Electrola is a German
record label
"Big Three" music labels
A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
and subsidiary of
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...
. Based in Munich, its roster has included
Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba () was a British anarcho-punk band who formed in 1982 and disbanded in 2012. They are best known for their 1997 single "Tubthumping", which was nominated for Best British Single at the Brit Awards 1998. Other singles include "Amnes ...
,
Matthias Reim
Matthias Reim (born 26 November 1957) is a German Pop music, pop and Schlager music, Schlager singer. His 1990 single "Verdammt, ich lieb' dich" ("Damn, I love you") was a hit in several European countries and spent 16 consecutive weeks at the n ...
,
Helene Fischer
Helene Fischer (German: eˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɐ born 5 August 1984) is a German '' schlager'' singer. Since her debut in 2005, she has won numerous awards, including 17 Echo awards, four "''Die Krone der Volksmusik''" awards, and three Bambi awar ...
,
Brings,
Höhner and
Santiano.
History
On 8 May 1925, the British
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company Limited was a British phonograph manufacturer and record label, founded in April 1898 by Emil Berliner. It was one of the earliest record labels.
The company purchased the His Master's Voice painting and trademark righ ...
founded Electrola GmbH in Nowawes near Berlin and received its record licence in December. In March 1931, through its parent company's merger with
Lindström's parent
Columbia Gramophone Company
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 manageme ...
to form EMI, Electrola thus became the merged entity's German subsidiary. Around 300 publications per month allowed Electrola's general catalogue to grow to 11,000 titles by 1934. At the end of 1939 Electrola - like the other German record labels - came under
National Socialist administration. As a result, the most typical US jazz song "In the Mood" was no longer released. Recorded on 1 August 1939 it was released in the United States in September. During the Second World War, 80 per cent of the facilities in the German subsidiaries were destroyed, making it impossible to resume production immediately after the war. Electrola decided - not least because of the uncertain situation in Berlin - to move completely to Cologne.
On the site of the former Atlantic Gummi-Werke Aloys Weyers KG in Cologne-Braunsfeld, Maarweg 149, an area that could be expanded was found. The company was founded here in Cologne by being entered in the commercial register on 13 February 1952; the official relocation to Cologne took place on 8 September 1953. A modern recording studio was opened in 1956 on Maarweg in Cologne - where the records were also made - with all the associated technical rooms. In these studios all hits from
Fred Bertelmann to
Conny Froboess
Cornelia Froboess (; born 28 October 1943) is a German actress and a teen idol of the 1950s and early 1960s. During that time, Froboess appeared in many West Germany, West German and Austrian musical films, especially after the rock and roll wav ...
and
Gitte Hænning
Gitte Hænning (born 29 June 1946) is a Danish singer and film actress, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s.
She was known primarily mononymously (without a surname) in Europe. She moved to Sweden in 1958. Her first hit in Swedish ...
, but also the last recordings with
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...
up to the era of
Herbert Grönemeyer
Herbert Arthur Wiglev Clamor Grönemeyer (born 12 April 1956) is a German singer, musician, producer, composer and actor, popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Grönemeyer starred as war correspondent Lieutenant Werner in Wolfgang Peter ...
, were produced. When the compact cassette came onto the market as a new sound carrier in 1965, an in-house music cassette (MC) production was also set up in 1966. This was the last investment by the Carl Lindström-Gesellschaft, which was merged into EMI Electrola GmbH on 30 November 1972.
In October 1979, EMI merged with the British company
Thorn Electrical Industries
Thorn Electrical Industries Limited was a British electrical engineering company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, but merged with EMI Group to form Thorn EMI in 1979. It was de-merged in 1996 and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 ...
to form
Thorn EMI
Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI in October 1979, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituen ...
Ltd. In August 1996, The corporation was split into two independently operating companies, EMI Group and Thorn plc and listed on the British Stock Exchange. In June 1992, Thorn EMI acquired the independent label
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
, for a purchase price of US$957 million, ending intense competition for the company, which had many best-selling musical artists under contract.
In January 1994, another independent German company was added, with which EMI was able to further expand its artist base. In 2000, the Intercord location in Stuttgart was closed and the repertoire was mainly transferred to EMI Electrola GmbH & Co KG. In August 2000, the company moved from Maarweg to Cologne's media centre - the Mediapark; the data centre followed in December 2002. In the spring of 2002, EMI Electrola was renamed EMI Music Germany GmbH & Co. KG. After the Munich location was closed in April 2004, the Virgin label merged with the Berlin-based labels Mute and Labels. Since then, the company has been operating at the two locations in Cologne and Berlin. Initially, EMI Music Germany was based at three locations in Munich (Virgin), Cologne (
Capitol with pop and EMI Classics and
Blue Note
Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...
for jazz) and Berlin (Labels Germany and Mute); Virgin Records was absorbed into Labels and Mute in 2004. The centre of the German record industry, however, was in Hamburg, home to the record labels
Polydor
Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...
