History Of The Universal Music Group Media Essay

Universal Music Group is one of Big four companies in the music industry. UMG was founded in 1898, when the National Gramophone Company established the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (Universal Music Group | Get In Media). The final name of the company, “Universal”, was introduced by Carl Laemmle in 1912, it was the year when the film studio came together with the music company. In 1924 the Music Corporation of America (MCA) was founded. The year 1958 was very important for Universal because MCA acquired the Universal Studios property and obtained Paramount’s pre-1948 film library for its MCA TV division. The company was incorporated as MCA Inc. and it became a public company in 1959. Universal and MCA Inc. officially merged in 1962 after MCA acquired “Decca Records”. The main factor for Universal to get interested in concert locations and live entertainment promotions was because in 1972 Universal Amphitheatre had been opened. In 1999 the UM3 was launched, UM3 is a division of Universal Music International that covers all areas of strategic catalog marketing outside North America. A significant fact for 2001 is that Universal formed exclusive distribution and worldwide licensing agreement with UMG. In 2002 the UMG achieved an industry milestone, and provided customers with more than 75000 download tracks. In 2003 UMG bought the rights on DreamWorks Records and collaborated with eBay to establish “Universal Music Store”. UMe Digital, an all-digital download label, was formed in 2004 through which UMG achieved a 43,07% market share for week-ending November 14th, the highest in Soundscan history. In 2008, 1 billion video streams have been delivered on YouTube by UMG. In the following year UMG created VEVO and the companies Sony and EMI joined VEVO. In 2011 UMG signed a global agreement for “The Voice of…”. (History | Universal Music).

The Universal Music Group is completely owned by the French media corporation Vivendi. In 2010, the UMG had 6967 employees. The turnover of UMG in 2010 cost $5584 million. Universal Music Group operates in 72 countries, including North American headquarters in Santa Monica and New York (Universal Music Group | Get In Media).

UMG is involved in different types of media fields such as Film and Music. Every part has with his single productions a specified target group. The music column of UMG includes such a huge range of artists and genres that it is covering all types of target groups. Business customers of the UMG are distributors and companies from the same industry column.

UMG sells its products and services in different ways. For instance, the company uses a network of subsidiaries, joint ventures and licensees (Universal Music Group, Inc.: Private Company Information – Businessweek). UMG produces musical recordings which represent 70% of the income, and lyrics and musical scores which represent only 20% of the income. The company’s products list also consists of the production of master recordings, the manufacture and packaging of CDs and the production of databases to distribute downloads of recordings. It is well-known that Universal Music Group works with different popular artists such as Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Chamillionaire, and The Black Eyed Peas.

Music: EMI

EMI Music is one of the world’s leading music companies, home to some of the most successful and most popular recording artists. http://cdn.pitchfork.com/news/44611/cacd3a76.png

In 1887, Emile Berliner invented his ‘Gramophone’ method of recording and reproducing sound using discs, a process that would modernize the way music was heard and experienced. The history of EMI starts at The Gramophone Company in London. Founded in 1897, the company took the lead in bringing together the new sound recording machines and musicians. In 1930, the Great Depression struck the recording industry. As a response, The Gramophone Company and the Columbia Graphophone Company agreed to a merger in 1931. The new firm was named Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). EMI also opened the world’s first custom-made recording studio at Abbey Road in London. Around 1950, EMI was the licensee for the major record companies RCA Victor and Columbia Records outside of North and south America. The license agreement between EMI and Columbia ended in 1952, EMI and RCA ended in 1957. EMI had to look for American artists by itself. In 1955 EMI bought Capitol Records, one of the largest US record companies. EMI increased its investment in UK while developing its list of American artists. In the 1960s British pop music exploded. With the success of The Beatles and other EMI artists, the company became the label of first choice for any ambitious British artist. The company’s artist list was incredible during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1974, EMI renamed their publishing operation to EMI Music Publishing. The late 1980s and early 1990s were a changing period for EMI. By the start of the 1990s the new CD format accounted for the majority of albums sold by EMI. In 1989 SBK Entertainment World was acquired, making EMI Music Publishing the acknowledged world leader. In 1990, EMI fully owned Chrysalis Records. In 1992, EMI bought the Virgin Music Group, at the time the largest independent music company in the world. In 1997 EMI established the EMI Music Sound Foundation to help support future generations of musicians. EMI’s first websites went online in 1993 and 1994, and in 1998 EMI streamed the first album over the internet. The following year EMI was the first company to publish a digital album download and in 2001 EMI launched the first video clip over the internet. In 2007 EMI became the first major music company to make its music accessible without digital rights management software and at a much higher sound quality than before. In 2011 EMI Music launched OpenEMI to connect directly with the tech developer community around the world. Today EMI’s music is available to purchase digitally through hundreds of services around the world. (History | EMI Music) (Press, 1998)

