SME Records is an in-house record label of Sony Music Labels. The label name “SME” is an abbreviation of “Sony Music Entertainment”.
The label discovers and produces numerous musicians, ranging from rock bands and idols to solo artists. It previously also represented many artists who primarily performed anime songs and similar music, but they moved to the new label SACRA MUSIC, established on April 1, 2017.
Its slogan is “Good music, for longer.”
The label was launched in 1998 as an offshoot of Sony Records, SME’s main label at the time, later Sony Music Records. Upon the label’s establishment, artists formerly affiliated with Sony Records, including Shogo Hamada, Tamio Okuda, Toshinobu Kubota, Noriyuki Makihara, and Kaori Kishitani, transferred to the label. Sony Records’ international music division was also transferred, bringing artists such as Aerosmith and Mariah Carey under the label.
Three years later, on October 1, 2001, it became a label under the separately incorporated SMR, while its international music division was transferred to the newly established Sony Music Japan International. Subsequently, on April 1, 2003, as part of the Sony Music Group restructuring project, the sales and business operations related to SME Records were separated and transferred to a newly established company, making it independent. Since April 1, 2014, it has been an in-house label of Sony Music Labels (SML). As SML as a legal entity was the former SMR, this effectively meant that it returned to being a label of the original SMR (later SML).
Before SMR became independent, its catalogue numbers were SR○L, the same as those of the Sony Records label, but after its independence they were changed to SE○L.
From 2002 to 2005, it held a premium live concert series titled “HIT THE SPOT.”
On This Label
Released or manufactured by SME Records, from this catalogue:
- Galileo Galilei - Last Live Sharin no Jiku at Nippon Budokan - Galileo Galilei, released January 25, 2017 (
SEXL-79). A&R (Tetsuya Take), A&R in Chief (Mariko Kimura), A&R in Chief (Takato Tokura), Area Promotion (Tomoya Suzuki), Artist Manager (Tetsuya Take), Executive Producer (Daisuke Katsurada), Management desk (Harumi Ohmori), Media Promotion (Kazuhiko Kudou), Promotion Producer (Kazuhiro Hirao), Releasing Label. - Galileo Galilei - Tsunagari Daisuki Box - Galileo Galilei, released March 29, 2023 (
SECL-2860). A&R (Takato Tokura), A&R (Takeshi Tomaru), Executive Producer (Taito Inoue), Executive Producer (Yoshichika Matsumoto), Releasing Label.
Gallery
History
Translated from the ja.wikipedia article エスエムイーレコーズ (CC BY-SA 4.0), revision 110881095.
1998 – Established as a subsidiary label of Sony Records.
September 1, 2002 – A new corporate identity was introduced.
April 1, 2003 – The label was separated and established as SME Records Inc. Its international music division was transferred to the newly established Sony Music Japan International.
November 2004 – Withdrew from Label Gate CD.
November 2004 – Began distributing Chaku Uta Full mobile music downloads.
November 2006 – Began releasing Blu-ray Discs.
December 2008 – Began releasing Blu-spec CDs.
April 1, 2014 – Sony Music Records absorbed and merged with seven companies in the Label Business Group, and Sony Music Labels Inc. was established. SME Records became an in-house label of the company and returned to being a label of the former Sony Music Records, now Sony Music Labels.
June 2015 – Absorbed and merged with the company’s in-house label DefSTAR Records. DefSTAR Records’ functions were transferred to Production Department 3, which was newly established within SME Records.
April 1, 2017 – Anime-song artists were transferred to the new SACRA MUSIC label.
Often Credited With
Credited on 2 or more of the same releases, most shared first.
All 14
Sources
- Wikidata entity Q10852418.
- ja.wikipedia, エスエムイーレコーズ (revision 110881095), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photograph: SME Records.png on Wikimedia Commons, Public domain; a trademark of its owner, by Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc..
