Sony/ATV Music Publishing was a music publishing company, since 2016 wholly owned by Sony Entertainment Inc., a holding company behind entertainment units of Sony Corporation of America, itself a regional North American company of Sony Corporation.
In December 1995, ATV Music Publishing was merged with Sony Music Publishing and renamed Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The company became the second largest music publisher in the world. It was originally a joint venture of Michael Jackson and Sony Corporation of America. After Jackson's death in 2009, his shares were passed to the Michael Jackson Family Trust.
On February 10, 2021, Sony/ATV was rebranded back as Sony Music Publishing, finally ending the Sony/ATV name after nearly 25 years in the business.
1955 - Lew Grade founds Associated Television (ATV).
1957 - ATV acquires Pye Records as a wholly owned subsidiary.
1957 - ATV Music Publishing is created to exploit the songs owned by ATV.
1968 - ATV Music and Lew Grade acquire the rights to the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue, Northern Songs.
1985 - ATV Music Publishing and Pye Records are put up for sale. They are bought Robert Holmes à Court.
1985 - ATV Music Publishing and its assets, Pye Records and Northern Songs, are again put up for sale. Singer Michael Jackson acquires them for $47.5 million.
1995 - Jackson merges ATV Music Publishing with Sony Music Publishing. He earns $90 million in the venture.
May 2001 - Jackson declares that The Beatles' songs "will never be for sale".
November 2001 - Sony/ATV Music Publishing acquires Tony Martin's Baby Mae Music catalogue of 600 songs.
July 2002 - Sony/ATV Music Publishing buys country music publisher Acuff-Rose for $157 million. The venture includes publishing rights to 55,000 songs.
2007 - Sony/ATV Music Publishing acquires Famous Music, a music publishing business with song catalogue of more than 125,000 songs.
2021 - Sony/ATV rebrands as Sony Music Publishing
Name variations:
- Sony / ATV Music Publishing
- Sony \ ATV Music Publishing
- Sony/ATV Music Publishing
- Sony / ATV Music Pub.
- Sony/ATV Music Pub.
- Sony Atv Music Publishing
- Sony ATV music publishing
- Sony ATV Music Publishing
- ATV/Sony Music Publishing
Related to:
- Sony/ATV Music
