Discovery), the company sold WMG in 2004 to a group of private investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., in a move to alleviate Timer Warner's debt load related to their takeover of AOL.

In the mid-1960s, Atlantic/Stax released a string of landmark soul music recordings by artists including Booker T & the MGs, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Ben E. King, and Aretha Franklin.

Atlantic moved decisively into rock and pop in the late 1960s and 1970s, signing major British and American acts including Led Zeppelin, Cream, Crosby Stills & Nash, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Average White Band, Dr. John, King Crimson, Bette Midler, Roxy Music, and Foreigner.

Maitland believed that, as vice-president in charge of the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts music division, he should have final say over all recording operations, and he further angered Ertegun by proposing that most of Atlantic's back-office functions (such as marketing and distribution) be combined with the existing departments at Warner/Reprise.

Several such bands, including three major British pioneers Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, were all signed to WEA's labels, at least in the United States.

[22] In July 1971, the new in-house distribution company was incorporated as Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp. (WEA) and branch offices were established in eight major US cities; Joel Friedman a one-time Billboard writer who had been the head of Warner's advertising/merchandising division in its early years, was appointed to head WEA's US domestic division, and Ahmet Ertegun's brother Nesuhi was appointed to oversee its international operations.

Neshui Ertegun, originally a Turkish native like his brother, displayed a global perspective and independence from its U.S. counterpart by successfully promoting international acts in their target markets worldwide.

The $7 million purchase brought in several acts that proved crucial to WEA's subsequent success, including Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and later Warren Zevon.

On the downside, however, it was rumored that Warner was soon concerned about its possible liability under the California State Labor Code because of Geffen's questionable status as both the manager of most of the Asylum acts and the head of the record label to which they were signed.

Acting on Jac Holzman's suggestion that Kinney should take Asylum from Atlantic and merge it with Elektra, Ross then appointed Geffen to run the new combined label.

In 1996, Time Warner Entertainment made another dramatic expansion of its media holdings, taking over the Turner Broadcasting System, which by then included the Turner cable TV network, CNN and the screen production houses Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema, acquisitions that brought huge profits into the Warner Group thanks to content assets like Seinfeld and the highly successful The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

By the early 1990s, senior Warner staff like Ostin and Waronker had remained in their positions for several decades—a highly unusual situation in the American music industry—but the death of Steve Ross destabilized the Time Warner hierarchy, and over the next few years the music group was increasingly disrupted by internal power struggles, leading to a string of major executive upheavals in 1994–95, which The New York Times described as "a virtual civil war".

Because of his political background (he had been the chief-of-staff to former New York governor Hugh L. Carey) and his lack of music industry experience — especially compared to the widely revered Ostin—Morgado was viewed as an outsider at Warner.

Nevertheless, he gained favour with Ross and Levin and was promoted in 1985 to oversee the Warner international music division after helping the company slash costs in its computer game sector.

There was more negative publicity the following month, when leading Elektra act Metallica launched a lawsuit against the label, seeking a release from their contract and ownership of their master tapes, and claiming that Morgado had refused to honor a deal they had worked out with Krasnow before he quit.

Ostin's departure marked a seismic shift in the corporate culture at WBR and the news was greeted with dismay by industry insiders and the many artists whose careers he had helped to nurture.

[42][36] Morris then brought in Sylvia Rhone and Seymour Stein to stabilize Elektra, settled the Metallica lawsuit and persuaded Levin to purchase an additional 25% of Interscope, although this initiative proved short-lived.

That August saw yet another resignation, that of Mel Lewinter, then president and COO of Warner Music's domestic music operations; while Lewinter being an ally of Morris played a role in the former's ouster, speculation ran rampant about it also having to do with a internal investigation into improper sales practices (involving tens of thousands of CDs being stolen from Atlantic by sales manager Nick Maria, then being secretly resold to retailers; the profits were divided between the retailers and the Atlantic employees involved), which had earlier caused 10 executives (including Maria) to lose their jobs amid the investigation.

Time Warner's board and investors had already been bruised by the damaging 1992 "Cop Killer" controversy and now they were faced with renewed criticism about the gangsta rap genre, in which Interscope's associate imprint Death Row Records was a key label.

In November 1995, Fuchs was himself sacked by Levin, leaving the company with a reported US$60 million "golden parachute", and Time Warner co-chairmen Robert A. Daly and Terry Semel took over the running of the music division.

In the 2004 transition to independent ownership, WMG hired record industry heavyweight Lyor Cohen from Universal Music Group (the result of the merger between the PolyGram and MCA label families) to attempt to reduce cost and increase performance.

[69] In 2009, Warner Music took over its South-East Asian and Korean distribution of EMI audio and video products, including newer domestic releases, which was announced in September 2008.

The two companies already enjoyed a successful partnership in India, the Middle East and North Africa, where EMI marketed and distributed Warner Music's physical product from 2005.

[73] According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal ended a three-month sale process in which as many as 10 bidders, including Los Angeles-based brothers Tom and Alec Gores, and Sony Corp. vied for the company.

[85] In order to accommodate a deal made with IMPALA and the Merlin Network when it acquired Parlophone, WMG agreed to offload over $200 million worth in catalogues to various independent labels.

[115] This division paired with Imagine Entertainment on a Nat Geo limited series Genius: Aretha, which led to a co-producing and co-financing agreement for a music slate in July 2020.

[124] Warner Music UK launched The Firepit in May 2016, a creative content division, innovation centre and recording studio located at their United Kingdom headquarters in London.

[133] In May, news media reported that Warner Music led an investment round in Hooch, a popular subscription-lifestyle application including blockchain-based payment technology.

At the same time, Warner Classics, including the Erato label, while remaining based in Paris and continuing under president Alain Lanceron, were transferred into the new division.

[160] On June 24, 2019, the division launched the licensed Cloudco Entertainment label with the release of the current Holly Hobbie theme song as a part of a multi-season deal.