Sony BMG Music Entertainment

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Image:Sony bmg2.jpg Sony BMG Music Entertainment is the result of a 50/50 joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment (part of Sony) and BMG Entertainment (part of Bertelsmann) completed on August 5, 2004. It is one of the Big Four music companies, and includes ownership and distribution of recording labels such as Arista Records, Columbia Records, Epic Records, J Records, RCA Victor, RCA Records, Sonic Wave America and others.

Financial analysts covering the merger anticipated that up to 2000 jobs could be cut as a result, saving Sony BMG approximately $350 million annually.

The company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Andy Lack. In the first half of 2005, the company's share of new releases in the United States (US) declined from 33% to 26% according to Nielsen SoundScan. This, and Lack's negotiation of what some called an "ill-conceived" with Bruce Springsteen led to Bertelsmann informing Sony that it would not renew Lack's contract after its expiration in March 2006.

In October and November 2005, a controversy over digital rights management software produced and shipped by this company ensued; see 2005 Sony CD copy protection controversy. On November 16, 2005 US-CERT, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, part of the United States Department of Homeland Security, issued an advisory on XCP DRM, citing the XCP use of rootkit technology to hide certain files from the computer user as a security threat to computer users and saying that one of the uninstallation options provided by Sony also introduced vulnerabilities to a system. US-CERT advised, "Do not install software from sources that you do not expect to contain software, such as an audio CD."[1]

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