In 2004,
Concord Records acquired Fantasy, Inc., owner of the
Prestige,
Fantasy,
Milestone,
Riverside,
Specialty, and the post-Atlantic
Stax catalog. Concord then combined with Fantasy to form the independent Concord Music Group (CMG). 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. In March 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. The next year, 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. Wood Creek Capital Management, (now
Barings LLC, an affiliate of
MassMutual Financial Group), purchased Concord Music Group from
Village Roadshow Entertainment Group in March 2013. 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. Concord Music Group merged with the Bicycle Music Company, a leading independent music publisher, record label and rights manager in April 2015 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. ==Labels==