The company was set up in 1977 when Lloyd Webber, frustrated with the terms of his contract with the impresario Robert Stigwood, decided to take greater control over the management of his creative works.

In 1995, PolyGram was bought by Canadian conglomerate Seagram, with the Really Useful stake being passed to its own film and music subsidiary, Universal.

Initially, these had consisted of lower budget straight-to-video versions of the shows (Cats, Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar, and By Jeeves), but in 2004 the Really Useful Films completed the film The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, which was nominated for three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes.

From 1986 until Lloyd Webber regained full control of the company in 1999, Really Useful Records had an exclusive deal with PolyGram to release albums through its Polydor label.

Lee Mead, who won the lead role in 2007's West End revival of Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat by taking part in BBC One's Any Dream Will Do!

[10] The Really Useful Group has, in the past, set up sub-labels to cater for pop and dance acts, such as Carpet Records, featuring Timmy Mallett's Bombalurina ("Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini") and Doctor Spin ("Tetris"); and ‘’It Records’’, home to My Life Story in the late 1990s.

The group on 27 June 2007 announced that it would donate all receipts from two special performances of a revived West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to the BBC's Children in Need charity appeal, which would benefit from ticket sales for 16 July's preview and performance of 16 November, on the night of the annual Children in Need telethon.

had voted 25-year-old West End ensemble player and understudy Lee Mead to take role of Joseph in the production.

[12][13] During the contest's 9 June 2007 final, host Graham Norton said that Children in Need had benefited by more than £500,000 in income from viewer voting on premium-rate telephone lines.