Concord Jazz (1973–1994) Auto dealer and jazz enthusiast
Carl Jefferson started the Concord Jazz record label in 1973. He sold the label to Alliance Entertainment in 1994, and Glen Barros was appointed as CEO of the resulting company Concord Records.
Concord Records (1994–2004) In 1999, film/television producer
Norman Lear and entertainment executive
Hal Gaba purchased the company (
Concord Jazz and
Concord Records) after Alliance filed for bankruptcy. By 2000, the company had begun to receive financial backing from
J.P. Morgan & Co. Concord Music Group (2004–2015) Concord Music Group was a Former American independent music company (now Concord) based in
Beverly Hills, California, with worldwide (including the U.S.) distribution through
Universal Music Group. The company specialized in recordings and music publishing. On April 1, 2015, Concord Music Group merged with Bicycle Music Company to become
Concord Bicycle Music. Also in 2004, CMG partnered with Starbucks to release the
Ray Charles album
Genius Loves Company, which won eight GRAMMY Awards, including Album of the Year. In 2005, CMG bought
Telarc. On December 18, 2006, CMG announced the re-launch of the soul label Stax; rights to the name were formerly held by Fantasy. New singers included
Isaac Hayes and
Angie Stone. On March 12, 2007, Concord Music Group and
Starbucks jointly founded the
Hear Music label. Paul McCartney's album
Memory Almost Full was released in June 2007. Hear Music went on to release albums by
Joni Mitchell,
James Taylor,
Alanis Morissette,
Carly Simon and
John Mellencamp. In 2008, Village Roadshow Pictures Group (VRPG) and CMG completed their merger resulting in the creation of the new diversified entertainment group,
Village Roadshow Entertainment Group. In April 2010, it was announced that Paul McCartney transferred the distribution rights of his post-
Beatles output to Concord from
EMI. CMG purchased
Rounder Records in 2010. In 2012, Concord Music Group designated four distinct operating units: Fantasy Label Group (Hear Music, Stax, Fantasy), Rounder Label Group, Concord-Telarc Label Group (Concord Jazz/Heads-Up/Telarc) and Prestige Group. Esperanza Spalding was honored with the Best New Artist GRAMMY in 2011, a first for Concord Records. CMG artists won 8 GRAMMY Awards at the 2013 Awards ceremony, the most of any label group. On March 25, 2013, Wood Creek Capital Management, (now
Barings LLC, an affiliate of
MassMutual Financial Group), purchased Concord Music Group from
Village Roadshow Entertainment Group. On October 31, 2013, music publisher The
Bicycle Music Company acquired
Wind-up Records back catalog including the master recordings of 1,600 songs including albums by Creed, Evanescence, Seether and Alter Bridge. The Bicycle Music Company then entered into a service agreement deal with sister company Concord Music Group to market the acquired
Wind-up Records and other back catalogs to retailers and consumers. On July 1, 2014, Tom Whalley's label, Loma Vista Recordings (home to St. Vincent, Little Dragon, Spoon, Cut Copy, Marilyn Manson, Ghost, and the GRAMMY-nominated
Django Unchained soundtrack, among others) agreed to a new multi-year, worldwide strategic partnership with Concord Music Group. Under the terms of the agreement, CMG provided funding for new talent relationships and artist development, as well as comprehensive label services for Loma Vista. On July 8, 2014, Concord Music Group announced the acquisition of the
Vee-Jay Records catalog including over 5,000 master recordings from Little Richard, John Lee Hooker, Betty Everett, Jimmy Reed, Jerry Butler, The Staple Singers, Gene Chandler and the Dells, among many others. On April 1, 2015, it was announced that Concord Music Group merged with the Bicycle Music Company, a leading independent music publisher, record label and rights manager to form the fully integrated recorded music and publishing company Concord Bicycle Music. Concord Music and Bicycle Music operated as individual divisions within Concord Bicycle Music (CBM), with Concord Music Group being primarily responsible for recorded music activities and Bicycle overseeing publishing and rights management. CBM then immediately announced that it had acquired
Vanguard Records and
Sugar Hill Records from the
Welk Music Group. On December 23, 2014, its Nashville-based subsidiary and namesake was formed. On April 1, 2015, Concord Music Group, still led by Glen Barros, announced its merger with
Bicycle Music, owned by Wood Creek and led by Jake Wisely. The merged companies became subsidiaries of Concord Bicycle Music, a portfolio company of Wood Creek, with Scott Pascucci as CEO. The Concord Music Group division oversaw recorded music activities, and the Bicycle Music Company division managed publishing and rights. As Concord Bicycle Music, the company acquired
Razor & Tie,
Vanguard Records,
Sugar Hill Records,
Wind-up Records,
Fearless Records, and
Musart Music Group including its Edimusa publishing arm (2016). Following the merger announcement, the Delaware parent and the California branch of Concord Bicycle Assets LLC were incorporated on October 21 and 22, 2015, respectively. On June 2, 2017, Concord Bicycle Music purchased European-based publishing company
Imagem Music Group from a Dutch pension fund. After acquiring two theatrical licensing companies,
Tams-Witmark Music Library and
Samuel French in 2018, the company formed its own Theatricals division.
