31 Facts About Warner Music

In 1963, Warner Music purchased Reprise Records, which had been founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier so that he could have more creative control over his recordings.

The Geffen catalogue, now owned by Universal Warner Music Group, represents Young's only major recordings not under WMG ownership.

On July 1,1971, following the pattern set by similar joint ventures in Canada and Australia, the Warner Music labels entered into a partnership with the British arm of CBS Records to press and distribute Warner Music-Reprise product in the United Kingdom, although this was undertaken as a cooperative venture rather than a formally incorporated business partnership.

In 1972, the Warner Music group acquired another rich prize, David Geffen's Asylum Records.

In 1976, Warner Music gained a brief early lead in digital media when it purchased the Atari computer company, and in 1981 it bought The Franklin Mint company.

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Warner Music, led by president Ed Silvers, formed Pacific Records for their composers and distributed by Atlantic Records.

In 1989, it was announced that Warner Music Communications was to merge with Time Inc to form Time Warner Music, a transaction that was completed in 1990.

Bush denounced the label for releasing the song, Warner Music executives received death threats, Time Warner Music stockholders threatened to pull out of the company and the New Zealand police commissioner unsuccessfully tried to have the record banned there.

In 1996, Time Warner Music 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 the Warner Music Group thanks to content assets like Seinfeld and the highly successful The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

In October 1994, Morris and 11 other Warner Music executives "staged an unprecedented insurrection that nearly paralyzed the world's largest record company".

In mid-1995, Time Warner refused to distribute the Interscope album Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound, forcing 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.

Upheaval at Warner Music was beneficial to its rivals, who picked up valuable executives who had left Warner Music.

In 2000, Time Warner Music merged with leading American internet service provider AOL to create AOL Time Warner Music.

Once free of Time Warner Music, WMG began cutting costs by offloading loss-making or low-earning divisions.

Publications, which printed and distributed a broad selection of sheet music, books, educational material, orchestrations, arrangements and tutorials, was sold to Alfred Warner Music Publishing, although the sale excluded the print music business of WMG's Word Warner Music .

On December 27,2007, Warner announced that it would sell digital music without digital rights management through AmazonMP3, making it the third major label to do so.

In 2009, Warner Music took over its South-East Asian and Korean distribution of EMI audio and video products, including newer domestic releases, which was announced in September 2008.

Cosmos Warner Music Group acquired the rights to Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson, while Neil Finn's catalogue moved to his Lester Records label.

In May 2018, New State Warner Music acquired the catalogues of Paul Oakenfold and Dirty Vegas.

Later that year, Warner Music Russia agreed to locally distribute releases by Disney Music Group and Sony Music.

In 2017, WMG formed a TV and film division, Warner Music Entertainment, led by former MGM executive Charlie Cohen.

In December 2013, Warner Music began operating the wholly owned South African subsidiary after acquiring the Gallo's stakes that it did not own.

Warner Music UK launched The Firepit in May 2016, a creative content division, innovation centre and recording studio located at their United Kingdom headquarters in London.

In February 2018, Warner Music launched a division in the Middle East, based in Beirut, Lebanon.

In July 2019, Warner Music Slovakia acquired Forza Music, which owned the former state-owned label Opus Records.

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In October 2018, Warner Music Group announced the launch of the WMG Boost seed venture fund.

Several labels of Warner Music moved into the Los Angeles Arts District in 2019 where the company had purchased a former Ford Motor Company assembly plant.

Warner Music Group had planned an IPO of current investors' stock in March 2020, but withdrew its IPO just before the March 2 kick off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On June 6,2017, Warner Music Group launched a new division, Arts Music, Inc, which consists of labels for classical, jazz, and children's music, plus musical theater and film scores.

In November 2018, Arts Warner Music signed a multi-year deal with Sesame Workshop to revive the Sesame Street Records label starting early 2019.

On 1 May, 2020, toy manufacturer and entertainment company Mattel Inc struck an agreement with Arts Warner Music to become the exclusive distributor of its music catalogue.