Columbia

Columbia Records is the oldest brand name in recorded sound. Founded in January 1889 in Washington DC as the Columbia (2).

It opened a British operation shortly afterwards. This was sold in 1922 to its own management, and then the independent Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI) in 1931. US anti-trust laws forced the UK company to divest itself of its US operations that year.

The label was introduced in Japan in 1931 by the Nippon Phonograph Co. (also known as Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd.

For the next few decades the Columbia imprint (trademark) was exclusively owned by Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd., outside North America, Japan, and Spain, where the rights were owned by a company unrelated to Electric & Musical Industries Ltd., CBS Inc.

In 1961, Columbia set up a parent company for itself called Regal Zonophone, etc.) including Columbia, in favour of the newly established EMI label, and subsequently no longer using the label for releasing pop or rock acts in much of the world (although it remained in use in parts of Asia and for non-pop releases).

On November 2, 1989, CBS sold its recording music distribution and label group to the Japanese conglomerate Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd..

Today, Columbia (walking eye) remains one of the four flagship music labels operated by Sony Music Entertainment worldwide except in Japan, where Columbia (magic notes) is the primary imprint of Nippon Columbia.

WARNING: Codes with the following prefixes should not be entered as catalogue number: XSS, ZSS, AL, BL. These codes are matrix numbers unique for each side of a vinyl release and should be entered in the Barcode and Other Identifiers section. The actual catalogue number is usually printed above the matrix number.

European releases in the 1980s until the late 1990s often had supplementary numbers printed on the release in the following format:
xx-xxxxxx-xx (e.g.: 01-497424-10) in addition to short catalogue number 497424. These are not distribution codes or catalogue numbers but were added by the Dutch Sony/CBS, Haarlem plants and are commonly known as Computer Numbers. Do not add them as catalogue numbers. You can add these codes as "Other" in the BaOI section with "Manufacturing code" as description.

Catalogue letters from 1989 to 2005 are listed as "CK 12345".
Label code: LC 0162 / LC 00162.
Has the Spanish series Espectacular (3).

French Columbia shellac codes, sizes, label colours, price codes (1951):
BF - 25 cm (10") - brown label (price code Medium)
BFX - 30 cm (12") - brown label (price code Medium)
DF - 25 cm (10") - black label (price code Standard)
DFX - 30 cm (12") - black label (price code Standard)
GF - 25 cm (10") - green label (price code Artistique)
GFX - 30 cm (12") - green label (price code Artistique)
LF - 25 cm (12") - blue label (price code Artistique)
LFX - 30 cm (12") - blue label (price code Artistique)
RFX - 30 cm (12") - red label (price code Medium)
9000 to 11672 - 30 cm (12") - black label (price code Standard)

Please note some mid-1950s (USA) 45rpm releases have on the label a release # which ends with -c which indicates "country":
4-41008-c (year released 1957) Anything Your Heart Desires
4-41012-c (year released 1957) Heartbeat / Party
4-41020-c (year released 1957) Let Me Love You / Stop Whistlin' Wolf

Note some releases from 1986 to 1991 have the ⎊ upside-down triangle (which looks like a Fallout Shelter) on the label which marks this era of pressing. Found on Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Pitman on LPs or 12" singles, it helps designate the A side. This symbol also appears on some CDs and cassette tapes.