Sony BMG

Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a global recorded music company. They began as a result of a 50-50 joint venture between Music Entertainment and Bertelsmann Music Group completed on March 4, 2004. On August 5, 2008 Sony Corp. bought Bertelsmann AG's 50 percent stake in the music company for $1.2 billion to get full control. The music company will be renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc and this allowed Sony to have ownership of current and previous artists and also to better integrate its functions with Play station 3. The music company is now a owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America and operates music labels such as Arista Records and more. It has a broad array of local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalogue comprising of some of the most important recordings in history.  

1. What are the subsidiary labels that Sony GMG own? Sony BMG is one of the four major record labels, the others are, Universal Music Group, EMI and Warner Music Group. Sony operates music labels such as, Arista Records, Upstate Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, Jive Records, RCA Records and Zomba Records. 

  2. How does Sony benefit from being a vertically integrated company?
Bertelsmann sold its stake because it's a traditional, horizontally-integrated media company. Sony bought it because it's a vertically-integrated company well equipped to take advantage of it's inter-divisional synergies.

3. How does it profit from products other than music?
Sony makes it's money from electronics and producing films but also through products such as, play station and blu-ray.