Concord (2017–present) During 2017, the Concord Music Group, Bicycle Music and Imagem divisions of Concord Bicycle Music were consolidated as Concord Music, and Barros was appointed as
chief operating officer. In 2017, a streaming rights deal signed between Universal and
Spotify gave Concord access to Spotify's marketing tools. In 2019, Concord purchased the
German music publishing company
Hans Sikorski, and has since amalgamated it with the previously acquired Boosey & Hawkes. The name Concord Music remained in use until early 2019. By May 1, 2019, the company was restyled as Concord. Concord Music had described itself as "a wholly owned subsidiary" After rebranding, Concord would define itself as "a private company funded by long-term institutional capital and members of Concord's management team". On April 26, 2021, Concord acquired
Downtown's copyrights consisting of 145,000 owned and co-published copyrights for $300 million. In late 2021, incoming interest prompted Concord majority owner, the Michigan State Retirement System, to consider a sale of its stake in the company. "We got some very strong bids, and we passed on all of them," commented the then Concord CEO Scott Pascucci. Pascucci reported that Concord received several bids that were "extremely aggressive" but none that were "extraordinary plus." In September 2022, Concord purchased the publishing and recorded music catalogues of
Tony Banks,
Phil Collins, and
Mike Rutherford, as well as the publishing and recorded music catalogue from their years in the band
Genesis. In December 2022, Concord successfully closed $1.8 billion of
senior notes, secured by a significant portion of its diversified catalogue of sound recordings and songs. Led by
Apollo Global Management and assisted by J.P. Morgan, it was the largest
asset-backed securitization offering of music rights in the industry to date in terms of both size of issuance and number of assets (over one million copyrights). Proceeds from the issuance were to be reinvested to support Concord's continued growth in 2023 and beyond. On July 1, 2023, Bob Valentine (previously the
chief financial officer In September 2023, it was announced Concord had acquired the music publishing catalog of the New York, Nashville, and London-based music publisher, Mojo Music & Media. The catalog includes works of bands such as
REO Speedwagon,
Kiss, and
Cheap Trick. Additionally in September 2023, Concord made an offer to acquire the entirety of Round Hill Music Royalty Fund (RHM) – the UK-listed fund operated by Round Hill Music. In October 2023, the RHM shareholders approved the acquisition, with over 99% of shareholders supporting the deal. With this transaction, Concord exceeded the $2 billion mark in its spending "across recorded music, music publishing and theatricals" since the 2015 merger. On March 24, 2025, Concord acquired Stem Distribution, which provides personalized distribution, digital strategy, data-driven insights, playlisting, and more for independent artists and labels. Stem will continue to be operated as a separate division within Concord Label Group. In April 2026, Concord announced that the company will merged with
BMG to create fourth major music company in the world, with Bertelsmann owns 67% in the new company, while Great Mountain Partners owns 33% in the new company. == Divisions ==