Sony Music is the 2nd biggest music recording company globally amongst the "big 4" record companies. It is managed by Sony Corporation of America.
The company that later on became Sony Music was formed in 1929. It was called the American Record Corporation. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Columbia Phonograph Company was taken over by the American Record Corporation in 1934. ARC itself was taken over 4 years later by the Columbia Broadcasting System.
A new label was created by CBS in 1958, called the Date Records, which primarily issued rockabilly music. CBS only possessed the rights to the name, Columbia in Canada and the US. The Columbia Phonograph Company also had international affiliates and subsidiaries like the Columbia Graphophone Company in the UK. However, they were sold off before CBS acquired American Columbia. Hence, the international division formed in 1961 used the name "CBS Records".
In 1968, CBS records entered into a joint venture with Sony Entertainment and created the CBS/Sony Records. 19 years later CBS was acquired by the Sony Corporation of America.
The recording company was named Sony Music Entertainment in 1991. In addition to this, on the 1st of January, 1991, Sony, once again, introduced the Columbia label worldwide to replace the CBS label, which it formerly held in the US and Canada only. Japan remains the only country where Sony still doesn’t have rights to the name, Columbia since it is managed by Columbia Music Entertainment. Hence, till today, Sony Music Japan doesn’t utilize the Columbia trademark for recordings of the Columbia label from outside Japan which are issued in Japan. The Columbia Records trademark was also managed in Spain by one more company called the Bertelsmann Music Group. This company was later acquired by Sony Music in 2004.