Warner Music Group

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 record labels in the world, including Elektra, Reprise, Sire, Warner (formerly known as Warner Bros.), Parlophone (formerly owned by EMI), and Atlantic. WMG also owns Warner Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music publishers.