Polydor Records facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Polydor Limited |
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| Parent company | Universal Music Group |
| Founded | 2 April 1913 |
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| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | Germany United Kingdom |
| Location | London, England |
Polydor Records is a well-known music company from Germany and the United Kingdom. It is part of a much larger music group called Universal Music Group. Polydor works closely with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label. Interscope helps distribute Polydor's music in the United States, and Polydor helps distribute Interscope's music in the UK.
Polydor Records Ltd. was first set up in London in 1954. It was a British branch of a German company called Deutsche Grammophon. In 1972, its name changed to Polydor Ltd. You often see "Polydor Ltd. (UK)" mentioned when talking about who owns the rights to their music.
Many famous artists have worked with Polydor, both in the past and today. Some of these include the Cure, James Brown, Deep Purple, Cream, the Moody Blues, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Bee Gees, Lana Del Rey, Ellie Goulding, and Sam Fender.
Contents
Polydor's Story
How It Started
Polydor Records began a long time ago, on April 2, 1913, in Leipzig, Germany. It was founded by a company called Polyphon-Musikwerke AG. This company originally made mechanical music boxes.
During World War I, in 1917, Polyphon-Musikwerke AG bought the German record company Deutsche Grammophon. This company had been taken over by the German government from its British owners during the war.
Polydor was first a separate part of the Polyphon-Grammophon group. From 1924, it was used to sell music records outside of Germany. After the war, the German and British parts of the Gramophone Company became separate. Deutsche Grammophon then claimed the rights to the famous "Nipper" dog and gramophone logo for Germany.
Records from Deutsche Grammophon that were sold outside Germany used the Polyphon Musik and Polydor labels. New offices were opened in other countries like Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and France.
In 1941, a company called Siemens & Halske bought Deutsche Grammophon, which included Polydor. After World War II, Polydor became known for popular music in 1946. The new Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft label focused on classical music from 1949.
In the early 1960s, a band leader named Bert Kaempfert signed some unknown musicians to Polydor. These included Tony Sheridan and a group called The Beat Brothers, who later became very famous as The Beatles! Many other popular international artists also recorded with Polydor.
In 1962, Siemens teamed up with Philips to create the Grammophon-Philips Group. Polydor became a part of this new group. In the late 1960s, Polydor released albums by big names like John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Cream, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Bee Gees, and Eric Clapton.
Polydor opened its own office in the United States in 1969. Before that, other companies helped sell their music there. Polydor became a bigger player in the US music scene when it bought the recording contract of R&B star James Brown in 1971.
The PolyGram Years
In 1972, the Grammophon-Philips Group changed its name to PolyGram. This new name came from "Polydor" and "PhonoGram". Polydor continued to be a record label under this new company. Throughout the 1970s, Polydor became a major label for rock music. They also released hit songs by artists like the Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor, and Atlanta Rhythm Section.
In the 1980s, Polydor continued to do well, even though another PolyGram label, Mercury Records, became more famous. Polydor also took over managing the pop music collection of British Decca.
By the early 1990s, Polydor was not doing as well. PolyGram then reduced Polydor's staff and artists. Polydor became part of a new group called PolyGram Label Group (PLG). This group was created to manage PolyGram's labels that were not performing as strongly.
In 1994, Polydor Records and Atlas Records joined together for a short time, calling themselves "Polydor/Atlas." They started working through A&M Records, another company owned by PolyGram. In 1995, they went back to being simply Polydor Records.
Changes in the United States
For a few years, Polydor tried to stay active by signing new artists and releasing new music. However, it became less and less active in the US. In 1998, Seagram bought PolyGram and combined it with its Universal Music Group. During this big change, Polydor's operations in the United States were merged into Interscope-Geffen-A&M and Universal Records. However, Polydor's international branches stayed strong.
Today, in North America, the Polydor Records name and logo are mostly used for re-releasing older music from the 1960s and 1970s. Island Records handles most of the older Polydor music in the US. Republic Records handles re-releases from James Brown and other old pop music. However, in the 2010s, Interscope Records started signing new artists like Azealia Banks and Lana Del Rey to both Polydor and Interscope.
Polydor UK
In 1972, the British Polydor Records Ltd. changed its name to Polydor Ltd. In the early 1970s, a very successful UK band called Slade brought in a lot of money for the label, as did The New Seekers and The Who. Later, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the label was also home to The Who and The Jam.
Even though Polydor's American branch is not very active, Polydor in the United Kingdom is still one of the most important music labels in the country. They work with artists like Take That, Cheryl, Duffy, Girls Aloud, S Club, Ellie Goulding, and Mabel. Polydor also has a strong group of independent artists through its Fiction label, including Ian Brown, Elbow, and Snow Patrol.
Polydor also helps distribute music for American artists like Eminem, the Black Eyed Peas, Billie Eilish, Camila Cabello, Lady Gaga, and Olivia Rodrigo in the UK.
In 2006, Polydor started a new music label called Fascination Records, which focuses on pop music. Groups like Girls Aloud and The Saturdays moved to this new label.
In 2008, A&M Records UK was created as a part of Polydor UK. That same year, Polydor also started distributing the music of The Rolling Stones.
Recently, in 2024, British singer-songwriter Raye made history at the 2024 Brit Awards. She won 6 awards for her music, which she released with other labels after Polydor UK decided not to release her album. This broke the record for the most awards won by a single artist in one year.
Polydor Japan
In December 2022, Universal Music Japan reorganized its Universal J label. This label was known as Universal Polydor until 2002. The label was split into two new record labels: UJ and Polydor Records. These changes officially happened on January 1, 2023.
Polydor's Japanese division has three smaller labels: Perfume Records, Asse!! Records (for the band HY), and Utahime Records (for Akina Nakamori). They also help distribute music for NHK Records.
The first new music released under Polydor in Japan was Kobayashi Touya's first studio album, Hiiragi.
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See also
- Polydor Records artists
