Island Records is a British-Jamaican record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica.
In December, 1998 UMG placed three divisions under the management of the Island brand: One in UK, the others in USA and Germany. In each territory, these companies were merged under umbrella groups. In USA it was combined with Def Jam Records, thus creating The Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG). This was one of the record label that Justin Bieber signed in 2008.
On April, 2014, Universal Music announced the disbandment of IDJMG, one of four operational umbrella groups within Universal Music. Effective as of the same day of the announcement, Island Records and Def Jam will now operate as autonomous record labels.
With the separation of Island Def Jam Music Group, Justin left Island Records and became a Def Jam Recordings artist.