American Record Corporation
The American Record Corporation , also known as ARC Records or just ARC, was an American record label . ARC was created from the merger of three New York recording companies , the Cameo Record Corporation , the Pathé Phonograph & Radio Corporation and the Plaza Music Company . ARC Records should not be confused with the American Record Company .
history
Beginnings and successes
In July 1929, the renowned companies Cameo Record Corporation, Pathé Phonograph & Radio Corporation (the American branch of the French company Pathé ) and Plaza Music Company merged to form the American Record Corporation. In addition, the Scranton Button Company from Scranton, Pennsylvania , which had previously made panels for Plaza, was taken over. The first president of the group, which began its work in August 1929, was Louis G. Sylvester, who was also the founder of the Scranton Button Company. The new company's headquarters were on 1776 Broadway Manhattan , New York City . In October 1929, Herbert Yates , owner of the Consolidated Film Company , took over ARC Records. In the next few years, at the height of the global economic crisis, ARC tried to achieve high sales figures by buying other record companies such as Conqueror Records or Challenge Records , but this often failed.
From 1931 onwards, things started to improve for ARC. The first big business was bought by the big labels Brunswick Records and Vocalion Records . With the principle "3 records for one dollar" ("3 records for one dollar") the company achieved high sales, at times over 6 million records. In response, RCA Victor started their sub-label Bluebird Records to compete with ARC.
The Consolidated Film Company now had a large market share and in 1934 bought Columbia Records and OKeh Records and their entire catalog.
The End
In December 1938, ARC Records was sold by the Consolidated Film Company for $ 700,000 and was part of the Columbia Broadcasting System ( CBS ). This ended the success story of the American Record Corporation. Vocalion and Brunswick returned to Warner Brothers , then later to Decca Records .
Labels
The two tables below list all record labels that belonged to the American Record Corporation. In addition to the label, the most common genres and known artists, the period in which the respective label was active for ARC is also given. The second table contains separate labels that have been introduced for special department store chains. Labels for Sears can be found in the first table.
The following table lists labels that were established for certain department store chains. Little is known about these companies, so no detailed information can be given here. In addition, there are also independent labels listed that re-released records from the ARC catalog.
