertainment Group and led its reorganization into Universal Music Group , now

4346-592: The label, and the first release was " Undercover Angel ". The song, which he described as a "nocturnal novelette", was released in February 1977. Within a few months it had become No. 1 in the country, and has sold approximately two million copies. It was also a hit in Australia, reaching No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart. "Undercover Angel" also landed O'Day in an exclusive club as one of only

4428-460: The largest and most successful labels in the world, including Elektra Records , Reprise Records , Warner Records , Parlophone Records (previously owned by EMI ), 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 operations through its acquisition of Uproxx . The film studio Warner Bros. had no record label division at

4510-464: The manager of most of the Asylum acts and the head of the record label to which they were signed. The sale included the Asylum Records label and its recordings, as well as Geffen's lucrative music publishing assets and the interests in the royalties of some of the artists managed by Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts . Geffen accepted a five-year contract with WCI and turned over his 75% share in

4592-494: The many artists whose careers he had helped to nurture. Lenny Waronker had agreed to take over as WBR chairman and CEO but in October 1994 he announced that he would not be taking up the position; he initially said that he would remain as President of WBR, but by this time there was already widespread speculation that he would leave, and he did so soon afterwards. The following year he re-joined Ostin and son Michael as joint head of

4674-566: The mid-1960s, ATCO moved into rock-and-roll with Sonny and Cher , Buffalo Springfield , Vanilla Fudge , Iron Butterfly and Cream (the latter under license from British label Polydor ). In 1964, ATCO released a single in the US by the Beatles , " Ain't She Sweet " (flip side "Nobody's Child", with lead singer Tony Sheridan ), which had been recorded in Hamburg in 1961. With lead vocals by John Lennon , "Ain't She Sweet" reached No. 19 on

4756-585: The newly launched DreamWorks label. Beginning in August 1994, Morgado alienated Morris by his clumsy handling of Warner's relationship with Interscope Records , the successful label founded by Ted Field and Jimmy Iovine and part-owned by Warner. Morgado had resisted making a decision about increasing the Warner stake in Interscope, which encouraged other companies to make overtures to the label; in response, Morgado threatened to send cease-and-desist notices to executives at several record companies, demanding that they stop approaching Interscope with buyout offers,

4838-558: The offer of a job at the movie studio. One week later, Mo Ostin was named as the new President of Warner Bros. Records, with Joe Smith as his executive vice-president. Ertegun nominally remained the head of Atlantic, but since both Ostin and Smith owed their new positions to him, Ertegun was now the de facto head of the Warner music division. Ertegun was given the formal title of executive vice-president-Music Group. Maitland moved to MCA Records later that year and successfully consolidated MCA's labels, which he couldn't do at Warner. During

4920-399: The other major markets, beginning with the creation of Warner Bros. Records Australia in 1970, soon followed by branch offices in the UK, Europe and Japan. In July 1971, the new in-house distribution company was incorporated as Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp. (WEA) and branch offices were established in eight major US cities; Joel Friedman a one-time Billboard writer who had been

5002-405: The profits were divided between the retailers and the Atlantic employees involved), which had earlier caused 10 executives (including Maria) to lose their jobs amid the investigation. Lewinter subsequently sued Warner Music for wrongful termination. Despite early success with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg , and Morris's decision to increase Warner's stake to 50%, by the mid-1990s Interscope Records

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5084-644: The sale led to Stax leaving Atlantic because Seven Arts Productions insisted on keeping the rights to Stax recordings. Atlantic moved decisively into rock and pop in the late 1960s and 1970s, signing major British and American acts including Led Zeppelin , Cream , Crosby Stills & Nash , Yes , Emerson, Lake & Palmer , Genesis , Average White Band , Dr. John , King Crimson , Bette Midler , Roxy Music , and Foreigner . An earlier attempt by Warner Bros. Records to create an in-house distribution arm in 1958 did not materialize. So in 1969, Elektra Records boss Jac Holzman approached Atlantic's Jerry Wexler with

