Rhino Records
| Rhino Entertainment | |
|---|---|
 Logo of the label |
|
| Parent company | Warner Music Group |
| Active years | since 1978 |
| founder | Richard Foos, Harold Bronson |
| Seat | los Angeles |
| Website | www.rhino.com |
| distribution | Warner Music Group |
Rhino Records or Rhino Entertainment (company name) is an American music label that specializes in re-releases. Initially, it made a name for itself through retrospectives by well-known comedians such as Richard Pryor , Stan Freberg , Tom Lehrer and Spike Jones .
In recent years, however, Rhino has oriented itself more towards a wide-ranging entertainment program on home video or DVD, re-releases of television series such as The Lone Ranger and Der Onkel vom Mars ( My Favorite Martian ) as well as CD releases by selected artists and film soundtracks.
history
Rhino was opened by Richard Foos in 1973 as a record store - which still exists today - on Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles . Four years later, Foos founded the label of the same name. After initial difficulties with distribution, the label signed a six-year distribution contract with Capitol Records in 1986 . In 1989 Rhino acquired Roulette Records together with EMI and received the license rights for the USA. When the distribution deal with Capitol expired in 1992, Rhino signed a new one with WEA Records . In return, Time Warner bought a 50% stake in the record company, and in 1998 the other half, so that their Rhino is 100% owned. In 1999 they developed "Rhino Handmade" with limited editions only available for purchase on the Internet.
Through this merger, the label was able to release compilations with Warner artists such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer , Yes , The Doobie Brothers and The Doors , as well as film soundtracks by Warner Brothers -, MGM - (until 1986) and RKO - Films, the rights of which are also owned by Time Warner . These include Gone With the Wind , The Wizard of Oz , Easter Parade , The Invisible Third , Casablanca , King Kong , Doctor Zhivago and Superman , among others .
Rhino also acquired the rights to the Monkees from Columbia Pictures in the late 1980s .
In 2004, Rhino became part of the newly established Warner Music Group , when the parts of Time Warner were transferred to a group of investors around Edgar Bronfman junior after the spin-off from AOL (2003) . was sold.