Odeon Records - History

History

Straus and Zuntz bought from Carl Lindström the company that he had founded in 1897. They transformed the Lindström enterprise into a public company, the Carl Lindström A.G. and purchased in 1903 among many other record companies Fonotipia Records including their Odeon-Werke International Talking Machine Co. m. b. H.

In 1904 Odeon launched the first double-sided gramophone records. The American Record Company began doing pressings of 10¾-inch blue-shellac discs for Odeon to export to Europe in 1905 or 1906, all double-sided. In 1909 it created the first recording of a large orchestral work — and what may have been the first record album — when it released a 4-disk set of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite with Hermann Finck conducting the London Palace Orchestra.

On January 30, 1904, Odeon became a part of the Carl Lindström Company, which also owned Beka Records, Parlophone and Fonotipia, Lyrophon, Homophon and other labels. Lindström was acquired by the English Columbia Graphophone Company in 1926. In 1931 Columbia merged with Electrola, HMV and other labels to form EMI.

The Berlin Odeon plant recorded, processed and exported records to many countries. There were extensive national catalogs for some of these countries: Greece, Skandinavian countries, India, all of Arabia, Netherlands, Estonia, Portugal, South and Central America, Rumania, Turkey, Hungary, China, Dutch East Indies, Siam, the Balkan countries etc. In the 1920s and 1930s about 70% of the German Odeon production was exported. Some Odeon recordings were leased to the American Okeh Records for distribution in the United States.

In 1936 the director of the Odeon branch was forced to retire and replaced by Dr. Kepler, a Nazi party member. In 1939 Odeon and Electrola were placed under a Nazi-appointed administrator. The huge Odeon factory on Schlesische Strasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg was completely destroyed by 8th U.S. Air Force bombs in the February 1945 air raids.

After 1945 Odeon continued to be used, in the United Kingdom, as a label for pressings made for West Africa. In Spain, Argentina and Brazil the label survived as an EMI subsidiary until the end of the LP era, mid 1980s, when it finally disappeared altogether. After World War II, Odeon in West Germany reissued many pre-war recordings, issued newly recorded German music on this label, as well as imported recordings.

Most official Beatles releases, including solo, appeared on Odeon in many non-Anglophone markets like West Germany, Japan, Spain, South America, and France, some of which were slow to recognise Apple Records until up to 1971 (or Parlophone), then switched back to Odeon by 1976.

Direct EMI-HMV exports to the United States, where the His Master's Voice label was owned by RCA Victor Records, bore pasted-over Odeon stickers.

EMI's Argentinian branch still trades as EMI Odeon SAIC.