Interscope Records

History of Interscope Records
Interscope records is an American based record label owned by the Universal Music Group and is based in Santa Monica, California and was founded by 1990 by Jimmy Lovine and Interscope Communications' Ted Field with financial support from Atlantic Records who owned a 53% stock in the label. The labels first release was Gerardo's Mo' Ritmo (a Latin Rap artist) in 1991.

At first, the labels focus was upon the Hip-Hop and Urban Music genres, but by the mid 1990s its range of genres began to expand, signing artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, rock band Limp Bizkit, and also the Latin artist Kings Of Flow (through partnership with a Los Angeles based indie Latin label).

After the Universal Music Group acquired PolyGram in 1998, Geffen Records and A&M Records were merged into Interscope Records. This was followed by the merging of DreamWorks Records with the Interscope-Geffen-A&M group in 2004, bringing artists including Blink-182, Nelly Furtardo, The All-American Rejects, Papa Roach, Rise Against and many others. These artists were divided amongst Interscope and Geffen with most going to the latter. In 2005 Interscope launched Cherrytree Records, with the main focus of the new label being emerging artists, and this soon saw the signing of artists such as The Lovemakers, Far East Movement and Robyn. Lady Gaga was also part of Cherrytree Records but as of 2011 has been transferred to Interscope Records.

In May 2007, Interscope announced they were joining forces with Justin Timberlake to create a new label known as Tennman Records, and the first artist to be signed to this label was Esmée Denters.

The Interscope Record label has received criticism from some artists such as Nine Inch Nails and 50 Cent. Nine Inch Nails claim that the Universal Music Group overcharged him for his album 'Year Zero' in Australia, and also claims that when he asked why it was so much, they replied "you've got a core audience that's gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that. True fans will pay whatever". They are no longer signed to Interscope Records nor do they associate with the label. Rapper 50 Cent engaged in a feud with Interscope stating that "Not everyone is committed to releasing my new album" (referencing his yet to be released fifth studio album).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interscope_Records