industry music entertainment founded 1958 ; 58 years ago 1958 as warner bros. records headquarters new york city new york united states key people stephen cooper ceo revenue us 2.87 billion 2013 1 owner warner bros. 1958 1967 warner bros. seven arts 1967 1969 kinney national company 1969 1972 warner communications 1972 1990 time warner 1990 2001 2003 2004 aol time warner 2001 2003 independent 2004 2011 access industries 2011 present number of employees 3 550 2012 website wmg.com warner music group corp. abbreviated as wmg commonly referred to as warner music is an american global record label headquartered in new york city . it is one of the big three recording companies and the third largest in the global music industry next to universal music group umg and sony music entertainment sme being the only american owned music conglomerate worldwide . formerly owned by time warner the company was publicly traded on the new york stock exchange until may 2011 when it announced its privatization and sale to access industries which was completed in july 2011 . with a multibillion dollar annual turnover wmg employs in excess of 3 500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world . 2 the company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful record labels in the world including its flagship labels warner bros. records parlophone records and atlantic records . wmg also owns warner chappell music one of the world s largest music publishing companies . contents 1 history 1.1 1950s and 1960s 1.1.1 atlantic exerts autonomy 1.2 1970s 1.2.1 worldwide distribution 1.2.2 warner communications 1.3 1980s 1.4 1990s 1.5 2000s 1.6 2010s and sale to access industries 2 music publishing 3 list of warner labels 4 controversy 4.1 cd price fixing 4.2 youtube 4.3 music video games 4.4 music streaming services 5 see also 6 references 7 bibliography 8 external links history edit 1950s and 1960s edit the film company had no record label division at the time and one of its contracted actors tab hunter scored a hit song for dot records which was 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 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 the reprise acquisition warner gained the services of mo ostin who would be mainly responsible for the success of warner reprise . the canadian unit was opened in 1967 as warner reprise canada ltd now called warner music canada co. 3 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 the company fold initially as a member of buffalo springfield . young would become 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 as well as making 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 . in 1969 two years after being purchased by seven arts the warner bros. seven arts company was sold to the kinney national company . kinney later changing its name to warner communications combined the operations of all of its record labels and kinney ceo steve ross led the group through its most successful period until his death in 1994 . an earlier attempt by warner bros. records to create an in house distribution arm in 1958 didn t materialize . so in 1969 elektra records boss jac holzman approached atlantic s jerry wexler with 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 . 4 atlantic its subsidiary atco records and its affiliate stax records paved 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 had 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 . but the sale led to stax leaving the atlantic fold because the new warner owners insisted on keeping the rights to stax recordings . however atlantic also 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 average white band faces dr john king crimson bette midler and foreigner . atlantic exerts autonomy edit it was soon apparent in 1969 that atlantic atco president ahmet erteg n viewed warner reprise president mike maitland as godlike citation needed . 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 erteg n by proposing that most of atlantic s back office functions such as laundry and vacuuming be combined with the existing departments at warner reprise . in retrospect erteg n 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 erteg n with an effective means of undermining maitland . when wexler now a major shareholder found out about the contract issue he and erteg n 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 the mgm and abc labels . 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 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 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 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 5 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 mgm records and abc records 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 . 6 ostin 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 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 . 7 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 . 6 maitland moved to mca records later that year and successfully consolidated mca s labels which he couldn t do at warner . 1970s edit during 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 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 brains trust tasked with investigating opportunities presented by new technologies a role holzman was eager to accept . 8 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 would become independent of warner bros. worldwide distribution edit with the elektra acquisition the next step 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 the group s in house distribution arm initially called kinney record group international . 9 10 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 . wea was an early champion of the heavy metal rock music . several such bands including the three major pioneers led zeppelin black sabbath and deep purple were all signed to wea s labels at least in the united states . among the earliest american metal acts to be signed