5166-560: The scheduled addition of the UK rights to the Atlantic catalogue, which would revert to Kinney in early 1972, Billboard predicted that the Warner-CBS partnership would have a 25–30% share of the UK music market. In April 1971, thanks mainly to the influence of Ahmet Ertegun, the Kinney group announced a major coup with its acquisition of the worldwide rights to the Rolling Stones ' new label Rolling Stones Records , following

5248-400: The share value over five years. Acting on Jac Holzman's suggestion that Kinney should take Asylum from Atlantic and merge it with Elektra, Ross then appointed Geffen to run the new combined label. In 1977, Warner Bros. Music, led by president Ed Silvers, formed Pacific Records for their composers and distributed (appropriately) by Atlantic Records . Alan O'Day was the first artist signed to

5330-495: The song (which mentioned the Rodney King case) was issued just before the controversial acquittal of the police charged with King's beating, which sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and the confluence of events put the song under the national spotlight. Complaints escalated over the summer—conservative police associations called for a boycott of Time Warner products, politicians including President George H. W. Bush denounced

5412-625: The three labels from trading as one. Ross was primarily focused on rebuilding the company's ailing movie division and was happy to defer to the advice of the managers of the company's record labels, since he knew that they were generating most of the group's profits. Ertegun's campaign against Maitland began in earnest that summer. Atlantic had agreed to help Warner Bros. in its efforts to establish its labels overseas, beginning with its soon-to-be-established Warner Bros. subsidiary in Australia, but when Warner executive Phil Rose arrived in Australia, he discovered that just one week earlier Atlantic had signed

5494-672: The time one of its contracted actors, Tab Hunter , scored a No. 1 hit song in 1957 for Dot Records , a division of rival Paramount Pictures . In order to prevent any repetition of its actors recording for rival companies, and to also capitalize on the music business, Warner Bros. Records was created in 1958; its original office was located above the film studio's machine shop on 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California . In 1963, Warner purchased Reprise Records , which had been founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier so that he could have more creative control over his recordings. With

5576-605: The way for Warner's rise to industry prominence. The purchase brought in Atlantic's lucrative back catalogue, which included classic recordings by Ray Charles , the Drifters , the Coasters , and many more. In the mid-1960s, Atlantic/Stax released a string of landmark soul music recordings by artists including Booker T & the MGs , Sam & Dave , Wilson Pickett , Otis Redding , Ben E. King , and Aretha Franklin . Ultimately,

5658-715: The widely revered Ostin—Morgado was viewed as an outsider at Warner. Nevertheless, he gained favour with Ross and Levin and was promoted in 1985 to oversee the Warner international music division after helping the company slash costs in its computer game sector. Since his appointment as head of WBR, Ostin had always reported directly to Steve Ross and his successor Gerald Levin , but in late 1993, when Ostin's contract came up for renewal, Morgado asserted his authority, insisting that Ostin should now report directly to him. The tensions between them reached boiling point in July 1994 when Morgado appointed former Atlantic chief Doug Morris to head

5740-618: The world's largest record company". This led to a climactic meeting between Morris and Gerald Levin in late October, at which Morris reportedly threatened to quit if he had to continue to report to Morgado. Morgado gave in to the demand that Morris be granted autonomy to run the North American operations and he was forced to upgrade Morris's position from chief operating officer to Chief Executive of Warner Music Group (US); Morris promptly named Danny Goldberg , former president of Atlantic Records, to run WBR in defiance of Morgado, who had

5822-424: The world's largest record company. In November 1995, Fuchs was himself sacked by Levin, leaving the company with a reported US$ 60 million " golden parachute ", and Time Warner co-chairmen Robert A. Daly and Terry Semel took over the running of the music division. Atco Records ATCO Records was devised as an outlet for productions by one of Atlantic Records' founders, Herb Abramson , who had returned to

