Sony Music Video

CBS Music Video Enterprises was founded in October 1985 as a division of CBS Records, then a subsidiary of CBS. It was a vehicle for home video distribution of titles related to acts on the various labels part of or distributed by CBS Records, such as Columbia, Epic, Portrait, and CBS Masterworks. Prior to 1988, all titles produced by CBS Music Video Enterprises were released by The CBS/Fox Company under the CBS/Fox Video Music banner. On January 5, 1988, Sony Corporation acquired CBS Records; subsequently, the CBS Music Video Enterprises division was spun off into its own label, which began issuing titles on its own by August 1988. Eventually, in late 1990, Sony acquired most international trademark rights to the Columbia trademarks (excluding Japan) from EMI, and on January 1, 1991, CBS Records was officially renamed as Sony Music Entertainment. Subsequently, CBS Masterworks was renamed as Sony Classical, while this particular division was renamed as Sony Music Video (also known as Sony Music Video Enterprises).

1st Logo (August 1988-2001)

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Visuals: On a black background, a 3D bottomless tricolor pyramid is shown spinning around, with the cut-out letters "C" (or, after 1991, "S") on the red side, "M" on the green side, and "V" on the blue side. Then, two more pyramids just like the first one slide out of the bottom of it and they all spin. Then, the pyramids get together, and as they do that, each of them turn into triangles, and the letters turn white. "E N T E R P R I S E S" fades in under the "(C/S)MV" pyramid.

Variant: At the end of some VHS releases, and on the 1996 VHS/LaserDisc release of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, the "SMV" version of the logo is shortened to the last few seconds.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A modern-sounding synth tune with ticks throughout and three deep bangs as the pyramids turns into triangles. On the variant, only re-arranged drumbeats and the synth strum are heard.

Availability:

• CMV:
  • This logo can be found on the 1990 VHS release of Billy Joel: Live at Yankee Stadium, the LaserDisc releases of The Forbidden Dance is Lambada and the Japanese editions of Cheap Trick: Every Trick in the Book and Bruce Springsteen: Video Anthology/1978-88.
  • It can also be found on the DVD releases of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live In New York City and Bruce Springsteen: The Complete Video Anthology/1978-2000 (the latter also being an updated reissue of the 1978-88 with a bonus DVD of new content).
• SMV:
  • It can be seen on the VHS/DVD releases of Celine Dion: Unison, Celine Dion: All the Way - A Decade of Song and Video, and Mariah Carey: #1's.
  • It can also be found on many MTV Home Video releases, such as early Beavis and Butt-Head and MTV Unplugged VHS releases.

2nd Logo (1996-2005)

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Visuals: On a black background, a gold ball moves upward. Then, two blue balls move downward, left and right of the gold ball. These move away, as it fades into three black smoking circles with the left and right circle with blue outlining and the middle circle with gold outlining. These outlines then spin around, as the smoke disappears and the letters "S" on the left circle in white, "M" on the middle circle in blue, and "V" on the right circle in white appear. The circles turn to the colors of the outlines of the circle, then the words "s o n y m u s i c entertainment" appear one-by-one in sync with the three drum hits. "sony music" is spaced out more to fit the width of "entertainment" below, as the center of the background turns grey with a stone like texture, causing it to be a black-grey-black gradient.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Same as the last logo.

Availability:

• Seen on Computer Animation Festival, Alice in Chains: Music Bank - The Videos, Jennifer Lopez: Feelin So Good, and Kathy Smith re-releases.
• It can also be found on many later MTV Home Video releases until 2000, such as MTV Gamebrain, Beavis and Butt-Head and The Real World VHS releases.