The owners of EMI are Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. EMI has 515 employees in 2012 and is a private sector. (Half of EMI Publishing’s staff could go if Sony/ATV deal goes through | CMU: Complete Music Update, 2012)

EMI provides products such as music, music-recording, music-publishing and music-retailing. The first shop EMI opened was in 1921, called HMV shop on Oxford Street in London. Nowadays, EMI owns 330 HMV music stores and Dillons bookstores. The most significant non-music product was the revolutionary new Computed Tomographic X-ray scanning device in 1972. In the year 1997 the company had 60 labels in 46 countries, including mainstream labels. The company had 17699 employees. The sales in 1997 have been $5.58 billion.

Print: Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann is an international media corporation and is a private company. They provide information, entertainment and media services, publishing and music. Bertelsmann wants to make a contribution to society and to become the leaders in the media-market. They mostly focus on their creative content and their relationship with their customers. Bertelsmann operates in 63 countries. http://www.arvato-russia.com/images/Bertelsmann_Logo_sRGB_orig.jpg

C. Bertelsmann Verlag was founded in 1835, in Gütersloh – Germany by Carl Bertelsmann. It first started as a publishing house and print shop which mainly focused on Christian songs and books. Later on, Carl’s son Heinrich started to publish novels in 1851. Business was going good for Bertelsmann Verlag and they slowly expanded during the following years.

During the second world war, Bertelsmann had become the biggest producer of Nazi propaganda. In that period, they had published books by Nazi authors, for example Will Vesper and Hans Grimm. At the end of the war, publishing was closed for a while because of illegal paper-trading. In 1947, Reinhard Mohn re-founded the company. During the 1950s, the company was expanded with the book-club: Bertelsmann Lesserring. In 1958, they entered the music business with the LP label: Ariola Records. In 1964, they came into the movie market with the purchase of ‘Ulfa Filmproduktionsgesellschaft’. In 1973 Bertelsmann got the majority ownership of ‘Gruner und Jahr-publishing’, which produced magazines and newspapers. In 1979 Bertelsmann started to expand internationally. In that year they bought the American label: ‘Arista’ and in the following years they bought ‘Bantam Books’, ‘RCA Victor’, ‘houseDoubleday’ and ‘Windham Hill Records’. In 1996 Bertelsmann took full control of ‘Windham Hill Records’. During this period of time, the activities in the music business were bundled into the label ‘BMG’. From 1995 to 2000 Bertelsmann had an Internet service provider and started working together with AOL that worked all over Europe. In 1995 the Ufa Film- und Fernseh-GmbH fused with CLT, Luxembourg. The result was RTL Group, the biggest private radio and TV broadcaster in Europe. In 1998 Thomas Middelhoff became CEO of Bertelsmann. He purchased the Random House publishing house and focused on the group’s worldwide book publishing operations. In 1999, Bertelsmann introduced bol.com. On October 1, 2008 Bertelsmann sold 50% of Sony BMG to Sony Corporation of America. Sony then renamed its fully owned music business to Sony Music Entertainment. These two withdrawals meant the end of the Bertelsmann Music Group department and the belongings that Bertelsmann wanted to keep from these sell-offs, will be the beginning of a upcoming BMG department, BMG Rights Management, which will concentrate on building, managing and marketing artist rights. (History – Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA) (Bertelsmann : definition of Bertelsmann and synonym of Bertelsmann (English))

On August 20, 2012, Bertelsmann changed its legal form from “Bertelsmann AG” to “Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA”, a partnership limited by shares (KGaA). KGaA is a proven legal form for businesses owned by families or foundations that are widely used in Germany.

Bertelsmann is for 77.4% owned by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-profit organization started by the Mohn family. The Mohn family holds the remaining 22.6% of the company. Bertelsmann has over 100.000 employees.

Radio and Television: BBChttp://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb58377/bbc-sherlock/images/e/e4/BBC.jpg

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster and is the largest broadcaster in the world with around 23.000 employees and an income of £5.086 billion in 2012. In 1922, BBC Ltd. was created by John Reith who became the first General Manager. From the first daily transmission from 2LO, first regular news bulletin, first outside broadcast, first daily weather forecast to the first edition of the Radio Times published, BBC managed to keep its worldwide fame and to develop. The most important period for BBC is the digital decade due to the fact that they had the opportunity to expand the company and to attract more customers.

