Columbia Records

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 management buy-out after the parent company went into receivership.

In 1925, it acquired a controlling interest in its American parent company to take advantage of a new electrical recording process. The British firm also controlled the US operations from 1925 until 1931. That year Columbia Graphophone in the UK merged with the Gramophone Company (which sold records under the His Master's Voice label) to form EMI. At the same time, Columbia divested itself of its American branch, which was eventually absorbed by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1938.

The company's record label Columbia became a successful British brand in the 1950s and 1960s, and was eventually replaced by the newly created EMI Records, as part of a label consolidation. This in turn w… More