Columbia Graphophone Company
Columbia Graphophone Company | |
---|---|
Parent company |
|
Founded | 13 February 1917 |
Defunct | January 1973 |
Status | Catalogue and artist roster owned by Parlophone Records outside Australasia since 2012, trademark and name sold to Sony Music in 1990 |
Genre | Various |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a management buy-out after the parent company went into receivership.
In 1925, it acquired a controlling interest in its American parent company to take advantage of a new electrical recording process. The British firm also controlled the US operations from 1925 until 1931. That year Columbia Graphophone in the UK merged with the Gramophone Company (which sold records under the His Master's Voice label) to form EMI. At the same time, Columbia divested itself of its American branch, which was eventually absorbed by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1938.
The company's record label Columbia became a successful British brand in the 1950s and 1960s, and was eventually replaced by the newly created
Early history
The
From about 1898 until 1922 the US parent company managed a UK subsidiary, the Columbia Graphophone Manufacturing Company. Its headquarters and studios were established in Victorian warehouses at 102-108 Clerkenwell Road shortly before the First World War, and the buildings were a key location in the development of the British recording industry until the 1930s.[2] In 1917, the Columbia Graphophone Company was registered as a British company, with the shares being held by the American firm.[3] A general market downturn in 1921 affected the whole entertainment industry. Profits turned to losses, and in late 1922 the creditors of the US parent company filed a petition for involuntary bankruptcy: Columbia went into receivership. Seeking to raise cash, Columbia sold the British branch in December 1922 to a group of investors led by Columbia's General Manager in Britain, the American-born Louis Sterling (1879–1958).[4][5][6][7]
Columbia in the US emerged from receivership in February 1924 as the Columbia Phonograph Company Inc., but was immediately faced with another crisis, as booming
On February 25, 1925, Columbia began recording with the licensed Western Electric recording process and was using it on a regular basis by April. The royalty payments were considerable, and in 1928 Columbia hired the English electronics engineer
The repercussions of the stock market
Since the Gramophone Company (HMV) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Victor, and Columbia in America was a subsidiary of UK Columbia, Victor now technically owned its largest rival in the US.) (another of its former offshoots) in 1938.
As an EMI label
EMI continued to operate the Columbia record label in the UK until the early 1970s, and in all other territories except for the US, Canada, Spain and Japan, until it sold its remaining interest in the Columbia trademark to Sony Music Entertainment in 1990.
Under EMI, UK Columbia's releases were mainly licensed recordings from
In the mid 1960s, UK Columbia added an audiophile imprint called Studio 2 Stereo. During that time, the Columbia Graphophone Company was absorbed into the Gramophone Company with the label maintaining its identity.[18][19]
EMI engaged in litigation with CBS regarding the importing of American records bearing the Columbia imprint into areas where EMI owned the Columbia name.[20]
Releases from the British Columbia Graphophone Company appeared in Japan under Nippon Columbia until 1962, when licensing was switched to Toshiba Musical Industries.
Phaseout of label by EMI and trade mark transfer
EMI decided to reserve the HMV label for classical repertoire and had transferred HMV's remaining pop acts to Columbia and Parlophone by 1967.[21] EMI began to replace the Columbia label with the eponymous EMI Records in January 1973.[22][23] The last Columbia single was issued in 1989.[24] EMI sold its remaining interest in the Columbia name in 1990 to Sony Music Entertainment (formerly CBS Records Group), which already owned Columbia Records in the U.S. and Canada. The formal reassignment of British registered trade marks from EMI, including the "magic notes" logo, took place in 1993.
For the Columbia Records trade mark in the UK[25] and elsewhere, Sony Music now prefers the "walking eye" logo previously used by the old CBS Records, which is based on the Columbia Records logo introduced in the US and Canada in 1955. However, the "magic notes" logo is occasionally used, usually to give a 'retro' feel (such as on the 2016 vinyl reissues of Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets, and on Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind).
The Columbia name was still on some EMI releases between 1973 and 1990 (such as Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy" in 1985,[26] Jeanne Mas and the 1987 Kiki Dee album Angel Eyes),[27][28] but it had ceased acting as a fully functioning label.
