Poko records
| Poko records | |
|---|---|
| Active years | since 1977 |
| Seat | Tampere , Finland |
| Genre (s) | Metal , rock music |
Poko Rekords is a Finnish rock - and metal - label , which in 1977 in Tampere was founded. The label is part of the EMI Group .
history
In September 1972, Kari "Epe" Helenius decided to start a record store called Epe's Music Shop in Tampere . Initially, the business was only intended as a profit center for Kari's father's textile business. A few months later the business began selling records by mail order , accounting for about 80% of sales. After the textile company had been sold to a larger company in 1976, Helenius transformed the business into a record label in the fall of 1977 and named it Poko Rekords. The first group on this label was a friend's rockabilly band, which was soon followed by other groups from the punk rock and metal sectors. In its early days, the label consisted of only one other employee besides Helenius. In 1978, Jive Väänänen from the sick Love Records label and producer Richard Stanley founded their own company. Helenius hired these companies for himself, which meant he could count on employees who were already more experienced in the business. This brought the label into contact with the distributor Discophon and enabled the label to better sell the sound carriers. Discophon also took over the production of the sound carriers. This community continued before the label split from Discophon and switched to CBS Records in 1981.
Towards the end of the 1980s, the Finnish label Fazer was interested in buying up the label, but this was rejected. A little later, Helenius' friend Gugi Kokljushkin, owner of the Oy Sonet Suomi Ab label , was interested in Poko Rekords and bought 40% of the label in January 1988. In the meantime, Unitor Oy, Kari's father's company, had taken over distribution. In 1991, Sonet was bought by Polygram . Since Helenius had other goals than PolyGram, he bought back his 40% towards the end of 1992. He had obtained the money mainly through BMG , which had paid him the money to be able to sell future records of the label. In 1990 the record store was also separated from the label: The label and the record store branches were subordinated to Unitor. After the label split from PolyGram, Helenius founded Poplandia Music Oy to secure the publishing rights for the latest releases. In addition, Shoeling Oy founded another company that concentrated on business matters. However, the branches proved to be uneconomical and were closed after Unitor went bankrupt in 1983. Helenius then bought the rights to Jee-Jee Music, which also belonged to Unitor, and used them for Poplandia. In 1993 the name was changed from Shoeling to Poko Rekords Oy. In addition, Helenius now cared less about his individual branches, but concentrated more on his label and the original Epe's Music Shop. In 1999 EMI became aware of the label and planned to buy it, but this was delayed until 2001. The label largely retained its independence and is still managed by Kari Helenius in Tampere.
Bands (selection)
Publications (selection)
- Poverty Stinks · Gobbledygook (1992)
- Popeda · Hullut Koirat (1993)
- Faff-Bey New Religion (1994)
- Diablo · Eternium (2004)
- Eppu Normaali · Syvään päähän (2007)
- Apulanta · Kuuma Kesä (Single, 2008)
- The 69 Eyes Paris Kills (2009)
- The 69 Eyes Savage Garden (2009)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manu Aunola: POKO REKORDS A TALE OF A MAJOR FINNISH RECORD COMPANY. (PDF; 30 kB) sbaer.uca.edu, accessed on October 25, 2013 .