Sony Music

Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American, Japanese-owned, multinational music company owned by Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the publishing division, Sony Music Publishing. Founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation, it was acquired by the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938 and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. Sony bought the company in 1988 and renamed it SME in 1991. In 2004, Sony and Bertelsmann established a 50–50 joint venture known as Sony BMG to handle the operations of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), but Sony bought out Bertelsmann's stake four years later and reverted to using the 1991 company name. This buyout led to labels formerly under BMG ownership, including Arista, Jive, LaFace and J Records into former BMG and currently Sony's co-flagship record label, RCA Records, in 2011 and led to the relaunch of BMG as BMG Rights Management. Arista Records and Jive Records would later be revived in 2018 and 2026. On July 17, 2019, Sony announced a merger of Sony Music Entertainment and music publishing arm Sony/ATV to form the Sony Music Group. The merger was completed on August 1, 2019. As of 2026, Sony Music Entertainment is the second largest of the "Big Three" record companies, with a valuation of $25 billion, behind Universal Music Group and followed by Warner Music Group. Its music publishing division Sony Music Publishing is the largest music publisher in the world.