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...BMG is the world’s fourth-largest music label — but lags far behind the top three “majors”, Universal, Sony and Warner. The company earned revenues of €905mn in 2023, up 4.5 per cent year on year....
...KKR re-entered the sector in 2021, initially buying a majority stake in the smaller catalogue of songwriter Ryan Tedder....
...Beyoncé, who is signed with Universal’s rival Sony, seems to have benefited from the stand-off....
...Warner in 2021 agreed to buy hip-hop label 300 Entertainment for more than $400mn, as well as Russian indie label Zhara Music. Sony Music in 2021 paid $430mn to buy independent music company AWAL....
...Challenged by shrinking CD sales and online piracy, Sony had merged with BMG Music, then owned by Germany’s Bertelsmann, in 2004, leaving the two management teams almost immediately in conflict....
...Warner Music last March cut about 4 per cent of its staff, or 270 jobs, while publisher BMG laid off roughly 40 employees in October....
...[MUSIC PLAYING]...
...And there’s also a fear that Sony and Paramount, there’s only five really major studios left in Hollywood, you combine them, you’re down to four....
...The volumes of music they stream are limited more by the hours in the day than the depth of their rosters. The combined market share of UMG, Sony and Warner is more than 70 per cent....
...Although it is still dwarfed by the industry giants of Universal Music Group and Sony’s music division, which earned revenues of $10bn apiece last year, and Warner Music Group, which brought in $6bn, it...
...‘Open Arms — The Symphonic Songbook’ by Alfie Boe is out now on BMG. ‘Face the Music: My Story’ is published by Ebury Spotlight Follow @FTMag to find out about our latest stories first...
...But it is a problem if you’re in the business of star-making....
...BMG, which is a European rival to the US music groups of Universal, Warner and Sony, said that the appointment would bring forward a long-planned change of leadership at the division that had originally...
...This Friday, we are bringing you a festive music extravaganza! We’re talking all things Christmas music: the classics, the duds, the Cher album, and how the genre is changing....
...I’ve assembled my vintage Dual turntable, a Kenwood stereo graphic equaliser, a Sony double tape deck and a Yamaha amp purchased in the 1990s....
...Clip courtesy of Pepsi, Sony Music, Weathered and Jojo Lorenzo. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com...
...And for music companies, they’re kind of in the business of just making bets. That’s almost the same as like book publishers....
...Jason Iley, chair and chief executive of Sony Music UK, pokes his head around the door to issue congratulations....
...This is a common occurrence in the music industry and much resented by the talent — especially so in Swift’s case when Big Machine was sold in 2019 and with it her masters....
...We think of companies like Toyota, of course, in the auto sector, you think of SoftBank in tech and Sony obviously in entertainment....
...Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Clip courtesy of Sony Pictures. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com...
...“If you look at a country’s advancement, the entertainment field expands in the latter half of the development phase and we’re seeing that now in India,” Yoshida said in an interview at Sony’s headquarters...
...“The organ is so intense — you’re not just hearing it, you’re feeling it. It’s on a different scale to any other instrument . . . you almost become part of the music....
...Sony, which is now more famous for its entertainment business and PlayStation games than the Walkman portable music player, is ranked third while semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron is fifth....
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