Gramophone Company
British record company established 1897
The Gramophone Company Limited was a British phonograph manufacturer and record label, founded in April 1898 by Emil Berliner. It was one of the earliest record labels.
The company purchased the His Master's Voice painting and trademark rights in 1899, using its artwork and creating the His Master's Voice sub-label for its phonographs and releases in 1909, replacing its previous "Recording Angel" trademark. The company had an affiliation with the American Victor Talking Machine Company, who also began using the artwork.
In 1931, The Gramophone Company partnered with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI). The Gramophone Company continued as one of EMI's music labels until 1973, when its legal entity was renamed to EMI Records Limited. The His Master's Voice label continued until 1993, when it was replaced by EMI Classics.
History
The Gramophone Company was founded in April 1898 by William Barry Owen and Edmund Trevor Lloyd Wynne Williams, commissioned by Emil Berliner, in London.
Owen was acting as agent for Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone record, whilst Williams provided the finances. Most of the company's early discs were made in Hanover, Germany at a plant operated by members of Berliner's family, though it had operations around the world.
The public source identifies “Gramophone Company” as british record company established 1897. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gramophone, Company and British.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1521373. VIAF identifies the subject as 123188472. The Library of Congress control number is n50058111. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1898, 1899, 1909 and 1931.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gramophone Company” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.