The recording industry is dominated by five major companies that control about 85 percent of the marketplace for recorded music worldwide. The "Big Five" are Bertelsman Music Group (BMG), Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI), Sony Music, Universal Music Group (UMG), and Warner Music Group.

The Big Five

BMG is part of the German corporation Bertelsman, A.G., a large electronic media and publishing company. BMG acquired Arista in 1979 and the RCA Victor labels in 1986.

EMI, a British company, began with the merger of three labels in 1930. They were the Gramophone Company, Columbia Graphophone, and Parlophone. The company acquired U.S.-based Capitol records in 1956 and the Decca U.K. catalog in 1974. They also acquired Chrysalis records in 1989, and the Virgin Music Group in 1992. The company merged with the electronics company Thorn in 1979, creating Thorn-EMI, but they de-merged in 1996. The EMI Music Group now operates more than sixty...