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Disney Music Group

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Disney Music Group
Company typeDivision of Walt Disney Studios
IndustryMusic
Founded1998
Headquarters
South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California
,
U.S.
Key people
Ken Bunt,[1] EVP
ParentThe Walt Disney Studios
(The Walt Disney Company)
WebsiteDisney Music Group

The Disney Music Group (formerly Buena Vista Music Group) is a collection of affiliated record labels and music publishing entities, owned by the Walt Disney Company. The executive vice president of the group is Ken Bunt,[1] who reports to Alan F. Horn, the chairman of the Walt Disney Studios.

Background

In October 1949, Disney formed The Walt Disney Music Company to publish and license Disney songs.[2] In 1956, The Walt Disney Music Company's Disneyland record label issued its first record, A Child's Garden of Verses.[3]

History

In 1997, the Group started the Lyric Street Records.[4] In September 2005, BVMG signed with EMI for distribution of its album in United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East replacing Warner Music Group.[5] In November 2006, Disney Music Publishing and Warner/Chappell Music Inc. agreed to a licensing agreement for Europe and South America major markets. [6] In 2006, BVMG launched a concert production arm, Buena Vista Concerts starting with The Cheetah Girls: The Party’s Just Begun Tour and High School Musical: The Concert.[7]

Disney Music Group

In April 2007, Disney decided to drop the Buena Vista brand for Disney.[8] Lyric Street launched a subsidiary label, Carolwood Records, in October 2008[9] which was soon shuttered in November 2009.[10] On April 14, 2010, Disney Music Group announced the closure of the Lyric Street label with some bands transferred to other branches of Disney Music Group and others dropped dropped altogether.[11]

Labels

Active

  • Walt Disney Records, the flagship label of the group, was founded in 1956 as Disneyland Records, so that Disney would not have to release through third-party labels not associated with the studio, such as RCA Victor or Capitol Records, which had issued Disney albums in the past. Under the Disneyland label, among its other recordings, the studio also released new soundtrack LP's of some of the animated Disney films, including, in 1957, a 3-LP album set In monophonic sound of all of the classical music heard in Fantasia, perhaps the first soundtrack album containing virtually all the music from a feature-length film. (The "Meet the Soundtrack" intermission segment and the jam session were not included, and Deems Taylor's commentary was also omitted.) Disneyland Records also released cover albums (rather than soundtracks) of some of the other animated films, such as Lady and the Tramp. In 1989, the label was renamed to its current branding and now releases a broad range of Disney-branded music for children, teens and families such as soundtracks to Walt Disney Pictures' films, original music from artists such as They Might Be Giants, Mitchel Musso, and compilations of music made popular by Radio Disney.
  • Disney Music Publishing Group, controls the publishing rights to music from Disney's film, television, theatre and theme park divisions. Ancillary divisions include Walt Disney Music Company, Wonderland Music Company, Seven Peaks Music, Seven Summits Music, Touchstone Pictures Music & Songs, Hollywood Pictures Music, HolPic Music, Buena Vista Music Company, Fuzzy Muppet Songs, Mad Muppet Melodies, Agarita Music, FFM Publishing, F T S Music, Saban Music U.S.A., ABC Family Music, Falferious Music, Five Hundred South Songs, Balanga Music and more.

Defunct

  • Buena Vista Records, a label largely devoted to authentic soundtrack albums of mostly live-action Disney film musicals, such as Mary Poppins, The Happiest Millionaire, Summer Magic, and Babes in Toyland, as well as recordings by actors then under contract to Disney, such as Annette Funicello and Hayley Mills. Often, at the same time that Buena Vista Records released a genuine soundtrack album of one of the Disney movies, Disneyland Records, another, less expensive Disney label, would release a cover version of the songs from that film. Today, Buena Vista Records operates as an imprint of Walt Disney Records and most recently it has been employed to serve as an pseudo name for certain releases by Walt Disney Records such as more adult oriented Almost Alice and Marvel Studios' Thor as well as releasing traditional albums for Walt Disney Records adult artists such as Billy Ray Cyrus and Nathan Pacheco.
  • Lyric Street Records, was an American record label specializing in country music. President Randy Goodman, formerly a general manager for RCA Records, founded the label in 1997. Among its first signees were Lari White, John Berry, Aaron Tippin, SHeDAISY and extremely popular Rascal Flatts. The label launched a subsidiary label, Carolwood Records, in October 2008. In April 2010 the label was folded into Hollywood Records.
  • Mammoth Records, the formerly independent record label was founded by Jay Faires in 1989. In 1993 it became part of a joint venture with Warner Bros. owned Atlantic Records but hit the market again in 1997 It was bought by the then Buena Vista Music Group up until which it was based in North Carolina.[12] It had a very successful alternative artist roster including acts such as: Antenna, Blake Babies, Chainsaw Kittens, Dash Rip Rock, Dillon Fence, Frente!, Fun-Da-Mental, Fu Manchu, Jason & the Scorchers, Joe Henry, Juliana Hatfield, Kill Creek, Machines of Loving Grace, The Bats, The Melvins, My Friend Steve, Seven Mary Three, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Sidewinders, Vanilla Trainwreck, and Victoria Williams. In 2003, the label was folded into Hollywood Records.[13]

