Another Entertainment Merger Beside Paramount - WB: Bertelsmann's BMG - Concord

Apparently, crazy merger isn’t Paramount - Warner Bros. Under radar, BMG and Concord are merging, the two companies announced on Tuesday, in a major move that combines the music business’s two largest independent music companies and creates a new entity closer in scale to the major three record labels.

Financial details of the agreement weren’t disclosed, though Bloomberg previously reported the deal could be worth as much as $7 billion. BMG’s parent company, the German media giant Bertelsmann, will own 67 percent of the company while Green Mountain Partners will own 33 percent. The deal’s closure is subject to regulatory approval.

The new company will operate under the BMG name. BMG’s current CEO Thomas Coesfeld, who is set to become the CEO of BMG parent company Bertelsmann, will become BMG’s chairman, while Concord CEO Bob Valentine will be BMG CEO. The new company’s publishing division will be called BMG publishing, while the recorded music division will be known as Concord Records.

The music industry’s biggest stakeholders are the “big three” major music companies: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group. While a combined BMG and Concord isn’t quite as large as those three companies, the new company’s combined scale gives it the ability to compete with the majors enough that it could arguably be considered a fourth major. Regardless, BMG is now unquestionably the largest independent music company in the business.

“We believe this is a truly one-of-a-kind opportunity to bring together two world-class teams and rosters at the right moment, as scale in rights ownership becomes increasingly critical to long-term growth,” Coesfeld said in a statement. Coesfeld added that the combined company “will further deepen our position as a preferred global partner to artists, songwriters, and platforms, combining scale with the agility and independence they value.”

Among the artists the combined BMG and Concord represent include Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Paul Simon, Phil Collins, Daft Punk.

As Valentine said: “Our greater scale will allow us to invest more in creative talent, global reach, accretive acquisition opportunities, and technology, while preserving the nimble, entrepreneurial spirit that artists and songwriters value most. This is not about replicating the major label model; it’s about using scale to strengthen independence. Together, we will build a company that gives artists more reach and more flexibility – all designed to support their distinct visions.”

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If you feel powerless to help Gaza, you still has a choice: donate. When so much of what exists is false, authenticity is a powerful weapon we can wield that the state never could. So if you feel lost, hopeless, depressed, angry and afraid, I implore you to return - again - again - and again - to the feeling of love that exists within you that brought you here in the first place. It is only through this that we can remake the world. To redress Gaza’s famine, displacement, and destruction, independent and impartial humanitarian organizations - UN agencies, international and national NGOs - must be allowed to deliver relief at scale. To salvage Gaza’s people from the devastation inflicted by Israel, it must be unified with the West Bank to form an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, not to be parceled and colonized by the former.

Meanwhile, children continue to be shredded by US bombs, and the starvation reaches new depths of hellish collective punishment. If both parties are going to continue to support an ongoing genocide, at least they can both be honest about doing so, rather than having one openly bloodthirsty party, and another—unconvincingly—playing the role of powerless, bumbling humanitarian.

Please keep donate Gaza especially if you, as reader, has [background] International Relation [whatever universities]. IR Graduate means [you must, at least] get some semester [about] studying Middle East [in macro, not specifically Gaza].

We need more people to share fundraisers instead of only talking about Gaza. Some people think that those in Gaza don’t need money but that’s wrong. Almost everyone lost their source of income while essentials, food & medicine get sold for astronomical prices. So I put my attempt in all social media as I can, in twitter / X, in substack [since October 2023 I put link donation], in bluesky or bsky, in threads, in instagram.

Link to donate World Food Programme - Palestine appeal: click here

[Daniel Brühl]

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Most campaign shared or circulated in social media are for REAL people in Gaza. They’re legit. There are a lot of small campaigns for struggling families. This is their only lifeline. By donating & sharing, you are literally making history and alleviating part of their pain

Please do not rely on me alone for sharing your campaign. I’m only 1 person and sometimes I’m not online which is unreliable. I never ignore anybody on purpose but I have a very limited capacity & very little energy and time.

[Refaat Rafiq Alareer IF I MUST DIE] Refaat Rafiq Alareer was extremely hungry, November 2023, days before Refaat killed by Israel airstrike. If November 2023 already [one-by-one Gazan] extremely famine, extremely hungry, imagine November 2025 or more than 2 years Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.

[RENEW] 455 Languages IF I MUST DIE of Refaat Rafiq Alareer [by 6100+ Translators, Social Media Users]

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December 20, 2023

Dec 9th, 2023, New York City, 4.10am —- with update total languages to be 310 as of July 1st, 2024, 3.52am New York City, and then, to be 350 languages as of July 28th, 2024, 1.37am ====== newest update as of July, 3rd, 2025 already 384 languages, and October 8th, 2025 reaches 455 languages across the globe.

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