Columbia Graphophone Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom.
In 1922, Columbia Phonograph, as it was then known, sold its UK subsidiary Columbia Graphophone. However, in 1925 Columbia Graphophone bought its former parent for $2.5 million. In 1926 Odeon Records and Parlophone Records were acquired. On April 21, 1931, the Gramophone Company and the Columbia Graphophone Company merged and formed a new company Electric and Musical Industries (EMI).
EMI continued to operate the Columbia record label in the UK -- and everywhere but the U.S., Canada, and Japan -- until the 1960s. EMI replaced the Columbia label with the EMI label. It sold its remaining interest in the Columbia name in 1990 to Sony Music Entertainment (now Sony BMG Music Entertainment), who already owned Columbia Records in the U.S. and Canada.
[edit] Columbia outside the UK
The history of the Columbia record label outside the UK is dealt with in more detail in Columbia Records.
