Scribd
Upload
309 views2 pages

EMI Records

EMI Records is a British record label founded in 1972 by EMI as its flagship label. It launched globally in January 1973, succeeding EMI's Columbia label. EMI Records picked up the English Columbia roster and signed new acts that became global successes such as Queen, Kate Bush, and Robbie Williams. In 2010, EMI Records opened a country music division called EMI Records Nashville. EMI Records is now the only record label still using the EMI branding after Universal Music Group acquired EMI in 2012, absorbing EMI Classics into Warner Classics in 2013.

Uploaded by

Maricica Proca
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
309 views2 pages

EMI Records

EMI Records is a British record label founded in 1972 by EMI as its flagship label. It launched globally in January 1973, succeeding EMI's Columbia label. EMI Records picked up the English Columbia roster and signed new acts that became global successes such as Queen, Kate Bush, and Robbie Williams. In 2010, EMI Records opened a country music division called EMI Records Nashville. EMI Records is now the only record label still using the EMI branding after Universal Music Group acquired EMI in 2012, absorbing EMI Classics into Warner Classics in 2013.

Uploaded by

Maricica Proca
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

EMI Records is a British record label.

It was founded by the EMI company in 1972 as its flagship


label and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was
launched worldwide.[1]

History[edit]
"EMI Records Ltd." as a legal entity was founded in 1957 as the record manufacturing and
distribution arm of EMI in the UK. It handled EMI's various labels.[2] The global success that EMI
enjoyed in the 1960s exposed the fact that the company had the rights to only some of its
trademarks in some parts of the world, most notably His Master's Voice and Columbia, with RCA
Victor Records and the American Columbia Records owning the rights to these trademarks in North
America. Complicating matters was the formation by American Columbia of its own operations in the
UK by purchasing Oriole Records and changing its name to that of its then parent
company CBS (the legal trademark designation bearing the full name of the parent company, "Trade
Mark of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc."), and as CBS Records International becoming highly
successful, a serious rival to EMI, in the UK.
EMI Records picked up the English Columbia roster and signed new acts that became global
successes, such as Kraftwerk, Queen, Olivia Newton-John, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, Sheena
Easton and Robbie Williams (though some of these acts were on different labels in the United
States, not EMI's Capitol Records). In 1997, EMI Records' American division folded into Virgin
Records.
In 2010, EMI Records opened a country music division, EMI Records Nashville, which includes Troy
Olsen, Alan Jackson, Kelleigh Bannen, andEric Church on its roster. EMI Records Nashville runs as
a sister label to Capitol Nashville.[3]
Australia's most prolific artist, Australian country music singer Slim Dusty, signed with the Columbia
Graphophone Co. for the Regal Zonophone label in 1946 and remained with EMI until his death in
2003 - selling over 7 million records for the label in Australia by 2007.
EMI Records is now the only record label (as Virgin EMI Records) to still have the EMI branding
after Universal Music Group's acquisition of EMI on September 2012. EMI Christian Music Group
was renamed Capitol Christian Music Group. EMI Classics was sold to Warner Music Group on
February 2013. After EU regulatory approval, EMI Classics was absorbed into Warner Classics on
July 2013.[4]
Some EMI Records artists such as Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, David Bowie, Duran
Duran, Marillion, Pink Floyd, and Kajagoogoo are considered part of Parlophone which also went to
Warners. Kate Bush's first three albums were also part of the deal, but her remaining output (from
1981 onwards) was owned by her own company and merely licenced to EMI, with licences taken
back in 2011. Queen had moved from EMI then Parlophone to Universal prior to the EMI sale and
their catalogue is now managed by Virgin EMI Records (which absorbed Island) outside North
America.[5]

In Japan, Universal Music Japan did a label reorganization in February 2014, with more than half of
the EMI Records Japan artists being transferred to Nayutawave Records, renaming to just
simply EMI Records.

You might also like