Ariola

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Ariola
Logo of the label
Logo of the label
Parent company Sony Music Entertainment
Active years since 1958
founder Reinhard Mohn
Seat Munich, GermanyGermanyGermany 
Website www.ariola.de
Label code 00116
Genre (s) Various
Ariola singles with two different logos
Ariola Record 1.jpg
Logo from 1958 to 1967
Ariola Record 2.jpg
Logo from 1967 to 1987

Ariola ( LC 00116) was founded in 1958 and is one of the most successful German record labels .

history

Logo of the Bertelsmann Schallplattenring label , 1956 to 1958
Single record from the Bertelsmann record ring

After the entrepreneur Reinhard Mohn had founded his Bertelsmann Lesering (today Der Club ) in 1950 , which enabled members to purchase current books inexpensively, he wanted to expand his offer to include records in the mid-1950s . In 1956 the Bertelsmann Schallplattenring was founded under the motto “A good book needs a beautiful sound” . However, the young company struggled with initial difficulties. In the beginning, the record companies did not want to issue the necessary licenses to sell the records through the record ring. In addition, other pressing plants were sometimes unable to accept orders from Bertelsmann for contractual reasons . For this reason, the Sonopress pressing plant was built in Gütersloh in 1957 .

On April 22, 1958, Ariola Sonopress GmbH and an Austrian subsidiary were founded, which were equipped with a press capacity of 225,000 plates per month. The first release under the new name was The Rainbow Children by Josephine Baker . Initially, the repertoire only comprised 72 titles by six artists, which made it difficult for the company to gain a foothold in the industry. Slowly, however, the first successes emerged and branches were founded in Berlin , Düsseldorf , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg and Stuttgart , and in 1961 another music production facility was opened in Cologne . Before that, Ariola had his best-selling success to date with the Cologne folk actor Willy Millowitsch in 1960 with the mood song schnapps, that was his last word , of which 900,000 copies were sold.

Over time, more and more successful artists were added. In addition, the company also landed flops such as the first single by pop singer Manuela . The single Hula-Serenade / Candy (1962) sold just under 6,000 pieces. In 1964 the label released some beat singles, including The Rattles , with live recordings from the legendary Star Club . From the mid-1960s onwards, the company was able to take over some established stars from other labels through attractive, profit-sharing record deals. Among other things, popular pop singers Peter Alexander , Udo Jürgens and Rex Gildo switched to Ariola. In 1969 the headquarters of Ariola Eurodisc GmbH was relocated from Gütersloh to Munich .

The company concluded lucrative license agreements with national and international music producers . Among other things, the following labels were temporarily distributed by Ariola : 10 Records , 20th Century Fox , A&M Records , Arista Records , Baby Records , Baccarola , Bronze , Barclay Records , Cameo-Parkway , Chrysalis Records , DDD , DJM , Eurodisc , Gordy , Hansa , Instant Records , Island , Jupiter Records , Kapp Records , Linn , Logic Records , MCS , Melodija , Montana , Music , Musicor , Musiza , Page One , Palette , President , Pye Records , Red Point Rush , Rocket Records , RCA-Victor , Shelter , Top Rank , United Artists Records , Virgin Records , Whatley , White Records and Yum Yum .

In the 1970s, the record company established subsidiaries in the Benelux countries and Spain (1970), France (1973), the USA (1975) and Mexico , Great Britain and Switzerland (1977). At the beginning of the 1980s, Ariola acquired Hansa Musik Produktion . In 1986 Sonopress began producing compact discs . A year later, the Ariola label merged with UFA and Sonopress to form BMG Ariola München GmbH .

In 2004 the Ariola label became part of the Sony BMG Music Entertainment joint venture . Its dissolution was announced on August 5, 2008. Sony takes over the shares from Bertelsmann and will in future operate under the name Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (as a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony Corporation). Bertelsmann takes over the master rights of some “selected European music catalogs” from Sony BMG and continues to operate the BMG brand as a “licensing and administration platform for the exercise and marketing of music rights”.

  • 1958 to 1967

  • 1967 to 1987

  • 1988 to 2006

  • since 2006

German number one albums and number one singles by Ariola

Albums

  • Compilation - The Most Beautiful Russian Folk Songs (1967)
  • Peter Alexander - Schlager Rendezvous 1 (1968)
  • Heintje - Heintje (1968)
  • Udo Jürgens - Udo Live (1969)
  • Heintje - I'll sing a song for you (1969)
  • Compilation - Super 20 (1974)
  • Compilation - Super 20 - Super New (1975)
  • Udo Jürgens - Buenos dias Argentina (1978)
  • Andrea Jürgens - Christmas with Andrea Jürgens (1980)
  • Compilation - “Rock Made in Switzerland” with Flame Dream (Switzerland Ariola 1981)
  • Vanessa Mai - Rainbow (2017)
  • Vanessa Mai - Schlager (2018)

Singles

Other artists at Ariola (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Lehning, Das Medienhaus: Past and Present of the Bertelsmann Group , p. 169