The EMI Group is the only UK owned major record company. It used to be a publicly owned company on the London Stock Exchange, but since 2007 has been wholly owned by an investment company called Terra Firma. Its new owners are undertaking a wide-ranging review of the company's activities, so much of what follows could change in the coming year.

The EMI Group consists of two principle divisions - EMI Music (recorded music) and EMI Music Publishing (erm, music publishing). The Group and each subsidiary has its own corporate website - at www.emigroup.com, www.emimusic.co.uk and www.emimusicpub.com respectively.

In the UK, EMI Music has three primary labels - EMI Records, Parlophone and Virgin. The first two operate side by side as 'the EMI labels' (or, officially, the 'Capitol labels').

Virgin was, for a long time, completely autonomous - but it now shares various resources with the other EMI labels, although is still a seperate division.

EMI Records and Parlophone have their own websites, of sorts. They're not great. However, all of the EMI labels also share one big website, called The Raft, which was originally Virgin Records' UK website, but which now covers artists signed to all three.

Secondary labels Positiva, Additive, DFA and Heavenly are handled by EMI Records marketing, but all have their own websites. The only secondary label currently affiliated to Parlophone (as far as I know) is Regal.

UK based secondary labels associated with Virgin include Innocent, Relentless and Radiate. Both Hut and Science used to be affiliated to Virgin, though neither of them are currently active, as far as I know, so will be only found on catalogue releases.

EMI also owns the previously independent Mute and its imprints, including Novamute. Mute did, for a while, continue to operate autonomously, though seems to be increasingly operating more closely with the EMI family.

In the US EMI's primary label is Capitol who market and distribute EMI and Parlophone's rosters there. Capitol acts go through either EMI or Parlophone here.

Virgin has it's own division in the US, and its own Virgin US website.

EMI's US based secondary labels include: Neurodisc, Right Stuff and S Curve.

EMI's US based jazz and motown labels with websites include: Blue Note, Capitol Nashville and Mosaic

Virgin affiliated US labels include Astralwerks and Priority Records.

French label Source also releases music via Virgin in the UK.

EMI Music's classical labels have international sites - Angel Records, EMI Classics and Virgin Classics

The three UK primary labels each have their own marketing teams. Generally secondary labels are associated with either EMI, Parlophone or Virgin, and will rely on the relevant primary label's marketing team. That's except for college marketing - student press and radio for all EMI, Parlophone and Virgin labels are handled by Dolly Clew's central marketing team.

PS: Many outside the industry still assume Virgin Records is an independent label owned by Richard Branson, but he sold it to EMI in 1992 to fund his then struggling airline. Branson, of course, later launched another independent record company, V2, though that too is no longer part of the Virgin Group, now being owned by the Universal Music Group.

PPS: The 'EMI Records' bit of EMI used to be known as 'EMI Chrysalis', following EMI's acquisition of Chrysalis Records in 1991. This was confusing for a while because Chrysalis' other businesses, including a music publishing company, continued to operate independently from EMI. Things became even more confusing when Chrysalis launched a new independent record company called Echo - which meant EMI owned Chrysalis Records and Chrysalis owned Echo Records! All of which might be why EMI eventually dropped the Chrysalis name (except, we hear, on Robbie Williams releases, which sometimes still contain a Chrysalis Records logo).

PPPS: Things are still a bit confusing given that the EMI name is used at various different levels in the company - ie EMI Records is owned by EMI Music which is owned by EMI Group. Don't go getting each one confused now.

In 2004, Sony and BMG merged to create one big major record company, SonyBMG. This is jointly owned by Japanese based Sony Corp and German based Bertlesmann Media.

SonyBMG itself is formally based in New York, and has a parent company website at www.sonybmg.com

Initially SonyBMG in the UK operated as one big record company, but in 2006 their operations were split into the Columbia Records Group and RCA Records Group. The two divisions took half of the SonyBMG UK roster each, and now have their own A&R teams signing new artists. More recently a third primary label has been launched, Epic (actually, relaunched, Epic being a former Sony label), though this has a much smaller roster than the other two.

