RCA Records
{{infobox record label
image = | parent = Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Inc. | founded = 1901 | founder = Emile Berliner
Eldridge R. Johnson | distributor = RCA Records (In the US) | genre = Various | country = US | url = http://rcarecords.com/{{infobox record label | name = RCA Victor Records | image = | parent = Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Inc. | founded = 1901 | founder = Emile Berliner
Eldridge R. Johnson | distributor = RCA Victor Group (In the US) | genre = Various | country = US | url = http://rcavictor.com/RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony BMG Music Entertainment.RCA Records was founded in 1901 as the Victor Talking Machine Company.RCA is the name of three different co-owned record labels. RCA Records is the pop music, rock music and country music label. RCA Victor is the Broadway musicals, blues music, world music, jazz and other musical genres which don't fit the pop music mold label. RCA Red Seal is the renowned classical music label with a reissue sub-label called RCA Gold Seal.
Defunct labels include budget labels RCA Camden and RCA Victrola.In 1929, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs (including the famous "Victrola") and phonograph records (in British English, "gramophone records"). The company then became RCA-Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the famous Nipper trademark.
In 1931, RCA Victor's British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board. Also in 1931, RCA Victor developed and released the first 33⅓ rpm records to the public. These had the standard groove size identical to the contemporary 78rpm records, rather than the "microgroove" used in post-WWII 33⅓ "Long Play" records. The format was a commercial failure at the height of the Great Depression, partially because the records and playback equipment were expensive. The system was withdrawn from the market after about a year. (This was not the first attempt at a commercial long play record format, as Edison Records had marketed a microgroove vertically recorded disc with 20 minutes playing time per side the previous decade; the Edison long playing records were also a commercial failure.)
In 1949, RCA-Victor developed and released the first 45 rpm record to the public, answering CBS/Columbia's 33⅓ rpm "LP". In 1950, realizing that Columbia's LP format had become successful and fearful that RCA was losing market share, RCA Victor began issuing LPs themselves.
In the 1950s, RCA had three subsidiary or specialty labels which were Groove, Label "X" and Vik.
In 1955, RCA purchased the recording contract of Elvis Presley from Sun Records for the then astronomical sum of $35,000. Elvis would become RCA's biggest selling recording artist.
In 1957, RCA severed its decades-long ties with EMI and signed a distribution deal with Decca Records, causing EMI to purchase Capitol Records. Capitol then became the main distributor for EMI recordings in North and South America with RCA distributing its recordings through Decca in the United Kingdom on the RCA and RCA Victor labels with the lightning bolt logo instead of the His Master's Voice Nipper logo. RCA set up its own British distribution in 1971.
In 1968, RCA modernised its image with a new logo, replacing the old lightning bolt logo, and the virtual retirement of both the "Victor" and Nipper trademarks. RCA Records reinstated Nipper to most of its record labels beginning in 1976 in countries where RCA had the rights to the Nipper trademark.In 1983, Arista Records owner Bertelsmann sold 50% of Arista to RCA. In 1985, Bertelsmann and RCA formed a joint venture called RCA/Ariola International.
When General Electric acquired RCA in 1986, The company sold its 50% interest in RCA/Ariola International to its partner Bertelsmann and the company was renamed for Bertelsmann Music Group. BMG brought back the lightning bolt logo to make clear that RCA Records was no longer co-owned with the other RCA entities which GE sold or closed. The only RCA unit GE kept was the National Broadcasting Company.In 2003 BMG was reorganized in the United States creating the RCA Records Group which combined RCA Records, Arista Records and J Records with Clive Davis heading the reorganised unit. In 2006 Sony BMG was re-organized, and RCA became one of two main label groups in the United Kingdom. Head of the department was Craig Logan, manager of P!nk and former band member of Bros.The RCA Victor label group consists of the RCA Victor, Windham Hill and Bluebird labels.The prestigious RCA Red Seal classical music label is now part of Sony BMG Masterworks.* RCA Records artists
* List of record labels* Internet Archive: Command Performance (1942) - How RCA records are made, narrated by Milton Cross.
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