Interscope Records history

Interscope further established its strength in the alternative and rock genres in 1994.

While its reputation had garnered a great deal of profit for the company--well into the hundreds of millions by 1995--it had also in turn put Interscope in a high-profile position which, given the political climate of the time, came at a cost to the company's stability.

By 1995 Interscope had well established itself as a renegade company willing to take on artists, no matter how outrageous or controversial, that other labels would not touch.

In 1995 the company moved into Latin America when it bought Rodven Records, the region's largest independent record company.

Four years later, in 1995, ownership of MCA Inc. was passed again when the Seagram Company Ltd. acquired 80 percent of the company.

Fondation Vivendi Universal in France was created in 1996 to aid in the causes of unemployment and inequality of opportunity.

Dre left Death Row in mid-1996 due to what was then reported as tension over the creative direction of the label, and founded Aftermath Entertainment, a new joint venture with Interscope.

In 1996, MCA Music Entertainment was renamed Universal Music Group.

The sales in 1997 have been $5.58 billion.

In a 1997 article in Rolling Stone, David Wild wrote: "Interscope's start-up coincided with a period of incredible change in the music world.

Iovine's assistant (and former intern) Dean Geistlinger saw Eminem perform at the Rap Olympics in Los Angeles in 1997 and passed Eminem's CD on to Iovine; Iovine, in turn, passed it on to Dre.

He is credited in particular with launching the career of Eminem by signing the young rapper to his label Aftermath Records in 1998.

In 1998 Thomas Middelhoff became CEO of Bertelsmann.

The Death Row deal remained in place until 1998, when Knight was imprisoned for parole violations.

In 1998, the Universal Music Group parent company Seagram acquired PolyGram Records.

Conversely, Whalley, Interscope's president since 1998, accepted the position of chairman of Warner Bros.

In 1999 the UM3 was launched, UM3 is a division of Universal Music International that covers all areas of strategic catalog marketing outside North America.

In 1999, Bertelsmann introduced bol.com.

MCA's Geffen Records and PolyGram's the A&M Records were merged into Interscope, and in early 1999, Interscope Records began operating under the umbrella of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, with Iovine and Field serving as co-chairmen.

Records by Eminem, Dre, Eve, Nine Inch Nails, Enrique Iglesias, Limp Bizkit, Blackstreet, Smash Mouth and others generated an estimated $40 million in profit during the final six months of 1999.

In October, Limp Bizkit's 2000 album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water would shift 1.05 million copies in its first week in the United States, cementing Nu Metal's status in the pop culture as a top genre in the music industry at the time.

French company Vivendi Canal Plus merged with Seagram in 2000, with the resulting conglomerate becoming known as Vivendi Universal, now parent to UMG.

"bronfman, vivendi look forward." billboard, 22 december 2001.

In the early years of the 21st century, Doctor Dre began working on a follow-up to 2001.

Revenues for 2001 were down 6.6 percent from the previous year at $6.5 billion euro, which translates to about $5.8 billion.

Analysts estimate that music sales were off 10 percent in 2001, with poor sales in the largest two markets, the United States and Japan.

MP3.com, acquired in 2001, contained more than 1.2 million song and audio files, 185,000 artists, and had 5 million visitors.

Over the following five years, its funding created or maintained 18,000 jobs in local services—1,377 jobs created in 2001 alone.

UMG is the leading global music company, enjoying a 22.7 percent share of the world market in 2001 and operations in 63 countries worldwide.

One of every four albums sold worldwide in 2001 was a Universal album.

In 2001, Field resigned as co-chairman of Interscope to start a new label.

"universal music group." hoover's online, june 2002. available at http://www.hoovers.com.

Clearly a world leader in the field, UMG's financial performance for the first quarter of 2002 represented a decline of 6 percent.

Artist development will also be key for the company moving into 2002 and beyond as the overall slump in the music industry forces the company to come up with "the next big thing" that will stimulate record sales in the United States and worldwide.

vivendi universal home page, 2002. available at http://www.vivendiuniversal.com.

Four of Interscope's releases were in the top 10 of the year end sales charts in 2005: The Massacre (50 Cent) at number one, Encore (Eminem) at number two, Love.Angel.Music.Baby. (Gwen Stefani) at number six, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (U2) at number eight.

In 2006, Dre and Iovine established Beats Electronics.

On October 1, 2008 Bertelsmann sold 50% of Sony BMG to Sony Corporation of America.

In June 2010, Promoted Trends is launched.

In June 2010 Eminem's Recovery entered the Billboard 200 at number one, his sixth album to do so.

The turnover of UMG in 2010 cost $5584 million.

KPN counted 31.084 employees in the Netherlands in December 2011.

In October 2012, John Janick was named president and COO of Interscope Geffen A&M. The founder of Fueled By Ramen, Janick had previous success with artists including Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster and is the largest broadcaster in the world with around 23.000 employees and an income of £5.086 billion in 2012.

Records; both released their first records for Interscope in 2012.

At the time of his appointment, it was reported that Iovine had chosen Janick as his eventual successor—Iovine's attention had increasingly turned to Beats, which dominated the headphone market with 2012 revenues of $512 million.

The two companies were purchased by Apple for $3 billion in 2014.