There is still one SonyBMG UK website at www.sonybmgmusic.co.uk and the two bigger primary labels have their own sites too - www.columbia.co.uk and www.rca-records.co.uk.

In the US there are four divisions - two taking in the former BMG labels/artists, two the former Sony Music labels/artists.

The primary labels formerly owned by BMG are RCA (which now incorporates Arista, for a long time a stand alone primary label) and the Zomba Music Group, whose main record label is Jive.

The primary labels formerly owned by Sony are Columbia and Epic, both with individual sites in the US.

Over the years both BMG and Sony had a number of UK based secondary labels, including Cheeky, Morning, Nu Life, Obsessive, Deconstruction and S Records (on the BMG side) and S2 and Higher Ground (on the Sony side).

None of these seem to be currently active, although the successor to S Records, Simon Cowell's label, is SyCo Records, which is still partly owned by SonyBMG, with most of its artists marketed by the RCA team. And since the merger SonyBMG have launched some new secondary labels, in particular 1965 Recordings and Phonogenic.

SonyBMG's US based secondary labels tend to be much more active and frequently operate relatively autonomously from the primary labels. These include J Records and La Face, both formerly part of BMG, and Aware and Loud, both formerly part of Sony Music.

Other US SonyBMG labels include, on the classical side, SonyBMG Masterworks. There's the formerly BMG owned label RCA Victor, which has an eclectic bunch of artists, though is best known for its Broadway releases. Sony Nashville does all things country. And there's the catalogue label (which reissues old albums) Legacy Recordings.

Sony Music has a history of investing in independent labels in the UK. In these deals Sony takes a stake in the label with its original owners maintaining some owership and a&r control. The labels operate pretty much autonomously but with marketing and international support from the Sony group.

Labels that, as far as we know, are currently part-owned by Sony in this way include: Deltasonic, Instant Karma, and Skint. Independiente certainly used to be, but seems to have ended its Sony relationship now. The most famous of these part-owned Sony labels was probably Creation - though the label is now defunct there is a tribute site at www.creation-records.com

PS: As a matter of interest, Sony Music Japan is not part of SonyBMG, and is wholly owned by Sony Corp.

PPS: SonyBMG does not have a music publishing division, though some say they have ambitions to launch one. Parent company Sony owns one of the major music publishing houses, Sony/ATV. Bertelsmann used to have its own music publishing house, BMG Music Publishing, but this was sold and merged into Universal Music Publishing.

Formed by the merger of two major record companies - Universal (or MCA) and Polygram - back in 1998, the Universal Music Group is still the biggest music company in the world, despite the creation of SonyBMG in 2004.

It is owned by French based conglom Vivendi.

The Universal Music Group itself has an international site at www.umusic.com.

Their music publishing company is called Universal Music Publishing, and it has an international site at www.umusicpub.com. This recently grew in size considerably by acquiring BMG Music Publishing off SonyBMG co-owner Bertelsmann.

There's a website for all of Universal Music Group's UK recorded music operations at www.universalmusic.co.uk

In the UK the Universal Music Group has three primary labels - Polydor, Island and Mercury - all of which operate more or less autonomously (although they are now all based in the same building).

Secondary Universal labels from the UK and abroad attach themselves to one of the primaries for press, marketing and distribution purposes. UK based secondary labels include Fiction, which is associated with Polydor, and Def Jam UK and Vertigo, both of which are associated with Mercury.

Other secondary labels that used to be associated with Mercury include dance labels Talkin Loud and Manifesto, neither of which are currently active (don't get that Manifesto confused with the US independent label of the same name now will you?).

In 2007 Universal acquired former independent label V2 Music, which will operate as a secondary label attached to Mercury. It still has its own website at www.v2music.com, though the label was drastically downsized after the takeover and the site doesn't seem to have been updated since, so V2 may as yet completely disappear with its artists assigned to other Universal primary labels.

