15 Facts About Philips Records

Philips Records is a record label founded by the Dutch electronics company Philips.

In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet in Amsterdam.

In 1958, Philips created a subsidiary label, Fontana Records, which meant that American-Columbia recordings were being issued on both the Philips and Fontana labels.

CBS Philips Records set up their UK operation in Theobalds Road in Holborn.

In 1964, after Philips lost its US and Canadian distribution deal with Columbia Records, it entered an exchange agreement with Mercury Records.

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Classical groups that Philips Records heavily recorded included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Quartetto Italiano.

From 1961 until the late 1980s, Philips Records issued many classical titles in US-specific packaging, initially in the same glossy-laminated covers as Mercury Records.

Philips Records launched an eponymous jazz label in the US, releasing both imported European Philips Records recordings and making new American recordings of Gerry Mulligan, Dizzy Gillespie and Woody Herman, among others.

In 1970, Philips, Fontana, Mercury Records, and the newly formed Vertigo Records were amalgamated into a new company called Phonogram.

In Europe Philips was used on a major basis and it became the outlet for Sire Records in America and distributed a number of punk and new wave bands like Talking Heads, the Ramones, and Radio Birdman, who were signed from Australia.

Philips Records reissued a group of Mercury Living Presence titles as "Mercury Golden Imports", with manufacture in the Netherlands and masters cut from 2-track production tapes, as opposed to the original-issue method of mixing stereo LPs directly from the edited 3-track master tapes and films.

In 1983, Philips Records became one of the first record labels to issue compact discs using digital recordings that had been made since 1978.

Philips Records has been part of Universal Music since 1998, the name continuing to be licensed from the label's former parent company.

In 1999, Philips Records Classics was absorbed into the Decca Music Group, and Philips Records recording and mastering operations in the Netherlands were shut down.

Former employees bought the Philips Recording Center in Baarn, Netherlands, and formed Polyhymnia International and Pentatone Records .