Rykodisc

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Rykodisc is an American record label and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group .

history

Rykodisc claims to be the first record label to release its products exclusively on CD . The company was founded in Salem , USA in 1983 or 1984 by Arthur Mann, Rob Simonds, Doug Lexa and Don Rose. The word “ryko” comes from Japanese and means something like “sound from a flash of light” and gives an indication of the intention of the founders to want to concentrate on the new technology of the compact disc. In the late 1980s, the label began making high quality versions of many of their releases on cassette and vinyl records under the name Ryko Analogue . The music compilation series Steal This Disc was also released in the late 1980s.

Rykodisc has had some notable success in CD re-release. Artists such as Elvis Costello , David Bowie , Yoko Ono , Frank Zappa and Mission of Burma allowed the label to publish their catalogs of works on CD. Rykodisc still holds the rights to the Zappa and Mission of Burma catalogs and has released the classic SST Records- era recordings of the Meat Puppets . Over the years, the label acquired the companies Hannibal Records , Tradition Records , Gramavision Records and Restless Records , and the distribution company Ryko Distribution and the music publisher Rykomusic were founded. The label's catalog now includes more than 1200 titles.

When Chris Blackwell left Island Records in 1999 , he purportedly bought Rykodisc for $ 35 million to use the music marketing and distribution expertise gathered there for his new Palm Pictures project . Two years later, Blackwell and Rykodisc parted ways . The label is now based in New York and has offices in Los Angeles and Beverly (Massachusetts) , USA.

In March 2006, Warner Music Group reportedly acquired Ryko Corporation for $ 67.5 million. With the sale, the Zappa master tapes were also transferred to the new owner , which meant that his recordings are now published by Warner Bros. Records - the label with which Zappa had been in legal disputes for so long during his lifetime.

List of artists (current and previous, excerpt)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. indication of the founding year to rykodisc.com ( Memento of 8 February 2007 at the Internet Archive ) (March 2007)
  2. www.Discogs.com