Max Glücksmann, born (Mordechai David Glücksmann) ( Czernowitz,

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

, March 8, 1875 - October 20, 1946,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

) was an Argentine pioneer of the music and film industries.

Biography

Glücksmann was born in Czernowitz, then part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

, and emigrated to Argentina in 1890. Shortly after his arrival in

, Glücksmann began to work as a photographic assistant at the Casa Lepage, along with Eugène Py. Soon after the foundation of

Odeon Records Odeon Records is a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. The label's name and logo come from the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris. History Straus a ...

in 1904, Glücksmann was appointed as the importation agent, in

, for European machines and records. He was successful, and soon involved himself in making local records under his own name, ''Discos Glücksmann''. Because of the distances involved, and possibly because of Glücksmann's nationality, Odeon agreed to build a processing and pressing plant for him in

, throwing in a resident

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-trained engineer for good measure. (These were the days, pre-

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, when Argentina had one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in the world.) Glücksmann set out to capture the

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

market, a task he managed very successfully. By 1914 he had essentially gained overall control of the Argentine record industry, marginalising his only competitor, Victor, by the simple expedient of signing exclusive long-term contracts with the best musicians and, more cannily, the best song ''writers''. Thus Glücksmann had exclusive copyrights to all the hits. Glücksmann controlled the sheet-music and silent movie house business, and had a virtual monopoly on tango until the 1920s. Far from making himself hated by this arrangement, he became a folk hero among musicians by his introduction of

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

, both in music-publishing and in record-making, for the first time in Argentina. In November 1928 a factory for ''The Arg. Talking Mach. Works'' (covered area: 1690 square metres) was finished by architect Paul Ploetz, situated at Montañeses 2130/50 (CABA, now Barrio Chino). The building does not exist anymore. ''Discos Glücksmann'' were Argentinized to ''Discos Nacional-Glücksmann'', later simply to ''Discos Nacional'' and finally, after the foundation of EMI in 1931, to ''Disco Nacional- Odeon'', the standard label in Argentina,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

for the products of ''Industrias Eléctricas y Musicales Odeón, S. A.'', i.e., Argentine EMI. He died at 71 and is buried at Cementerio israelita de Ciudadela, Buenos Aires.

References

External links

Max Glücksmann in tango.info
* 1946 deaths 1875 births Argentine Jews Bukovina Jews Argentine people of Austrian descent Argentine people of Austrian-Jewish descent Naturalized citizens of Argentina Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Argentina {{argentina-film-bio-stub