Universal Music Publishing Group


Universal Music Publishing Group is a North American music publishing company and is part of the Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of Vivendi. It was formerly known as MCA Music Publishing until it merged with PolyGram.
Universal Music Publishing is the world's second largest music publishing company, behind Sony/ATV Music Publishing. UMPG's catalogue consists of over three million songs, with offices in over 30 countries.

History

In 1998, Seagram acquired PolyGram for $10.4 billion. PolyGram's music business was merged into Seagram's MCA Records, forming a new company named Universal Music Group. The merger also included both record labels' music publishers. PolyGram catalog included Dick James Music, Welk Music, Cedarwood Publishing, and Sweden Music. MCA had been in the music publishing business since 1964, when it acquired Lou Levy's Leeds Music. In 2006, Universal Music Publishing Group acquired Bertelsmann Music Publishing from Bertelsmann Music Group for €1.63 billion, back then the third largest publishing group in the world, making Universal Music the largest music publisher in the world. As part of the acquisition of BMG Music Publishing, Universal divested the catalogues of Zomba UK, Rondor UK, 19 Music and BBC to a new company named Imagem.
On January 1, 2015, Jody Gerson was named the Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, becoming the first female to run a major music publishing company. On December 3, 2015, she was named Executive of the Year by Billboard Magazine in its Women in Music issue. Sony/ATV Music Publishing overtook Universal Music Publishing as the world's largest music publisher in 2013 after acquiring EMI Music Publishing.

Services

UMPG administers the 60,000 title Rondor Music Catalog and also owns or administers a multitude of others including: Interscope and Def Jam Music, WildBrain, All Nations Music, Charlie Daniels, Casa Ricordi, Matraca Berg, DreamWorks Animation, HBO, Warner Bros., Sesame Street, Lionsgate, Disney Music Group, Forerunner Music, Epitaph Records, Greenwich/Barry, Momentum Publishing, and John Philips. UMPG also owns or administers the works of Leonard Bernstein and Henry Mancini, and Dsign Music.