In 2007 Universal also acquired former independent label Sanctuary Records, though it did so to acquire Sanctuary's management and merchandising interests and subsequently closed down the Sanctuary labels. It's not clear which other Universal labels will look after the Sanctuary catalogue.

Somewhat confusingly some releases via Island are assigned to 'Universal Records', which is in someways a secondary label, although the primary label is sometimes referred to as Universal/Island, as if Island Records and Universal Records are two equal parts of the same thing. And it's all even more confusing given that Universal is also the name of the parent company.

In the US, the Universal Music Group is split into the Island Def Jam group (which in turn consists of Island and Def Jam) and the A&M Interscope Geffen group (which consists of Interscope/A&M and Geffen/MCA). Generally, acts from the first go through Mercury in the UK, acts from the latter through Polydor.

Secondary labels that are part of the Island Def Jam group have their own sites in the US: Russell Simmons Music Group, Damon Dash Music Group, Lost Highway, DTP, So So Def and Roc A Fella.

Universal's UK based classical and jazz labels operate under the banner of UCJ, and have shared website at www.classicsandjazz.co.uk.

Universal's US classical labels - including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Philips and Decca Broadway - share an international site at www.universalclassics.com

Universal in the US also own Motown Records, country label Universal Music Nashville, and jazz label Verve Music

PS: Interscope Records was originally half owned by Warner's Atlantic Records, but they sold their share to Universal (then called MCA) in 1995 because groups opposed to the gangsta rap Interscope specialised in (and, perhaps more importantly, its investment in Suge Knight's Death Row label) lobbied Warner's shareholders. New owner MCA were also nervous about some Death Row releases so, despite owning half of Interscope which owned half of Death Row, they refused to get involved in certain releases. In the end Polygram owned Island Records distributed those releases. Ironically both Island and Interscope would become part of the same company a couple of years later when MCA and Polygram merged - though by that time Interscope had ended its relationship with Death Row. Simple.

Formerly owned by Time Warner, but now an independent US based company based in New York, Warner Music Group has a worldwide site at www.wmg.com

Warner Music UK doesn't seem to have a corporate website, though its two primary labels now seem to share one consumer facing website, called Under Current TV. They also have a careers website which provides a good background to its operations, though I don't know how often this gets updated.

Warner's primary labels in the UK are Warner Bros (formerly called Warner Music) and Atlantic (formerly called East West). In addition you have the compilations and back catalogue label Rhino (formerly the sexily named Warner Strategic Marketing) and Warner Classics which does classical.

UK secondary labels include sixsevenine, Atlantic Street and Warner Dance.

Warner also has a majority stake in the previously independent rock label Roadrunner.

Warner also owns London Records and its imprint FFrr, although neither seem to be that active these days.

Warner also have relationships with and stakes in a number of independent labels, including Transgressive and Must Destroy, the exact nature of which I'm not sure of (someone told me Transgressive was wholly owned by Warner). 679 Recordings was one of these labels, but became wholly owned by Warner at the same time it rebranded as sixsevenine.

Warner's primary labels in the US are also Warner Bros and Atlantic (the latter now incorporates the old Elektra label).

Other US Warner labels include: East West, Maverick, Reprise and the US version of Rhino

The UK versions of Warner Bros and Atlantic both have their own marketing teams. Most of the artists on the US labels are looked after by the Warners team in the UK.

Warner's music publishing company is called Warner Chappell and has a UK site at www.warnerchappell.co.uk

PS: Warner UK acquired the UK bit of independent record company Mushroom Records (which included imprints Infectious and Perfecto) back in 2003. Although initially its own division - called A&E Records - most of its roster was quickly absorbed by Warner division EastWest, which subsequently became Atlantic Records.

PPS: In a completely separate deal Warner Music Australia acquired the Australian bit of Mushroom Records in 2005. Although the Mushroom Australia roster was initially absorbed by the major's other labels, Warner announced in early 2006 that it was launching a new label using the Mushroom Records name. This is all quite confusing when you consider that Michael Gudinski, who founded the original Mushroom Records, still runs a separate company called Mushroom Music Group which owns both a publishing company and a number of record labels.