UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP
Universal Music Group (UMG Recordings, Inc., abbreviated as UMG) is the largest music corporation in the world. An American worldwide music corporation, it operates as a subsidiary of Paris-based French media conglomerate Vivendi. UMG also owns Universal Music Publishing Group, which is the second largest music publishing company in the world. Universal Music Group’s global corporate headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California, United States. (More from Wikipedia)
Over the ensuing years, the Beatles’ financial entanglements only worsened. This occurred, in part, because of the somewhat bitter and highly public break-up of the band; but for the most part, it was simply ill-advised business practices as I understand it. Continued standoffs by the band and the other representatives in charge of their recordings – whose owners by then included Michael Jackson – kept the Beatles canon from being available via online sales until 2010. With the acquisition of EMI by Universal Music Group in 2012 and the subsequent creation of a new Capitol Records subsidiary to oversee the Beatles catalogue, perhaps the matter is finally settled.
(January 2013)
