BMG Rights Management is a German music company owned by Bertelsmann, formed on 1 October 2008, the day that Bertelsmann sold its stake in Sony BMG to Sony.
Although Bertelsmann Music Group was established 1987, the music company was formed as RCA/Ariola International in 1985 as a joint venture to combine the music label activities of RCA’s RCA Records division and Bertelsmann’s Ariola Records and its associated labels which include Arista Records. It consisted of the BMG Music Publishing company [which was sold to Universal in 2006], and (since August 2004) the 50% share of the joint venture with Sony Music, which established the German American Sony BMG from 2004 to 2008. After selling its stake to Sony, Bertelsmann restructured BMG.
