Pinnacle Entertainment was an entertainment group based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

spanning many divisions, but primarily known as one of the UK's leading

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

distributors.

History

In 1996, Windsong/Pinnacle was purchased by the Zomba Group. When Zomba was subsequently purchased by

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations * Music publishing companies: ** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 *** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...

in 2002, Windsong/Pinnacle was moved under Bertelsmann's group Arvato AG. In January 2008, Windsong completed a

buyout In finance, a buyout is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" the present equity holders of the target company. A buyo ...

from Arvato, gaining independent ownership again. However, in the midst of an

economic crisis An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...

, the company was forced to go into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

, effective December 3, 2008. It was then that Windsong Exports purchased the group and turned it into the UK's leading music distributor. Following that, the companies were usually referred to jointly as Windsong/Pinnacle.

Divisions

Audio Services

Pinnacle's music division Audio Services Ltd., was primarily known for the distribution of over 400 independent record labels in the UK, but it also consisted of its own record label, label management for distributed labels, and marketing and sales divisions.About Us
Pinnacle Entertainment, 2001.

Record labels

* Pinnacle Records (artists include Flintlock, James Arthur Edwards) *Firebird Records (Artists included Nick Straker) *

Collins Classics Collins Classics is a record label which specialises in classical music. It was founded in 1989 as a musical subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers and distributed through Pinnacle Entertainment (United Kingdom). Artists who recorded for the ...

- Formed in 1989, closed in 1998.

Pinnacle Software

Formed in 1992, Pinnacle Software serves as a publishing company that represents many

computer software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

companies such as 3MV, New Note, Shellshock and Beechwood. It provides retail, sales, marketing and logistics services to its publishing partners. Deals with

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted th ...

and

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

helped introduce an exclusive distribution model to the UK Software market. Some brands associated with Pinnacle Software include FIFA,

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students a ...

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 c ...

Splinter Cell ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell'' is a series of stealth action-adventure video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels that were endorsed by Tom Clancy. The series follows Sam Fisher, a highly trained agent of a ...

and

Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two games ...

Gauntlet Entertainment

Formed in 1996, Gauntlet Entertainment was a distributor of video games. Formed by Peter Rezon to create a focused distribution model for video games, similar to what Pinnacle Software had been doing with other UK software companies. The distribution model they pioneered became the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

model used by most major software publishers in the UK. Gauntlet Entertainment succeeded in doing so with ground breaking deals with Sierra, NovaLogic, THQ International, CDV Software and many other International Publishing houses. It has been associated with many of the top brands in the market place, including WWE Smackdown!, Cossacks, Rugrats, Warcraft, Half Life, Scooby Doo, Tetris and many more.About Us
Gauntlet Entertainment, 2004.

References

External links

Pinnacle EntertainmentPinnacle Vision
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinnacle Entertainment (Uk) Defunct record labels of the United Kingdom Record labels disestablished in 2008 IFPI members