In April 2005, Cooperative Music was set up by the
V2 Music Group as a transnational marketing and distribution operation which licenses independent labels, as opposed to individual artist companies which is the standard industry practice, for release in Europe, Australia and Japan. This in-house licensing division has an exclusive international marketing team with representation in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Australia and Japan. In February 2013
[PIAS] acquired Co-Op from
Universal Music Group. In 2018, PIAS Cooperative was absorbed into
PIAS Group, PIAS Cooperative brand is used in its sales on PIAS website. In 2024, financially badly harmed PIAS (including Cooperative Music) was bought again by Universal. ==Former Partner labels==