Famous Music also provided licensing and administration services for many prominent music catalog owners such as CBS and the Clyde Otis Music Group, as well as for other Viacom divisions including MTV, Nickelodeon and BET.
In May 2007, Viacom sold Famous Music to Sony Music Publishing (then Sony/ATV Music publishing), co-owned by Sony and Michael Jackson, for a reported $370 million.[2] Famous Music was then renamed Sony/ATV Harmony and Sony/ATV Melody.
For a number of years, Famous Music also had a record label group division that included Blue Thumb Records, Dot Records, Paramount Records, and Tumbleweed Records. In 1974, the division was acquired by ABC Records for $5.5 million, and most of the Famous labels were absorbed into ABC Records.[4]
Famous had distribution deals with Neighborhood Records and Sire Records, the latter of which was distributed by ABC until 1977.
The catalogs of all the ABC/Famous Music labels are now owned by Universal Music Group, with some exceptions. For example, the 1968-1970 catalog of Stax Records, which during that period was owned by Famous, is owned by Concord Music Group, itself distributed by UMG.
Various labels under Universal manage different parts of the catalog depending on the genre. Here are some examples: