Universal Music Group (UMG) & Disney Music Group (DMG) Expand Agreement Globally

LOS ANGELES, March 20, 2013  /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, and The Disney Music Group (DMG), which includes Hollywood Records, Walt Disney Records and Disney Music Publishing, have expanded their ongoing relationship through a new long-term global commercial and creative agreement, it was announced today by UMG Chairman & CEO Lucian Grainge and DMG Executive Vice President, Ken Bunt.

Covering both physical and digital rights nearly worldwide, the agreement will enable UMG and Disney to offer DMG's unique and extremely popular music repertoire that includes all of the company's labels' frontline releases from a stable of multi-platinum pop, rock and country albums. The Disney roster has continued to expand with such chart-topping and critically-acclaimed artists as Demi Lovato, Plain White T's, Selena Gomez, ZZ Ward, Queen, Bridgit Mendler, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and more.  The agreement also covers the full Disney catalog of music from over 85 years, including all-time favorite soundtracks like "Aladdin," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King," "The Little Mermaid," "Winnie The Pooh," "Cinderella," "Tarzan," "The Jungle Book,"  "Toy Story,"  "Mary Poppins," and "The Mickey Mouse Club," as well as the opportunity to work together on music to new releases from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios and Disney|Lucasfilm.

For the first time, this new agreement provides for close creative collaboration between the two companies as DMG's labels and artists will now have access to UMG's roster of multiplatinum and Grammy Award-winning producers and songwriters on a worldwide basis.

"We are delighted to take our successful and long-standing relationship with Disney to the next level," stated Mr. Grainge.  "Providing access to our creative resources on a global scale, this new agreement takes our relationship with Disney beyond simply the commercial and fosters collaboration on a musical level."

"Universal Music Group has been a valuable and trusted collaborator of the Disney Music Group for over 18 years," stated Mr. Bunt. "And we are excited to expand our association to bring greater collaboration and strategic planning to our collective businesses."

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the global music leader, with wholly owned operations in 60 territories. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's premier music publishing operations worldwide.

Universal Music Group's record labels include A&M/Octone, Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol Records, Decca, Def Jam Recordings, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Geffen Records, Interscope Records, I.R.S., Island Records, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, Manhattan, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Motown Records, Polydor Records, Republic Records, Universal Music Latino, Verve Music Group and Virgin Records, as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalogue of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalogue is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes Global Digital Business, its new media and technologies division and Bravado, its merchandising company.

Universal Music Group is a fully owned subsidiary of Vivendi.

About Disney Music Group

Disney Music Group is home to Hollywood Records, Walt Disney Records, and Disney Music Publishing. The labels' genre-spanning rosters include Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, Plain White T's, Bridgit Mendler, ZZ Ward, Coco Jones, R5, Lucy Hale, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Redlight King, Zendaya,  American Idol finalist Stefano, McClain Sisters, and more. DMG also releases family music and film and television soundtracks such as Brave, the upcoming Iron Man 3, Shake It Up, Phineas and Ferb, A.N.T. Farm, The Muppets, and Wreck-It Ralph. 

SOURCE Universal Music Group