Copenhagen Records is a Danish

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

formed on 5 January 2004Copenhagen Records (2011)
Info & Kontakt
. Retrieved 26 April 2011. by former

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 ...

Recorded Music Denmark staff members to give artists more artistic autonomy. It houses artists spread over a wide range of genres, from rock to rap, and from pop artists to comedians. In September 2011,

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 ...

acquires Copenhagen Records, along with the rest of MBO Group. The label operates as one of UMG's standalone labels.

History

In 2003, EMI-Medley had a 40% share on the Danish music market. Days after Medley-founder Michael Ritto announced he would depart in February 2004, other senior staff members also left. Among them were former EMI Denmark head of A&R

Nick Foss Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Pla ...

and former

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

/Medley GM Mik Christensen, who had both worked at EMI for 19 years and long wanted to start a company of their own, but who had been persuaded by Ritto to hold off those plans. Former Medley marketing manager Jakob Sørensen and former A&R manager Christian Backman set up operations; Foss and Christensen joined on 1 April 2004. Christensen explained that Copenhagen Records had the aim "to recruit and develop quality Danish musicians. Sales of Danish artists have not dipped nearly as much as international acts

n Denmark N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

" The label also had the direct intention to create a strong local competitor against the established multinational labels. In 2008, Christensen and Foss left Copenhagen Records and started

Mermaid Records Mermaid Records is a Copenhagen, Denmark based record label, and a sublabel of Sony Music Entertainment Denmark. The company was started as an independent record label by Mik Christensen and Nick Foss in 2005.Rustrup, S. (2008, November 27)Sony ...

, which is largely owned by

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 Entertainment ...

Denmark.

(Denmark) A/S. (2011)
Mermaid Records
. Retrieved 26 April 2011. After Sørensen and Backman left the company in 2013, the position of

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

was taken over by

Torben Ravn Torben is a Danish variant of the given name Torbjörn. People named Torben include: *Torben Betts (born 1968), English playwright and screenwriter *Torben Boye (born 1966), Danish former footballer *Torben Frank (born 1968), Danish former footbal ...

, who was a product manager at Copenhagen Records since 2007. Copenhagen Records is market leader in Denmark on local repertoire and runs as a 360 label. Copenhagen Records also includes

Copenhagen Music Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, a booking agency which primarily facilitates bookings for the artists on the label, and Copenhagen Publishing.

Artists

Former artists

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Danish record labels Record labels based in Copenhagen Record labels established in 2004 Danish companies established in 2004 Companies based in Copenhagen Municipality