Sony buying out label partner

Sony Corp. of America is buying out the half-interest of its partner in the Sony-BMG recording combine, the German firm Bertelsmann AG, for $1.2 billion, The New York Times reports:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/business/worldbusiness/06music.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1217959240-xMvQU+5kV64wRRvk9kjQsA

Sony-BMG, formed in 2004, controls the catalogues of the former Columbia and RCA Victor labels and, through them, most of the music recorded in the U.S. prior to 1950.

The record company, once sold, will be renamed Sony Music Entertainment. Its roster is dominated by pop artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion and Alicia Keys, but also includes Yo-Yo Ma, Murray Perahia, Emanuel Ax and Joshua Bell, as well as extrensive back catalogues of recordings by most of the major American orchestras, ensembles such as the Guarneri and Juilliard quartets, and soloists ranging from Jascha Heifetz and Arthur Rubinstein to Leon Fleisher and Isaac Stern.