EMI FAMILY OF LABELS
ZONOPHONE AND REGAL ZONOPHONE
The Regal Zonophone label appeared from the amalgamation of two British labels
REGAL and ZONOHONE in 1931, at the time of the formation of EMI. RZ was intended to be the low priced outlet for the company, and it had huge sales worldwide over the years. The REGAL label, although in existence in UK since at least 1917 had started in late 1926 in Australia at G-20000, but the ZONOPHONE label had been in existence since 1901 (The International Zonophone Company). Bert Firman acted as musical director for the Zonophone Record Company, and went on organising sessions for RZ. REGAL used matrix numbers prefixed with ‘WAR and CAR’ and UK label numbers of (G, MR), while ZONOPHONE had used several series of label numbers (X, EE, EF, 3000). REGAL ZONOPHONE continued using the MR prefix and the ‘CAR’ matrix prefix in UK from 1931, while the Australian label number started at G-21000 in 1931. Earlier reissues retained their original labels. Number G-25260 was reached by late 1948, with Australian country only from G-25294. The demise of the label was with G-25508 on 1st May 1958. RZ issued quite a large number of records under pseudonyms over more than a 20 year period, using material from many other labels.EMI
In the UK, The Gramophone Company and The Columbia Gramophone Company merged in 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries. The global merger brought the Columbia, Electrola, HMV, Regal, Zonophone, Odeon, Pathe, and Parlophone labels, together with smaller logos, under one umbrella operation based at Hayes in Middlesex. It was a bold move, designed to eliminate competition in a shrinking depression-ridden market, and ultimately it worked. In 1931 EMI did the first experiments in long-playing records. In 1933 they made the first experimental stereo discs. In 1938 EMI Australia maintained a catalogue of about 30,000 titles using about 1600 artists including many overseas labels. They then were pressing about 80,000 records each month. Soon after WW2 this had risen to nearly 400,000 (plus 250,000 imported from UK) per month. In 1995 EMI commenced building their new 37,000 square foot complex in Hayes. It is the biggest and most valuable archive in the world which has brought together all the different elements of the Company's 100 year history. It houses the museum, record and paper archive, master tape and video tape libraries and the Company's extensive photograph collection. A copy of almost every disc issued exists [nearly 500,000]. It has been reported that in October 1964 English EMI destroyed their 78 masters. In January 2000 EMI announced merger talks with Warner Music Group to create the world's largest record company and make EMI a subsidiary of Time Warner. Warner and EMI were the 4th and 5th largest music businesses in the world. The new labels include Virgin, Atlantic, and WEA. These merger discussions were still going on in November 2000. Also in November 2000 EMI and BMG were in talks about a merger. If this happened it would form the worlds' largest music company.