CBS Records International was the international arm of the Columbia Records unit of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

) formed in 1961 and launched in 1962. Previously, Columbia Records had licensed other record companies to manufacture and distribute Columbia recordings outside North America (excluding Canada by 1976), such as

Philips Records Philips Records is a record label founded by the Dutch electronics company Philips. It was founded as Philips Phonographische Industrie in 1950. In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet in ...

and its subsidiary Fontana (now part of the

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

) in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Formation and history

In 1960, CBS acquired its Australian distributor since 1956, the Australian Record Company, and with it its flagship label

Coronet Records Coronet Records is the name of at least three different record companies. One was based in San Francisco in the 1940s and was responsible for the first recordings of Dave Brubeck. Brubeck's Coronet Records disbanded when it couldn't pay its bills ...

. American Columbia material continued to be issued on the CBS Coronet Records label in Australia. The CBS label was launched in Australia in 1963. Also in 1960, CBS began negotiations with its European distributor

with the goal of the establishment of a CBS Records label in Europe. Philips' acquisition of

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

paved the way for the formation of the CBS label in 1961 with Philips distributing the first batch of CBS recordings in Europe in 1962. Zamba de mi esperanza - Jorge Cafrune - Vinilo

Zamba de mi esperanza - Jorge Cafrune - Vinilo

The use of the CBS name was required because

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

owned another record label called Columbia, which operated in every market except North America,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and Japan. In 1964, CBS acquired Oriole Records which gave CBS Records its own distribution in the UK, beginning in 1965. Initially, only American Columbia product was distributed alongside Oriole's own roster on the renamed CBS label.

, which had distributed American Columbia recordings on its Columbia label until the Philips deal in 1951, continued to distribute CBS's other American labels, such as Epic and

Okeh 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 ...

, on that label. The distribution deal with EMI expired in 1968, at which point CBS began distributing all their labels directly. In Germany, the CBS label distributed Motown from 1963 to 1965.

Sale to Sony

sold the record company in 1990 to

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

for $US 2 billion. In 1991, the CBS Records company was renamed

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

. The CBS Records label was renamed Columbia Records after Sony acquired the Columbia name and trade marks from EMI.

Presidents of CBS Records International

*Harvey Schein, 1962-1971 *

Walter Yetnikoff Walter Yetnikoff (August 11, 1933 – August 9, 2021) was an American music industry executive who was the president of CBS Records International from 1971 to 1975 and then president and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, CBS Records from 1975 to 19 ...

, 1971–1975Billboard - Google Books
Books.google.com (1971-07-31). Retrieved on 2013-07-16. * Allen A. Davis, c. 1980 *

Bob Summer Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States * Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Bob (surnam ...

, 1986–?

References

{{Authority control American record labels Columbia Records Record labels established in 1961 Record labels disestablished in 1990

Formation and history

Sale to Sony

Presidents of CBS Records International

See also

References