Junior Editor
Posts: 4789
A big record company can leave its mark on a subsidiary label.
For example, it is not uncommon to see on a CBS disc the imprint of the walking eye (logo of the American Columbia, owner company).
The case I want to comment on concerns those cases where the word EMI (within a rectangle) appears on a disc of one of its subsidiary labels: Regal, Odeon, His Master's Voice, Columbia, Pathé...
One thing should be highlighted: before EMI, as a company, put that mark (the EMI box), it already owned those labels.
That mark is of no importance in the process of cataloging. For example, I see an Odeon disk, that disk may or may not carry an EMI box. If the disc has an EMI box, it's still Odeon.
What does the EMI box tell me? He doesn't tell me anything about the label (it's Odeon); it only tells me that at that time, the owner of the label was the EMI company.
The EMI box frequently appears on the cover or label or both. Its meaning is always the same: indicate that the owner of the label is the EMI company.