Distribution

Disney Music Group did not have its own distribution network, either in its native market of the US or internationally. It had a licensing deal with Warner Bros. Records from 1995 to 2005. Furthermore, Sony Music Entertainment has been a distributor of Hollywood Records in mainland Asia. Since the expiration of the Warner Bros. agreement, the group relied on both Universal Music Group and EMI Music, given the territory.

In the United States, Disney Music Group relies on Universal Music Distribution solely for distribution, as Disney handles its own marketing and other functions. Outside of the United States, it engages in both licencing and distribution agreements with either Universal Music Group (Hollywood,Mammoth) or EMI (Walt Disney,Lyric Street,Buena Vista) for marketing and release of its material, as the company does not have its own facilities elsewhere. Universal Music Group have handled Canada, Asia (excluding Japan), South America, and India since 2005, and Australia and New Zealand since March 2009.[14] EMI Music handles the releases in United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Europe, Africa and Middle East since September 2005, as well as having handled Australia and New Zealand prior to their move to Universal in 2009.[14] The Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Group handles DMG's distribution in Japan[15] since 1999.

Due to Disney's special business arrangement with Universal, several of DMG's more successful artists such as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez & The Scene have been signed directly to Universal Music UK and are handled by Universal UK's sub-label Fascination Records. Europe-wide distribution, marketing and licencing for these artists is instead handled by Universal, rather than by EMI.

Since in early 2012, Universal Music Group have bought the recorded music division of EMI Music, it is likely that DMG's releases will be completely managed by only one of the companies in the future.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Finke, Nikki. "Ken Bunt Will Run Disney Music Group In 2012 When Bob Cavallo Retires". Deadline.com. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  2. ^ Thomas, Bob (1994). Walt Disney - An American Original. p. 258.
  3. ^ Smith, Dave (1998). Disney A to Z - The Updated Official Encyclopedia. p. 593.
  4. ^ "Lyric Street Records chief to lead CMA board". Nashville Business Journal. 2007-10-18. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
  5. ^ "Disney, EMI sign music agreement". L.A. Biz. September 6, 2005. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  6. ^ "Warner/Chappell Music, Disney Music extend sub-publishing agreement". L.A. Biz. November 27, 2006. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  7. ^ "Buena Vista Concerts and AEG Live Announce Launch of the Disney Music Block Party Tour, A Dynamic Concert Festival Experience". Press Releases. NAMM. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  8. ^ Fixmer, Fixmer (April 25, 2007). "Disney to Drop Buena Vista Brand Name, People Say (Update1)". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  9. ^ "Biz Bits: Disney casts wider net with new sister record label to Lyric Street". Nashville Business Journal. October 19, 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  10. ^ Lee, Wendy (2009-11-03). "Carolwood Records "functionally" shuttered". The Tennesseean. Retrieved 2009-11-03. [dead link]
  11. ^ "Covington, Fowler, Dickerson Follow Rascal Flatts to Disney Music Group". cmt.com. April 15, 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  12. ^ Sandler, Adam (21 July 1997). "Disney inks Mammoth deal". Variety. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  13. ^ Waller, Don. "Faires exists Mammoth". Variety. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  14. ^ a b "UNIVERSAL MUSIC, DISNEY MUSIC FORGE LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND: Forthcoming Releases Include Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana". Universal Music Group.
  15. ^ "Disney Music". The Walt Disney Company and Avex Group Holdings Inc.
  • [www.columbia.edu/~tb2139/Bickford_TweenMusicIndustry.pdf]
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