- Country
- United States
- Active
- from 1899
- Comments
-
In the US (until 1912) also appearing as Zon-O-Phone. Label with a long and complex history. Originally founded in 1899 in New Jersey as Zonophone Record, acquired by Columbia Records, subsequently by the Victor Talking Machine Company and, in 1903, by the Gramophone Company, a deal also including the German International Zonophone GmbH company.
The merger of The Gramophone Co. Ltd. and the Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd. (owner the Regal label) in 1931 - forming EMI - resulted in Zonophone and Regal being melted into Regal Zonophone. Nevertheless, EMI revived Zonophone a couple of times, a. o. as a low-price label for re-issues but also as a punk artists platform, and eventually subordinated the label to Parlophone.
With Parlophone becoming a subsidiary of WEA in 2013, that company became the owner of the rights involved.