,
Teldec
Teldec (Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten GmbH) is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group.
History
Teldec was a producer of (first) shellac and (later) vinyl records. The Teldec manufacturing ...
(
Telefunken
Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the ''AEG (German company), Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company").
Prior to ...
/
Decca
Decca may refer to:
Music
* Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label
* Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group
* Decca Broadway, musical theater record label
* Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...
),
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...
and Metronome.
In 2012, Electrola and the rest of EMI's German operations were sold to
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...
(UMG); in December 2012, UMG relocated the former EMI Music Germany from Cologne to Berlin, while Electrola was moved to Munich. However, the EC compelled UMG to divest itself of
EMI Classics
EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged in 1996, its recorded mus ...
, which operated with other European EMI assets to be divested as the
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...
Label Group (PLG). In February 2013, UMG sold PLG, including EMI Classics, to
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...
(WMG). The EC approved the deal in May, and WMG took control of EMI Classics on 1 July, ceding it to
Warner Classics
Warner Classics is the classical music arm of Warner Music Group. The label began issuing new recordings under the Warner Classics banner in 1991. The company also includes the Erato Records and Teldec Records labels. Based in France, Warner Cla ...
.
Technical aspects
The company name "Electrola" is derived from the electrical recording process that was used for records from 1925 and is named after an electric record player from
RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...
. Electrical recording meant turning away from the funnel to the microphone, to electrical needle recording and the corresponding playback. The advantages of "electrical recording" were higher volume, lower noise, no "funnel sound" on the recording side, extended frequency response, less bass and excessively center-stressed ("squeaky"), so overall more natural. Whereas before a recording frequency range of only 600 to 2000 Hz was possible, it was now between 100 and 5000 Hz. The number of revolutions was set consistently at 78 / min. Today those recordings that were made with the funnel are called "acoustic" recordings, everything later than "electrical" recordings. The shellac records used were fragile, had a speed of 78 rpm and a maximum playing time of approx. 3 minutes per side for a diameter of 25 cm and 4 minutes for a 30 cm diameter. There were about 4 grooves with a minimum width of 0.15 mm for every 1 mm. There was a regular spiral from the outside in.
In the early days, Electrola recordings were often made at the Singakademie Berlin. In 1927 the first electrical reproduction was possible in Germany; Electrola was already producing electrically recorded records in England from 1925, and in Germany from spring 1926.
Personnel
The energetic reconstruction in Cologne is thanks to Ladislaus Veder, who served as managing director until 1969. Jazz and classical music fan Max Ittenbach was appointed artistic director in 1956.
Nils Nobach worked for Electrola from 1953 as a producer and composer (often under the pseudonym Peter Ström), who became one of the most prominent hit producers of the time. He produced
Bibi Johns, Wolfgang Sauer,
Fred Bertelmann,
Conny (1957), the Nilsen Brothers (1958),
Angèle Durand,
Gitte Hænning
Gitte Hænning (born 29 June 1946) is a Danish singer and film actress, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s.
She was known primarily mononymously (without a surname) in Europe. She moved to Sweden in 1958. Her first hit in Swedish ...
,
Rex Gildo
Rex Gildo (formerly Alexander Gildo, born Ludwig Franz Hirtreiter; 2 July 1936 – 26 October 1999) was a German singer of Schlager ballads who reached the height of his popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, selling over 25 million records and st ...
(March 1959), and
Adamo
Adamo is both a masculine given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Given name
* Adamo Abate (c. 990 – 1060–1070), Italian medieval Benedictine abbot and saint, a promoter of the unification of the Southern populatio ...
(1964). In November 1961 Nobach left Electrola and Heinz Gietz took over the position of production manager for pop.
Its debut was the "Hämmerchen-Polka", sung by
Chris Howland in November 1961. Under his direction, the super hits "
Zwei kleine Italiener" and "Lady Sunshine and Mister Moon" with Conny Froboess, "
Speedy Gonzales
Speedy Gonzales is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He is portrayed as "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico" with his major traits being the ability to run extremely fast ...
" with Rex Gildo, "Motorbiene" with
Benny Quick, and another of his own compositions, "Mimi Never Goes to Bed" with
Bill Ramsey, were created under his direction in 1962 the top seller of the year. Gietz left Electrola in 1965, but continued to produce Electrola performers as a freelance producer (including
the Lords). In 1968 the Cornet label, owned by Gietz, released the first record with the title "Mer schenken dä Ahl e couple Blömcher" from the Kölsch dialect group
De Bläck Fööss.
See also
*
List of record labels
File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg
File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg
File:Bingola1011b.jpg
Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, ...
References
{{Authority control
German jazz record labels
1925 establishments in Germany
Record labels established in 1925
Labels distributed by Universal Music Group
EMI