The BBC is a public service broadcaster that functions under a Royal Charter, a Licence and Agreement from the Home Secretary. The company has a large variety of products and services which come up to costumers’ expectations. For example, the BBC provides several television channels in the UK including two main channels (“BBC One” and “BBC Two”), some secondary channels (“BBC Three”, “BBC Four”, “BBC News”, “BBC Parliament”) and two children’s channels (“CBBC” and “CBeebies”). Another valuable product offered by BBC is the Radio. Nowadays, the company holds ten national radio stations, six stations providing the BBC Regions and many others which cover the local regions in England. As a matter of fact five of the ten national stations are major labels and can be found on FM, DAB and online. They offer a large variety of musical genres such as new music and popular styles, country and soul music or classical and jazz music. The BBC Radio 5 Live is available 24 hours a day and provides people with news, sport and talk programs. BBC has the most important news channels in the entire world such as “BBC News”, “BBC Parliament” and “BBC World News”. BBC promotes the brand name of BBC Red Button which is an interactive digital television service. This service can be accessed from any BBC channel and it has different kinds of characteristics as full-color graphics, photographs and video.

The company operates in many countries and regions. BBC has an US general entertainment channel which is co-owned with Discovery Networks, a Canadian general entertainment channel and a Canadian children’s programming channel which is co-owned with Shaw Media and a general entertainment channel available in Asia, Europe/Middle East, India, Latin America, Nordic, Poland and South Africa. The BBC Lifestyle channel can be seen in Poland, Scandinavia, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa and BBC Knowledge is available in Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Poland, Scandinavia, Singapore and South Africa. Apart from this, the BBC Company created several news channels in different languages such as Persian, Dari and Tajik. Naturally, some radio stations from BBC can be found in USA, Canada, Scotland and England. BBC operates worldwide and it has a great influence in the world of Radio and Television.

BBC sells its products in the entire world through their own organization which is called BBC Worldwide. BBC provides products for both business customers and private customers. Many companies from different countries buy products from BBC. BBC Worldwide Consumer Products distributes the BBC’s products through DVD, Blu-Ray and DTO. The private customers consists of children, teenagers and adults.

New Media: Twitterhttps://si0.twimg.com/a/1350072692/images/resources/twitter-bird-callout.png

Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Twitter is a social network and in the internet industry. (About Twitter)

Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone and launched on 15 July 2006. In March 2008, Twitter registered 1.3 million users. In September 2011, Twitter counted 200 million users, of which were 100 million active users who log in once a month, and 50 million active users who log in every day. In April 2010, The company’s first advertising platform is introduced, also called ‘Promoted Tweets’. The first promoted Tweet was by Advertising Age. In June 2010, Promoted Trends is launched. In October 2010, Promoted Accounts went live, and is based on ‘Suggestions for You’. (Buck, 2011)

The founders of Twitter are also the owners. Twitter counts 900+ employees in 2012. Twitter is a private company and operates worldwide. Twitter is available on computers, tablets, and on mobile devices.

Twitter connects businesses to customers in real time-and businesses use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influencers. (About Twitter)

Film: 20th Century Fox

It all started in 1915, FOX Film Corporation was formed by the theater chain developer William G Fox, as a combination of his two companies Greater New York Film Rental and Fox Office Attractions company. De Luxe formed the film and camera department for the studios. Thomas Dixon moved to Los Angeles to setup Dixon Studios, Laboratory and Press. In 1917 FOX sent a representative to Hollywood with the idea to start business at the West coast. The development started at the Dixon studios, which is situated in East Hollywood at Sunset and Western, it was Fox’s base for the time between 1917 to 1924. In 1925, Fox bought the rights to the movie tone sound system, which became Fox Movie tone. With the luck and success of Jazz in 1927 William Fox hurried construction of state-of-the-art soundstages. In 1929 through the market crash Fox film, with more than 500 theaters, got into bankruptcy (Century City Chamber of Commerce | History of Century City).http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUtQP24ID5fwEoYfehkSPcsUcE46tnoWJe_nw7peFEcTaw3iOGBAhnBZsY

In the year 1935, the companies Greater New York Film rental and FOX office attractions Co. merged with the 20th century pictures and established the company 20th century FOX (20th Century Fox | Über Fox). The company is established on 31 May 1935. Since then, the 20th century Fox produced and conferred Films in North America. Noticeable is also the 20th Century Fox Logo which was created in 1935. The fact that the logo is created in the same year as the company established, shows that the company identifies itself with its history (Century City Chamber of Commerce | History of Century City).

In February 1953, Fox bought the right of a new projection system called CinemaScope, the company announced that all Fox pictures would be made in this process. The project included also a new CinemaScope anamorphic lens which was added to the front of the projector at the same time wider screens had to be installed, that year shows that the company was always keen to invest and trust new technology (Home | 20th Century Fox Studios).