In Australia and Germany, EMI continued using the Columbia label throughout the 1970s and to at least 1980, but added the EMI label in 1973.
Current ownership
Through its ownership of the former Columbia/EMI catalogue, Parlophone Records' new owner Warner Music Group assumed Columbia's artist roster and catalogue.[29][30] New reissues bear the Parlophone imprint.[31] Columbia's reissues, and by extension, those from HMV's popular genres, are distributed by WMG's Rhino Entertainment in the United States.
The Australian and New Zealand EMI Columbia catalogues, including recordings by John Farnham, who went by Johnny during his time with the label, were ceded to Universal Music Australia's imprint, EMI Recorded Music Australia, and Universal Music New Zealand respectively.[32][33]
See also
- Graphophone, a Bell name & trademark acquired by several US record firms
- List of Columbia Graphophone Company artists
- List of record labels
- Nippon Columbia, one-time Japanese affiliate
References
- Notes
- ^ "Columbia Corporate History: Introduction". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
- ^ "Clerkenwell Road". British History Online.
- ^ Burns 2000, p. 98.
- ^ a b c Brooks, Tim (ed.), Columbia Corporate History: The Early 1920s, Columbia Master Book Discography, Volume I (Online ed.), Discography of American Historical Recordings, archived from the original on Feb 5, 2024; "Notes to Columbia Records, 1901-1934: A History". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023.
- ^ "Louis Saul Sterling". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. 7 October 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- ^ a b "Sterling, Louis (1879–1958)". Sound Of The Hound. (originally printed in Gramophone Magazine, July 1958). 18 June 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- ^ "Louis Saul Sterling". Recording Pioneers. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- ^ a b Sutton, Allan (12 June 2019). "The Birth of Electrical Recording – Part 1". Mainspring Press. Archived from the original on 29 May 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- ^ Brooks, Tim (ed.), Columbia Corporate History: Electrical Recording and the Late 1920s, Columbia Master Book Discography, Volume I (Online ed.), Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) See also Notes section.
- ^ Burns 2000, pp. 95, 98.
- ^ a b Burns 2000, pp. 112–3.
- ^ a b c Brooks, Tim (ed.), Columbia Corporate History: Market Crash, 1929, and the Early 1930s, Columbia Master Book Discography, Volume I (Online ed.), Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) See also Notes section.
- JSTOR 24027031.
- ^ "EMI: A Brief History". BBC News. 24 January 2000. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
- ^ Billboard - Google Books. 11 May 1968. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ISBN 9780857120298. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ^ Pink Floyd recorded their first three albums for Columbia Graphophone, then switched to Harvest; some of their recordings for Harvest were leased to the CBS Columbia label.
- ^ ""Heart Full of Soul" record label". i1127.photobucket.com. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ^ "The Yardbirds record label". 3.bp.blogspot.com. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ISBN 9781849805445. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ^ Billboard - Google Books. 11 November 1967. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ^ Billboard - Google Books. 23 December 1972. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ^ Billboard - Google Books. 3 February 1973. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ^ "Soulsister - The Way To Your Heart (UK Version)". 45cat. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
- ^ "Columbia Records UK". Columbia.co.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ^ "Baltimora - Tarzan Boy (Vinyl)". Discogs. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ^ "Kiki Dee - Angel Eyes (Vinyl, LP)". Discogs. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ^ "Kiki Dee - Angel Eyes (Vinyl, LP)". Discogs. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- ^ "Why Pink Floyd?, Pink Floyd & EMI 2011 remastered campaign". Whypinkfloyd.com. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
- ^ "Warner Music Group Integrates Parlophone Roster, Including Coldplay, David Guetta and Pink Floyd". The Hollywood Reporter. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
- ^ "Helen_Shapiro_Overseas_Albums_Japan". aearwaker.tripod.com. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
- ^ "Universal Absorbs EMI And Then There Were Three". 31 January 2013.
- ^ "Universal's EMI Deal Approved By New Zealand Regulators". Billboard. 21 June 2012.
- Bibliography
- Burns, R. W. (2000). The Life and Times of A. D. Blumlein. London: Institute of Electrical Engineers, in association with the Science Museum. ISBN 9780852967737.
External links
- Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd. discography at Discogs
- EMI Columbia discography at Discogs