Polar Music is a Swedish

record company "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

founded in 1963 by

Stig Anderson Stig Erik Leopold "Stikkan" Anderson (25 January 1931 – 12 September 1997) was a Swedish music manager, lyricist and music publisher. He was the co-founder of Polar Music and is best known for managing the Swedish pop band ABBA. Early l ...

and his friend Bengt Bernhag.

Background

The first act that Polar Music signed was the

Hootenanny Singers The Hootenanny Singers are a popular Folk music, folk group from Västervik, Sweden, founded in 1961. The group included Björn Ulvaeus, who later became a member of ABBA. Other band members were Johan Karlberg (b. Karl Johan Hilding Karlberg ...

featuring

Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish musician, singer, songwriter, and producer best known as a member of the musical group ABBA. He is also the co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duve ...

. Polar eventually gained prosperity producing Ulvaeus' next group, international superstars

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

. As a small Scandinavian company based in Sweden, Polar could not afford to set up operations worldwide and was ABBA's record company only in the Scandinavian countries. Therefore, ABBA's recordings were licensed to different record companies in each country, but usually to companies that had international operations, meaning they could effectively compete with each other to acquire the licenses in more countries if they proved successful in their own. The licenses gave the companies a few allowances to issue certain tracks as singles that Polar had not, or to modify single (and occasionally album) artwork. The licenses were for three years at a time, meaning that between 1989 and 1992 they all expired. This enabled PolyGram to release '' Gold: Greatest Hits'' to major success around the world. Polar Music is currently distributed by

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, ...

whose predecessor company, PolyGram, purchased it in 1989. However, Polar Music International AB legally still exists and ABBA's recordings remain copyrighted to the company. Polar is now ABBA's record label internationally, and the historic Polar vinyl label designs have been used on the group's CD releases since 2004 (usually on deluxe releases of studio albums). The

Polar Music Prize The Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, best known as the manager of the Swedish band ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The award is annually given to one contemporary ...

, an award for outstanding musical achievement, was created by Stig Anderson, the same year after he sold the label to PolyGram.

Polar Music artists

Artists signed by Polar Music included ABBA, Alive Feat, Jessie Martins, Lena Andersson, Chana, Crosstalk,

Dilba Dilbahar Demirbağ (born 24 November 1971), known as Dilba, is a Swedish pop singer of Kurdish background. Her first album ''Dilba'' (1996) reached commercial success. Early life Dilba was born in Kirvan, a village in eastern Turkey, and her ...

, Emilia,

Anni-Frid Lyngstad Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad (born 15 November 1945), also known simply as Frida, is a Swedish singer who is best known as one of the founding members and lead singers of the pop band ABBA. Courtesy titles ''Principality of Reuss-Gera, Princess Re ...

Agnetha Fältskog Agneta Åse "Agnetha" Fältskog (; born 5 April 1950) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and a former member of the pop group ABBA. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 Agnetha Fältskog (album), self-titled debut alb ...

and Linda Ulvaeus,

Ted Gärdestad Ted Arnbjörn Gärdestad (; 18 February 195622 June 1997) was a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and actor known internationally as Ted. Gärdestad began his acting career in 1966 and began playing music in 1971, signing with Polar Music. Ass ...

Gemini Gemini most often refers to: * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Gemini (astrology), an astrological sign Gemini may also refer to: Science and technology Space * Gemini in Chinese astronomy, the Gemini constellat ...

The Hellacopters The Hellacopters are a Swedish garage rock band that was formed in 1994 by Nicke Andersson (vocals and guitar), Andreas Tyrone "Dregen" Svensson (guitar), Kenny Håkansson (bass) and Robert Eriksson (drums). Andersson (sometimes known as Nic ...

, The Infinite Mass,

Fredrik Kempe Fredrik Kempe (born 29 April 1972) is a Swedish songwriter and opera and pop singer, who was born in Vårgårda. He has participated in Swedish versions of the musicals ''Les Misérables'' and ''Chess''. In 2002, Kempe had a hit with ''Vincerò' ...

Lambretta Lambretta () was a brand of motor scooters, manufactured in Milan, Italy, by Innocenti. The name is derived from the word Lambrate, the suburb of Milan named after the river Lambro which flows through the area, and where the factory was locat ...

, Maarja,

Paulo Mendonça Paulo Mendonça is a Swedish funk guitarist songwriter and composer of Portuguese origin. He has released five studio albums and one live album, the first three in the 1990s as a performing artist and sold more than 250.000 copies and as a songw ...

, Mr. Vegas Fea Intense, Emma Nilsdotter, Mats Paulson,

Pineforest Crunch Pineforest Crunch is a Swedish pop music band based in Solna. They have released three albums and toured extensively internationally selling over 250,000 albums worldwide. Their music is highly textured and often features the use of unusual musica ...

, Sam (musician), Skintrade, Starr Chukki/infinit,

Svenne and Lotta Svenne & Lotta (in some countries as Sven & Charlotte) was a pop duo composed of Svenne Hedlund and Lotta Hedlund. They met in 1967, when (along with future ABBA member Benny Andersson) Svenne Hedlund was the vocalist in the band Hep Stars and ...

(Sven Hedlund and Charlotte Walker),

Joey Tempest Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson (born 19 August 1963), known professionally as Joey Tempest, is a Swedish musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Europe. He has written most of the band's biggest hit songs, including " The Fi ...

, Top-Notch, Harpo (Jan Torsten Svensson), Topaz Sound and Anders Widmark. The last band to be signed to Polar were Beagle whose two albums for the label ''Sound On Sound'' and ''Within'' are considered to be power-pop classics.

References

{{Reflist Swedish record labels Record labels established in 1963 Pop record labels Labels distributed by Universal Music Group Polar Music albums ABBA Companies based in Stockholm 1963 establishments in Sweden

Background

Polar Music artists

See also

References