Ministry of Sound

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Ministry of Sound

Type	Public
Founded	1991
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Key people	Jamie Palumbo
Products	Dance Music CDs, Nightclubs
Revenue	£136m
Website	www.ministryofsound.com

Ministry of Sound London (commonly referred to as just Ministry of Sound), is a nightclub, based in London, England and an associated record label.

Ministry was ranked sixth in the 2009 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2009^[1]. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt. The Ministry of Sound brand also includes various other products such as dance music compilations and clothing. Ministry of Sound is owned by MSHK Group Limited, which has offices in London, Sydney, Berlin and New York.

The Chairman of MSHK Group is James Palumbo who is also the majority shareholder; a small minority share-holding having been sold to private equity house 3i in 2001. The Chief Executive Officer of MSHK Group is Lohan Presencer. MSHK Group has global sales of £80 million and employs up to 500 personnel worldwide. Its mission statement is: "to create the moments that people live for"^[2]. The company also owns the Hed Kandi, Euphoria, and Hard2Beat brands.

Ministry of Sound lights.

Ministry of Sound London

Inspired by New York’s Paradise Garage, Ministry of Sound’s London nightclub was the brainchild of DJ Justin Berkmann, who set out to create London’s first club devoted to the US house music scenes of New York, Chicago and Detroit, with a room purely dedicated to sound. He stated: "My concept for Ministry was purely this: 100% sound system first, lights second, design third (in that order); the reverse of everyone else’s idea."^[3]

Berkmann partnered with James Palumbo and Humphrey Waterhouse to bring the concept to life and a site, a disused bus garage, was located in Elephant & Castle in Southwark, London. The club opened on 21 September 1991.

With opening sets from US house DJs like Larry Levan, David Morales, C+C Music Factory, Roger Sanchez and Tony Humphries, the UK’s first 24-hour dance license, and a 140dB(A) sound-system designed and installed by Austen Derek, Ministry of Sound London quickly grew in popularity as a clubbing venue, despite the lack of an alcohol license for the first three years and notoriously strict door policies.

Today, the club remains at the forefront of the global dance music scene, with internationally recognised DJs playing mix sets every Friday and Saturday night. Since April 2008^[4], Fridays have been hosted by The Gallery, with sets from leading hard house and trance DJs. Saturdays are Ministry of Sound’s long-standing Saturday Sessions with house, electro and techno sets from popular DJs including Sasha, Erick Morillo, Pete Tong and David Guetta. Ministry of Sound London also hosts a range of other parties and events during the week and is available for private hire.^[5]

The club comprises five main areas; the Bar, the Baby Box, the VIP and the Loft and the Box, the latter housing the club’s primary sound-system, with a specially-built roof to contain sound and a sprung floor intended to enable clubbers to dance for many hours without tiring, inspired by the dancefloor at the Paradise Garage.

Record label

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Ministry of Sound has a global network of international affiliate labels including dedicated offices in Australia, Germany and the USA. Its record label was first established in 1995 with the release of The Annual, a compilation album of various dance music tracks mixed by UK DJs Boy George and Pete Tong. The Annual went on to sell over 160,000 copies and paved the way for a now-global label with over 50 million dance albums and singles sold to date, award winning music videos from artists like Eric Prydz and Benny Benassi and continuing sales of over 4 million copies per annum. Ministry of Sound remains an independent label, and continues to deliver albums and singles via its compilation brands including The Annual, Clubber's Guide and Anthems. In January 2006, the company purchased record label Hed Kandi from The Guardian Media Group and plans to continue maintaining the brand.

Imprint label Data Records, created to house Ministry of Sound’s more commercial dance music single releases, has enjoyed a string of number 1, Top 5 and Top 10 hits across the globe since its inception in 1999. Recent releases include Eric Prydz's "Pjanoo" and Kid Cudi vs Crookers' "Day 'n' Nite", both of which hit the #2 spot in the UK Singles Chart.

Ministry of Sound (Australia) is an affiliated record label based out of Cremorne, New South Wales, Australia. Its music was released through EMI (Australia) until January 2008, when it changed to Universal Music Australia and has been operating since 2000.

In 2008 Ministry of Sound launched its American operations after ending its relationship with Ultra Records. Its first release under the Ministry of Sound America imprint was Clubber's Guide America. In the same year, the company launched HARD2BEAT records with Basshunter's "Now You're Gone" as its first single and Bigtunes 2008 as its first compilation. Ministry of Sound won the Music Week Award for "Independent Record Company Label of the Year"^[6].

Ministry of Sound has its own customised content channel on Audiotube.

International activities

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Ministry of Sound holds around 800 events across the globe every year, attended by over 900,000 people, in nightclubs, festivals and parties. It has also expanded its network of own-brand venues with nightclub franchises in Papa's Beach Club, Sekalla, Hurghada, Egypt (opened in 2005) and Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (launched on 2 July 2008).

Digital media

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Internet

The Ministry of Sound's official website is the main web portal for Ministry of Sound containing multimedia content from Ministry of Sound TV and Ministry of Sound Radio and a shop stocking the range of Ministry of Sound music and lifestyle products. Local websites also exist for Ministry of Sound Australia, Germany and USA.

Ministry of Sound also has an extensive range of both official and unofficial fan pages on social networking sites Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

Ministry of Sound TV (MoSTV)

Launched in November 2006, Ministry of Sound TV (also known as MoSTV) is an IPTV content offering. The channel is dedicated to dance music programming, featuring music videos, mini-documentaries, interviews with DJs and exclusive global event coverage.

Ministry of Sound TV is also syndicated on IPTV Platforms including Joost, Vuze, Muzu and Audiotube with dedicated channels showcasing the best MoSTV content. There is a full in-house production team at Ministry of Sound who produce the packages as well as TV ads and music videos. MoSTV also makes content for Hed Kandi and Global Underground..

Ministry of Sound Radio

The Ministry of Sound Radio started as a syndicated programme in 1996, then graduated to an audio stream on the Ministry of Sound website in 1999. It was also broadcast as a DAB station via the Switch Digital consortium in 2000 and ran on FM via a Restricted Service License in October 2001.

In 2002, Ministry of Sound Radio reverted to an online audio stream and stopped broadcasting on DAB. It launched a new schedule in January 2009, featuring a mix of programming linked in to Ministry of Sound’s leading album brands such as Anthems, to specialist shows with DJ’s such as Mark Knight. It also produces several syndicated radio shows from its London studios that are broadcast on radio stations all over the world. There will be new syndicated programmes available for broadcast later in the year.

Mobile

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Ministry of Sound is the UK’s biggest independent label on mobile, selling content to many of the major operators and direct- to-consumer stores. There are Ministry of Sound branded channels on Vodafone, 3, O2 and T-Mobile and a Ministry of Sound direct-to-consumer WAP website.

Ministry of Sound also recently launched their first applications for the iPhone via Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store. The first of the applications, "iDrum", allows the user to create their own electronic drum patterns.

Branded products

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The Ministry of Sound name has been licensed for use on a range of lifestyle products including electronic goods sold by Alba (including MP3 players, home audio systems, DVD players, DAB radio players and in-car entertainment systems), mobile handsets, festival camping gear, vodka, clothing, luggage products and fragrance products.

Subsidiaries

• Hed Kandi
• Euphoria
• Hard2Beat

See also

• Ministry of Sound Egypt

References

External links

• Ministry of Sound

Coordinates: 51°29′52″N 0°5′57″W / 51.49778°N 0.09917°W / 51.49778; -0.09917