Warner Bros. Records

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Warner Bros. Records
Parent company	Warner Music Group
Founded	March 19, 1958
Founder	Warner Bros.
Distributing label	Warner Bros. Records (U.S.) WEA International Inc. (outside U.S.)
Genre	Various
Country of origin	United States
Location	Burbank, California New York, New York
Official website	Official Web site of Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is also affectionately known as Warners or the Bunny, based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons released by Warner Bros. Pictures.

History

Warner Bros. Records opened for business on March 19, 1958, above the film studio's machine shop at 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California. Prompting the label's creation was when Warner Bros. Pictures contract actor Tab Hunter scored a #1 hit in 1957 with "Young Love" for Dot Records. To Warners' chagrin, reporters were primarily asking about the hit record, instead of Hunter's latest Warner movie. The company quickly signed Hunter to the newly formed record division, and while his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate the success that he had with Dot, the fledgling Warner Bros. Records was nonetheless successful.

In 1960, the company signed the Everly Brothers (which were previously on Cadence Records) with the first ever million-dollar contract in history. The same year, they also released two albums by Bob Newhart, which both won Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year. In 1963, Warner Bros. Records purchased Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise Records—the acquisition proved very lucrative, as Reprise remains in the WBR fold to this day. In 1964, the label negotiated with Disques Vogue for the right to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US, beginning with "Downtown." Eight years later, in 1972, Dionne Warwick was brought to the label after leaving Scepter Records in a deal that was the biggest contract at the time for a female artist. Warwick's five years at Warners would greatly pale in comparison to her tenure at Scepter, both personally and professionally.

In 1967, Warner Bros. (including WBR) was sold for $85 million to Seven Arts Productions and renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Two years later, the company was sold to Kinney National Company (later renamed Warner Communications.) In 1971, Warner Communications established WEA; the pooling together of Warner Bros. Records, Elektra and Atlantic, to form a larger umbrella for its music entities under which they could operate. In 1990, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner. In 1991, WEA was renamed Warner Music. In 2000, Time Warner merged with AOL creating AOL Time Warner. Finally, in March 2004, a group of private investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought the Warner Music Group from Time Warner. Today Warner Bros. Records remains one of Warner Music Group's most dominant labels, having exactly 121 artists on the label. WMG enjoys a royalty-free license from Time Warner for the use of Warner Bros. trademarks; this could be revoked if WMG becomes under control of a major motion picture studio.^[1]

American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi was appointed to vice president of A&R in 2008.

Affiliated labels

Current

• So Icey Entertainment (2009–present)
• Asylum Records (2009–present)
• A Band Apart (1997–present)
• Black Wall Street Records (2004–present)
• Blacksmith Records (2005–present)
• BME Recordings (2004–present)
• Brute/Beaute Records (2005–present)
• BTNH Worldwide (2009–Present)
• Doghouse Records (2004–present)
• Festival Mushroom Records (1998–present)
• Heiress Records (2004–present)
• Machine Shop Recordings (2002–present)
• Malpaso Records (1995–present; status unknown)
• Loveway Records (2009–present)
• Maverick Records (1991–present)
• Nonesuch Records (2004–present)
• Perezcious Music (2009–present)
• Playmaker Music (2007–present)
• Public Broadcasting Service (1998–present; current status unknown)
• Record Collection (2003–present)
• Reprise Records (1963–present)
• RuffNation Records (1998–present)
• Sire Records (1978–1995, 2003–present)
• Teleprompt Records (2003–present)
• Word Records (2002–present)
• Serjical Strike Records (2007–present)

Former

• 4AD Records (1992–1998) (US only)
• American Recordings (1988–1997 [US], 2005–2007 [worldwide])
• Autumn Records (1963–1965)
• Bearsville Records (1970–1984)
• Capricorn Records (1972–1977), (1990–1995)
• Cold Chillin' Records (1987–1993)
• ECM Records (?–1984)
• Extasy International Records (2000–2004)
• Full Moon Records (?–1992)
• F-111 Records (1995–2001)
• Geffen Records (1980–1990)
• Giant Records and its subsidiaries the Medicine Label (1993–1995), Paladin, Revolution (1990–2001)
• Loma Records (1964–1968 and one boutique release in 2003)
• Luaka Bop Records (1988–2000)
• Metal Blade Records (1988–1993)
• Music for Little People (1990–1995)
• Opal Records (1987–1993)
• Paisley Park Records (1985–1994)
• Premeditated Records (middle 1990s)
• Raybaw Records (2005–2008)
• Qwest Records (1980–2000)
• Slash Records (1982–1996)
• Tommy Boy Records (1985–2002)
• Valiant Records (1960–1966)
• Warner Alliance (?–1998)

Artists

See also

• List of record labels
• List of Warner Bros. Records artists
• Reprise Records

References

External links

• Official site
• Video Interview with Bill Bennett - CEO & President of Warner Bros. Records Nashville
• The Warner Bros. Records Story from BSN Pubs.
• Warner Bros. Records channel at YouTube (requires Adobe Flash)
• Discography of Loma Records