Universal Music On Demand (UMOD) is a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

owned by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

, formed in 1998 as Universal Music TV (UMTV). UMOD specialises in producing

compilation albums A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

and occasional

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

releases. It was founded when

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the lar ...

acquired

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

and merged the company's record labels under the same umbrella, replacing the PolyGram TV label. Every UMOD/UMTV release receives extensive TV advertising. Joint venture compilations include Clubland, the Kiss Presents series, ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

'',

MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV showcasing musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 and less frequently from 2000 to 2009, when it was usually billed as ''MTV Un ...

Floorfillers Floorfillers is a dance album compilation brand by All Around the World Records (in association with UMTV) that has evolved from a range of separate compilations that ''AATW'' used to compile for a number of Northern radio stations in Emap's Bi ...

, Steve Wright Sunday Love Songs,

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

, Dreamboats & Petticoats,

Capital Gold The Capital Gold radio station started in London in 1988 on Capital Radio's AM frequency, after the Independent Broadcasting Authority had urged stations to end simulcasting (broadcasting the same programmes simultaneously on AM and FM) and t ...

and the Motown albums.

UMTV

In the past UMTV has also run catalogue campaigns including

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...

Tony Christie Anthony Fitzgerald (born 25 April 1943), known professionally as Tony Christie, is an English musician, singer and actor. He is best known for his recording of "(Is This the Way To) Amarillo "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" is a song writt ...

Barry White Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came ...

Sam Cooke Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred ...

and Engelbert Humperdinck. A small number of individual artists were signed or transferred to this label in the early 2000s, including

Malachi Cush Malachi Cush, also recording as Malachi, (born 23 September 1980), is an Irish singer-songwriter from Donaghmore, a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Coming from a large musical family, he started singing and playing Irish tradi ...

Alistair Griffin Alistair Richard Griffin (born 1 November 1977) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Already an established songwriter, he first became famous as a solo artist through his appearances on the BBC television show ''Fame Academy 2'' in 2 ...

and

Sam and Mark Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes, known collectively as Sam & Mark, or simply Smark, are an English popular music and television presenting duo. They previously competed on the second series of ''Pop Idol'' in 2003, where they finished third and s ...

, though their contracts were terminated when UMTV re-focused on compilations. In 2007, UMTV launched the Universal Music Record Label (UMRL) for heritage acts. In 2010, UMRL released albums from

Simple Minds Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977. They have released a string of hit singles, becoming best known internationally for "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (1985), which topped the '' Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United St ...

and

A-ha A-ha (usually stylised as ''a-''h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ...

. UMTV is also associated with sister labels Globe Records, Family Recordings,

Manifesto Records Manifesto Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California that has released records by Dead Kennedys, Tim Buckley, Cinerama, Concrete Blonde, Cranes, The Czars, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Lilys, The Rugburns, Sing-Sing, Ken S ...

and All Around The World (AATW Productions), the last one also running music video channels in the UK.

UMOD

In 2016, UMTV relaunched as "Universal Music On Demand", with specialised projects, in the first few years of UMOD, including the launch of the British version of

Kidz Bop Kidz Bop is an American children's music group composed like a music brand that produces family-friendly cover versions of pop songs and related media. Kidz Bop releases compilation albums that feature children covering clean versions of contemp ...

(Kidz Bop Kids), Pete Tong and Jules Buckley's albums of orchestral reworkings of classic dance tracks, and Tommy Blaize's debut album ''Life & Soul''. UMOD were also involved with Swedish distribution platform Spinnup, and found Forest of Dean-based singer Devon Cassells on the platform, signing him in order to issue a single called "I Don’t Want 2 B Ur Friend". Other artists signed to UMOD from Spinnup included A.T. (a London-based Nigerian pop artist) and Italian house producer Manuel Costa. UMOD dance compilation partners AATW Productions also owned and operated four music TV channels on Freeview called

Clubland TV Clubland TV is a British free-to-air Dance music channel. It is based from the Clubland compilation albums. Clubland TV airs various sub-genres of dance/EDM from the 90's to the late 2010s, such as electronica, techno, trance, eurodance, house, ...

Now 70s Now 70s (formerly Channel U, Channel AKA, Massive R&B and Total Country) is a British free-to-air music television channel, owned by All Around the World Productions, available through Sky UK, Freeview (UK), Freeview and Virgin Media within the ...

Now 80s NOW 80s is a British free-to-air music television channel, focusing exclusively on playing music from the 1980s. The channel launched in its current form on 27 December 2016, initially as a temporary pop-up rebrand of Now Music, previously a con ...

and

Now 90s Now 90s was a British free-to-air music television channel, focusing exclusively on playing 1990s music for 10 months of the year (with their Christmas service not only playing hits from the 1990s). The channel originally launched on 23 Novembe ...

, all of which became owned and run by Universal Music after they bought out joint-venture partners Cris Nuttall and Matt Cadman of AATW, with Nuttall and Cadman relaunching their dance music label under the Xploded Music name.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control British record labels Record labels established in 1998

UMTV

UMOD

See also

References

External links