EMI Records

History

EMI Records began as a legal entity in 1956, set up to handle record manufacturing and distribution for EMI in the UK. It managed several labels, including The Gramophone Company Ltd., Columbia Graphophone Company, and Parlophone Co. Ltd. In July 1965, the EMI Record labels were taken out of this entity and moved into The Gramophone Company Ltd. On 1 July 1973, The Gramophone Co. Ltd. was renamed EMI Records Ltd., while the original E.M.I. Records Ltd. was closed down and its operations absorbed.

Just before that, on 1 January 1973, all of The Gramophone Company’s pop labels—Columbia, Parlophone, Harvest, Sovereign, and Regal Zonophone—had been rebranded under the EMI name. EMI Records went on to sign major international acts like Kraftwerk, Renaissance, Queen, Olivia Newton-John, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, Sheena Easton, and Pink Floyd, though some of these artists were on different US labels rather than EMI’s Capitol Records. In 1978, EMI launched EMI America Records in the US as a second label.

In 1988, it merged with Manhattan Records (founded in 1984) to become EMI Manhattan Records, which became EMI Records USA when Capitol absorbed it in 1989. That division was folded into Virgin Records and Capitol in June 1997. In October 1979, EMI Ltd. merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to form Thorn EMI. Shareholders voted on 16 August 1996 to split the company again, with the recorded music side becoming EMI Group plc.

In 2010, EMI Records opened a country music division, EMI Records Nashville. Australian artist Slim Dusty signed with the Columbia Graphophone Co. for Regal Zonophone Records in 1946 and stayed with EMI until his death in 2003, selling over seven million records for the label in Australia by 2007.