5904-416: The world, with assets in excess of US$ 20 billion and annual revenues in the billions of dollars; by 1991, Warner's music labels were generating sales valued at more than US$ 3 billion, with operating profits of $ 550 million, and by 1995, its music division dominated the US music industry with a 22% share of the domestic market. Acquisitions and corporate changes within the Warner group of labels continued after

5986-433: Was Fleetwood Mac . The band signed with Reprise in the early 1970s after relocating to the US, and the label supported the group through numerous lineup changes and several lean years during which the band's records sold relatively poorly, although they remained a popular concert attraction. Ironically, after the group's transfer to Warner Bros. in 1975 and the recruitment of new members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks ,

6068-424: Was being seen as a liability for the Warner group. Time Warner's board and investors had already been bruised by the damaging 1992 " Cop Killer " controversy and now they were faced with renewed criticism about the gangsta rap genre, in which Interscope's associate imprint Death Row Records was a key label. In mid-1995, Time Warner refused to distribute the Interscope album Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound , forcing

6150-448: Was eventually folded into Elektra Records. In 1996, after causing much controversy, Interscope was purchased by MCA Music Entertainment . During 1992, Warner Music faced one of the most serious public-relations crises in its history when a major controversy erupted over the provocative Warner Bros. recording " Cop Killer " from the self-titled album by Body Count , a heavy metal / rap fusion band led by Ice-T . Unfortunately for Warner,

6232-470: Was forming an in-house distribution arm for the co-owned labels. By this time, Warner-Reprise's frustrations with its current distributors had reached breaking point; Joe Smith (then executive vice-president of Warner Bros.) recalled that the Grateful Dead were becoming a major act but the distributor was constantly out of stock of their albums. These circumstances facilitated the full establishment of

6314-429: Was having with their producer, Shel Talmy , and their contract with US Decca Records and UK Brunswick Records . This would be the only Who recording to appear on ATCO, although Pete Townshend and John Entwistle would eventually sign to ATCO as solo artists, and Roger Daltrey later signed a US solo deal with Atlantic. This release differs from the UK release with a different structure/edit (the break comes in after

6396-503: Was increasingly disrupted by internal power struggles, leading to a string of major executive upheavals in 1994–95, which The New York Times described as "a virtual civil war". The central conflict was between Mo Ostin and Warner Music Group chairman Robert Morgado, who had joined the Warner group in the late 1980s. Because of his political background (he had been the chief-of-staff to former New York governor Hugh L. Carey ) and his lack of music industry experience — especially compared to

6478-462: Was known for pop and rock music, but during its early years, it produced some jazz albums. These included Harry Arnold , Betty Carter , King Curtis , Herb Geller , Roland Hanna , and Helen Merrill . ATCO's rock era began with Bobby Darin and The Coasters . In the early 1960s, Atlantic began to license material from international sources, leading to instrumental hit singles from Jorgen Ingmann , Acker Bilk and Bent Fabric . Starting in

6560-438: Was more negative publicity the following month, when leading Elektra act Metallica launched a lawsuit against the label, seeking a release from their contract and ownership of their master tapes, and claiming that Morgado had refused to honor a deal they had worked out with Krasnow before he quit. Ostin's departure marked a seismic shift in the corporate culture at WBR and the news was greeted with dismay by industry insiders and

6642-502: Was replaced by WBR vice-chairman Russ Thyret . That August saw yet another resignation, that of Mel Lewinter, then president and COO of Warner Music's domestic music operations; while Lewinter being an ally of Morris played a role in the former's ouster, speculation ran rampant about it also having to do with a internal investigation into improper sales practices (involving tens of thousands of CDs being stolen from Atlantic by sales manager Nick Maria, then being secretly resold to retailers;

6724-426: Was understandably concerned that, if he accepted the position, the Warner Bros. staff would feel that he had stabbed Maitland in the back, but his attorney convinced him that Maitland's departure was inevitable, regardless of whether or not he accepted the post (succinctly advising him, "Don't be a schmuck"). On Sunday January 25, Ted Ashley went to Maitland's house to tell him he had been dismissed, and Maitland declined

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