In 1956 Mr Zanuck F. announced his resignation as head of production. In 1961 the management changed, Darryl F. Zanuck was appointed as chairman and his son Richard Zanuck took on the role of president. At that time a series of cheap but popular movies were made, they brought Fox back to the position being a major player. The year 1965 was surprising for 20th century Fox. The “Sound of Music”, which increased the studios fortunes, rescued the company and became an all-time greatest box-office hit. In 1971 Mr Zanuck left the position as a chairman and a few bad years followed resulting in some losses. The new president in 1972 was Dennis Stanfill, he came together with Alan Ladd Jr. and they got Fox back on track. The year 1977 was the year of Star Wars, one of the most popular movies of Fox. In 1978 the control of the company passed to investors Marc Rich and Marvin Davis. The company grew and expended very fast, in the 1980s Mr Rupert Murdoch integrated the company to the News Corporation which gave the company a huge financial support and opened new doors worldwide. The company started to concentrate on three main points; the home entertainment, cinema, and the TV industry. These three points together are the FOX Film Entertainment Group. Since 2006 the company is the worldwide video distributor for the MGM/UA library. 20th Century Pictures is an independent Hollywood film production company established by Joseph Schenck in the year 1933. The company is still based in Los Angeles and has these days two other bigger main branches, Sydney Australia and Baja Mexico (Century City Chamber of Commerce | History of Century City). 20th century FOX is one of the big 6 Film production companies on our planet, the company it has establishments in more than 80 countries. Since 1985 the company is a subsidiaries of the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch is the head and owner of 20th Century Fox. The produced Films, TV-shows and Music are making the company distinctive.

To give a quick survey of how much 20th Century Fox has only gained by North American box offices the following application is added.

(Statistics on 20th century fox | Statista)

Chapter 2: Macro Environment

Chapter 3: New Product/Service

Chapter 4: Company Visitshttp://www.kpn.com/v2/upload/8eb06cd9-527d-433d-ad53-4f62e84844c0_image88.jpg

FARC chose Spotify as a new product, which is described in chapter 3. FARC chose two companies to visit, which are called KPN and Hi!, because Hi! is a part of KPN and they are both involved with Spotify in the same way.

KPN is the top telecommunications and IT service provider in The Netherlands, offering wire line and wireless telephony, internet and TV to customers. KPN operates in the ICT and Telecom sector.

The history of KPN starts in 1852, when the government constructed telegraph lines which it intended to operate itself. The first independent company was established in 1893: the ‘Post and Telegraph Administration’ (P&T). In 1915, the Post and Telegraph Administration became a state-owned company. This meant that the government and parliament could have greater insight into the financial situation of what was still popularly called P&T. The first world war caused cutback measures for P&T and in response the government changed the name to The Netherlands Postal and Telecommunications Services (PTT). At the beginning of 1941, the German occupying forced granted the PTT co rporate rights, but in practice there was no question of freedom. Because of the war, the PTT came to a standstill. There wasn’t enough personnel available to keep the service running. In 1955, the PTT became a state-controlled company again. On 1 January 1989, PTT became ‘Koninklijke PTT Nederland’ (KPN). With the emergence of Internet and e-mail in 1998, the PTT Post and PTT Telecom started to drift apart and split up in the same year. PTT Telecom became KPN. KPN won the International GTB (Global Telecoms Business) Innovation Award in September 2007 for the innovative strength of its new fiber-optic network. Nowadays, everything is oriented to improving quality, service and technique, so as to become the best service provider and to strengthen the company’s market position in the Netherlands. (History – KPN)http://www.kpn.com/v2/upload/20b9646e-7f9b-4e47-8810-bb3d1d568a05_kpn-rest.jpg

KPN counted 31.084 employees in the Netherlands in December 2011. KPN is a big company because it operates internationally with different brands (Kernfeiten – KPN). Under Section 6, Part 4 of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code, the procedures for large companies are obligatory for KPN. As such, KPN has a two-tier management structure with a Board of Management and a Supervisory Board. KPN was privatized in 1989. (Juridische structuur – KPN)

KPN offers an ‘All-in-one Standard’ bundle, which provides fast internet, telephone and television, and free Spotify Premium. KPN also has a telephone subscription service where they offer Spotify Premium with 500MB for €10,00 extra a month, and the first three months are free.

KPN produces the products and services: landline, mobile telephony, internet, and digital television. Spotify is an additional service to the existing supplies mobile telephony and the internet.

It is not yet known how long the Spotify deal will be provided or if the Spotify deal will be offered in the future.

Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusions