Universal Music Group in the context of Deutsche Grammophon

Santa Monica (Spanish: Santa Mónica, lit. 'Saint Monica') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to its climate, beaches, and hospitality industry. It has a diverse economy, hosting headquarters of companies such as Skydance Media, Hulu, Activision Blizzard, Universal Music Group, Starz Entertainment, Lionsgate Studios, Illumination and The Recording Academy.

Santa Monica traces its history to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, granted in 1839 to the Sepúlveda family of California. The rancho was later sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker, who, in 1875, along with his Californio heiress wife Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886. The city developed into a seaside resort during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the creation of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar.

The media of Los Angeles are influential and include some of the most important production facilities in the world. As part of the "Creative Capital of the World", it is a major global center for media and entertainment. In addition to being the home of Hollywood, the center of the American motion picture industry, the Los Angeles area is the second largest media market in North America (after New York City). Many of the nation's media conglomerates either have their primary headquarters (like The Walt Disney Company) or their West Coast operations (like NBCUniversal) based in the region. Universal Music Group, one of the "Big Four" record labels, is also based in the Los Angeles area.

The major daily newspaper is the Los Angeles Times, while La Opinión is the city's major daily Spanish-language paper. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are significant entertainment industry papers in Los Angeles. There are also a wide variety of smaller regional newspapers, alternative weeklies and magazines, including LA Weekly, Los Angeles magazine, the Los Angeles Business Journal, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and the Los Angeles Downtown News. In addition to the English- and Spanish-language papers, numerous local periodicals serve immigrant communities in their native languages, including Korean, Persian, Russian and Japanese.

Polydor, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. In turn, Polydor distributes Interscope releases in the United Kingdom. Polydor Records Ltd. was established in London in 1954 as a British subsidiary of German company Deutsche Grammophon/Schallplatte Grammophon GmbH. It was renamed Polydor Ltd. in 1972. The company is usually mentioned as "Polydor Ltd. (UK)", or a similar form, for holding copyrights.

Notable current and past artists signed to the label include Rainbow, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, the Cure, James Brown, Ray, Goodman & Brown, Atlanta Rhythm Section, John Mayall, Deep Purple, Cream, the Moody Blues, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Focus, Fishmans, Bee Gees, Lana Del Rey, Stephen Fretwell, the Jam, Style Council, the Shadows, James Last, Eric Clapton, Gloria Gaynor, Level 42, Sam Fender, S Club, Girls Aloud, Cheryl, Raye, Ellie Goulding, Jesy Nelson, Cian Ducrot and Destroy Lonely.

Music Corporation of America, formerly known as Universal Music Group Nashville, is Universal Music Group's country music subsidiary. It was officially opened in 1945 as Decca Records' country music division (now MCA Nashville). Capitol Records opened its Nashville office in 1950 and Mercury Nashville was founded in 1957. Some of the labels in this group include MCA Records Nashville, Mercury Nashville Records, Capitol Records Nashville and EMI Records Nashville. UMG Nashville not only handles these imprints, but also manages the country music catalogues of record labels Universal Music and predecessor companies acquired over the years including ABC Records, Decca Records, Dot Records, DreamWorks Records, Kapp Records, MGM Records and Polydor Records.

On April 25, 2025, Universal Music Group Nashville was officially renamed as the Music Corporation of America (MCA), which marked the return of the name previously used by UMG's predecessor parent company MCA Inc. from 1924 to 1996 and its subsidiary MCA Records as well as Universal Pictures's predecessor parent company MCA Inc. from 1962 to 1996 and its Revue Studios/Universal Television division.

Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, which is considered the center of the automotive industry in the United States and where the record label was originally headquartered.

Motown played a vital role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned label that achieved crossover success with white audiences. In the 1960s, Motown and its main subsidiary labels (including Gordy, Soul) were the most prominent exponents of what became known as the Motown sound, a style of soul music with a mainstream pop-influenced sound and appeal. Motown was the most successful soul music label, with a net worth of $61 million in 1988. Between 1960 and 1969, Motown had 79 songs reach the top-ten of the Billboard Hot 100.

PolyGram N.V. was a multinational major music record label and entertainment company formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a holding for their record companies, and was renamed "PolyGram" in 1972. The name was chosen to reflect the Siemens interest Polydor Records and the Philips interest Phonogram Records. The company traced its origins through Deutsche Grammophon back to the inventor of the flat disc gramophone, Emil Berliner.

Later on, PolyGram expanded into the largest global entertainment company, creating film and television divisions. In May 1998, it was sold to the alcoholic distiller Seagram which owned film, television and music company Universal Studios. PolyGram's music operations were thereby folded into Universal Music Group, and its film and television operations were folded into Universal Pictures, which had been both Seagram successors of MCA Inc. When the newly formed entertainment division of Seagram faced financial difficulties, it was sold to Vivendi, and MCA became known as Universal Studios, as Seagram ceased to exist. Vivendi remains the majority owner of the Universal Music Group (while the film and television division was sold to NBCUniversal) until 2021. In February 2017, UMG revived the company under the name of PolyGram Entertainment, which currently serves as their film and television division.

Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, which owned it until Universal Music Group (UMG) took control of part of it in 2013. It is ultimately owned by UMG subsidiary Virgin Records Limited.

The studio's most notable client was the Beatles, who used the studio – particularly its Studio Two room – as the venue for many of the innovative recording techniques that they adopted throughout the 1960s. In 1976, the studio was renamed from EMI to Abbey Road.

Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises.

Established and run by two Jewish immigrant brothers from what was then Poland, Leonard and Phil Chess, the company produced and released many singles and albums regarded as central to the rock music canon. The musician and critic Cub Koda described Chess as "America's greatest blues label".

Harmonia Mundi is a record label that specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group, which is itself owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2024.

Its Latin name harmonia mundi translates as "harmony of the world".

Aftermath Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper and record producer Dr. Dre in 1996. It operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed through Interscope Records.

The label's roster includes artists such as Eminem, Marsha Ambrosius, Anderson .Paak, and Ez Mil, while former artists include 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes among others.

Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Music Group and Interscope Communications, it differed from most record labels by letting A&R staff control decisions and allowing artists and producers full creative control. Interscope's first hit records arrived in under a year, and it achieved profitability in 1993. Chair and CEO until May 2014, Iovine was succeeded by John Janick.

In 1992, Interscope acquired the exclusive rights to market and distribute releases from hardcore hip hop label Death Row Records, a decision that ultimately put the label at the center of the mid-1990s gangsta rap controversy. As a result, Time Warner, then the parent of Warner Music Group, severed ties with Interscope by selling its 50 percent stake back to Field and Iovine for $115 million in 1995. In 1996, 50% of the label was acquired for a reported $200 million by MCA Inc., later known as Universal Music Group.

G-Unit Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group. Founded on October 15, 2002 by rapper 50 Cent and his manager, Sha Money XL, the label was operated by Interscope Records until February 2014. Thereafter, distribution of G-Unit operated under Caroline Records and Capitol Music Group. The label had also launched the subsidiary label G-Note Records, which caters to R&B and pop. The label's flagship artist is its founder 50 Cent.

Curtis is the third studio album by American rapper 50 Cent. It was released September 11, 2007, by Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, G-Unit Records, Interscope Records, and Universal Music Group. The album features production from Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Timbaland, among others. Music writers have noted that 50 Cent divides between "hard" and "soft" songs on the album. The album went through many changes in the lead up to its release and was heavily anticipated after the success of 50 Cent's two prior albums, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005).

Curtis received generally mixed reviews from music critics upon release. The album debuted at #2 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 691,000 copies in its first week. This gave 50 Cent his third consecutive top five album in the country. After years of slumping sales, the album's competition with Kanye West's Graduation (2007) and the resulting record-breaking performances both albums displayed was considered to be a "great day for hip hop."

Before I Self Destruct is the fourth studio album by American rapper 50 Cent, released November 16, 2009, on Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, G-Unit Records, Interscope Records and Universal Music Group. The album is his final solo release with Shady, Aftermath and Interscope excluding his 2017 Greatest Hits album Best Of 50 Cent. An accompanying feature film of the same name coincided with its release, and is available within the album's packaging.

Before I Self Destruct debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200, becoming 50 Cent's fourth consecutive album to do so in the country, while its lead single, "Baby by Me", peaked at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island having exerted a major influence on the progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s.

Island Records operates four international divisions: Island US, Island UK, Island Australia, and Island France (known as Vertigo France until 2014). Current key people include Imran Majid and Justin Eshak who were named co-CEOs of Island Records in 2021. Partially due to its significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels.

Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers.

It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights management (DRM) from the four major music labels (EMI, Universal, Warner, and Sony BMG), as well as many independents. All tracks were originally sold in 256 kilobits-per-second variable bitrate MP3 format without per-customer watermarking or DRM; however, some tracks are now watermarked.

Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Big Three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment.

Formerly owned by Time Warner, the company sold WMG in 2004 to a group of private investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., in a move to alleviate Time Warner's debt load related to its merger with AOL. WMG was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries. It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020, once again becoming a public company. As of 2025, Access Industries remains the company's largest shareholder, owning 72% of the equity and controlling 98% of the voting power. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 4,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world. The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful labels in the world, including Elektra Records, Reprise Records, Warner Records, Parlophone Records (formerly owned by EMI), and Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music publishers.

Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012 and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.