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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

spanning many divisions and 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 and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

s and

distributors A distributor is an electric and mechanical device used in the ignition system of older spark-ignition engines. The distributor's main function is to route electricity from the ignition coil to each spark plug at the correct time. Design A ...

History

In 1996, Windsong/Pinnacle was purchased by the

Zomba Group The Zomba Group of Companies (sometimes referred to as Zomba Music Group or just Zomba Group) was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009 a ...

. When Zomba was subsequently purchased by BMG 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, or a controlling interest of a company, or a majority share of the capital stock of the company is acquired. The acquirer thereby "buys out" the present equity holde ...

from Arvato, gaining independent ownership again. During the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, the company went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

, 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 th ...

– formed in 1989, closed in 1998.

Pinnacle Software

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

computer software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

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 former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

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 '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

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

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

, Splinter Cell and

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

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 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