Apex Records was a Canadian record label owned by the

Compo Company Compo Company Ltd. was Canada's first independent record company. The Compo Company was founded in 1918 in Lachine, Quebec, by Herbert Berliner, an executive of Berliner Gramophone of Canada and the oldest son of disc record inventor Emile Berli ...

which lasted as late as 1980. Compo established the Apex label in July 1921 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. It released American recordings from

Okeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

and

Gennett Records Gennett (pronounced "jennett") was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, United States, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and H ...

, among others. It also released recordings by Canadian artists for both the

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

and

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

communities. After Compo began a distribution arrangement with

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

(USA) in 1935, the Apex name was dropped. Apex was revived in 1942 to market Canadian recordings. American Decca bought Compo in 1951. In 1952, Apex resumed issuing American recordings from the various independent American record companies which were established after World War II. Compo was renamed

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

(Canada) in 1970, retaining the Apex label for Francophone recordings for a few years before phasing out the label. MCA Canada formally abandoned the trademark in 1984.

Discography of 45 rpm singles (incomplete)

Listed in alphabetical order by artist's first name:

References

External links

Apex singles 76000 series

Compo Company article
in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''

Entry at discogs.com
{{Authority control Defunct record labels of Canada Record labels established in 1921 Record labels disestablished in 1935 Record labels established in 1942 Record labels disestablished in 1980 Re-established companies Canadian companies established in 1921 Companies based in Toronto 1980 disestablishments in Canada