Sony Music Entertainment was founded in 1991 when Sony Corporation of America, which bought CBS Records in 1987, changed the record company’s name. In 2004, SME merged with Bertelsmann Music Group to create Sony BMG Music Entertainment but it was renamed back to SME when Sony acquired Bertelsmann’s 50% of Sony BMG causing the dissolution of BMG (later relaunched as BMG Rights Management after the buyout). It is currently the world’s second largest record company behind Universal Music Group.

Criticism

In May 2012, Sony Music filed charges against the website IsoHunt. The plaintifs claims in the court document filed at the supreme court of British Columbia: “The IsoHunt Websites have been designed and are operated by the defendants with the sole purpose of profiting from rampant copyright infringement which defendants actively encourage, promote, authorize, induce, aid, abet, materially contribute to and commercially profit from.”