Warner Music: Landmarks
Landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
- Antecedents
- Brunswick Records (1923)
- Elektra and Reprise (1950)
- Conglomerates
- Asylum (1970)
- Chappell and Time Warner (1987)
- Gnutella and AOL Time Warner merger (2000)
- Warner Music established (2003)
Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site and the more detailed profile of Time Warner.
Antecedents
1907 Warner brothers establish film distribution business
1912 move into production
1917 Warners have first major success with My 4 Years In Germany
1918 brothers open their first West Coast Studio on Sunset Boulevard
1923 Time launched by Henry Luce & Britton Hadden
1923 Warner Brothers incorporated
1925 Warners establish Vitaphone Co., begin experimental sound pictures at Warner Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn
1926 Warners Don Juan, starring John Barrymore, features music but no spoken dialogue
1927 Warners move Vitaphone to Hollywood, release Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer
Brunswick Records
1930 Warners buy Brunswick Records
1935 first Porky Pig cartoon from Warners animation unit
1936 Life launched
1944 twilight of the Studio System, with court ruling that Warners must release Olivia de Havilland after 7 year contract
1945 Warners increases stake in ABPC to 37.5%
1947 Atlantic Records founded
1948 much of Warners film library sold to MGM
1948 Warner Bros considers buying ABC network
1949 Warners ordered to divest cinema chain
1949 Warners begins to license cartoon characters to children's clothing manufacturers
1949 Eliot Hyman founds Associated Artists Productions
Elektra and Reprise
1950 Elektra Records founded by Jac Holzman
1956 Harry and Albert Warner sells stake in Warner Bros
1957 Stark and Hyman form Seven Arts Productions
1958 Warner Bros. Records founded
1963 Warners closes animation unit
1963 Warners buys Sinatra's ailing Reprise records
1965 Panavision purchased by Banner Productions for US$3.6m
Conglomerates
1967 Jack Warner sells his stake in Warners to Seven Arts for US$32m. Seven Arts merges with Warner Bros as Warner-Seven Arts
1967 Atlantic records bought by Warner-Seven Arts
1967 National Periodical Publications merges with Kinney to become parking-lot to funeral parlour conglomerate Kinney National Services
1967 DC and All-American Comics bought by Kinney National
1967 Kinney buys Ashley Famous talent agency
1969 Warner-Seven Arts acquired by Kinney National and becomes Warner Communications
1970 Warner Music opens in Australia
1970 Warner Communications buys Elektra records
Asylum
1970 Geffen founds Asylum label
1972 Time buys out Charles Dolan from Home Box Office (HBO) cable tv network, Dolan establishes Cablevision
1972 Life ceases
1973 Time buys pulp and paper group Temple Industries to form Temple-Eastex
1976 Nolan Bushnell sells Atari to Warners for US$28m
1979 Turner Communications Group becomes Turner Broadcasting System, WTCG is renamed WTBS
1983 US Federal Trade Commission and German cartel office forbid merger of Polygram and Warner Music
1984 Warner sells most of loss-making Atari to founder of Commodore Computers
1984 Warner sells cosmetics business and Panavision
1985 Quantum Computer Services formed, later renamed AOL
1985 Laurence Tisch buys 25% of CBS to thwart Turner bid
Chappell and Time Warner
1987 Warner buys Chappell Music publishing company from Polygram for US$275m
1988 WEA buys Teldec records (Germany) and Magnet records (UK)
1989 Time Warner created with Time's acquisition of Warner Communications
1989 WEA buys CGD Records (Italy) and MMG Records (Japan)
1989 Quantum renamed America Online
1990 Entertainment Weekly launched
1990 WEA buys Carrere Disques (France)
1992 WEA buys Erato records (France)
1993 WEA buys Spanish DRO Group, Hungarian Magneoton label, Swedish label Telegram Records
1993 Continental Records in Brazil and Finnish Fazer Musiiki
1994 Warner/Chappell Music acquires CPP/Belwin, becoming world's largest music publisher and largest publisher of printed music
1994 Turner Broadcasting System, Castle Rock and New Line Cinema merge
1994 Seagram buys 14.5% stake in Time Warner
1994 AOL reaches 1 million subscribers and links to the internet for the first time
1995 WB Network launched
1996 US Telecommunications Act results in billions of dollars of broadcast properties changing hands
1996 rest of Atari sold to Midway Games
1996 Time Warner takes over Turner Broadcasting System
1997 Justin Frankel develops Winamp MP3 tool, later creates Shoutcast and Nullsoft
1998 AOL buys CompuServe and ICQ online messaging
1998 WEA buys 90% of Nuova Fonit Cetra, Italian record and music publishing group
1999 AOL buys Netscape, MovieFone, Spinner, Winamp, SHOUTcast and DMS
1999 AOL buys Frankel's Nullsoft for US$100m
2000 buys 49% of Essence Communications Partners
AOL Time-Warner merger and Gnutella
2000 AOL merges with Time Warner
2000 Frankel releases Gnutella
2001 global AOL subscribers surpass 30 million
2001 AOLTW announces plan to spend US$6.75bn buying Bertelsmann's 49.5% stake in AOL Europe
2001 buys IPC Magazines from Cinven for £1.15bn
2002 AT&T sells stake in Time Warner Cable
2002 AOLTW buys 15.3% of VIVA Media from EMI
2002 buys 50% of music publisher Deston Songs from edel music AG
2003 Warner Bros sells stake in Australian cinema joint venture (319 screens in 29 multiplexes) to AHL's Greater Union and Village Roadshow
2003 'AOL' dropped from AOL Time Warner corporate name
Warner Music established
2003 Warner Music arm sold to investment consortium led by Edgar Bronfman (former head of Universal) for US$2.6bn
2004 EMI and Warner Music sell Australian CD manufacturing unit (joint venture) to Summit Technology Australia
2004 sells distributor The Entertainment Network Ltd (joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment) to Cinram
2005 Warner Bros. Publications sold to Alfred Publishing
2006 Warner Music agrees to buy Ryko Corporation for US$675m from investment group led by J.P. Morgan Partners