Re: [ARSCLIST] Harmony label

[david diehl <david.diehl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Rob Bamberger" <RBAMBERGER@xxxxxxxxxxx>
03/17/2004 11:27 AM
>I vaguely recall that you told me once that while Harmony remained
acoustic
for a time after the introduction of electrical recording, it did
eventually
get some sort of electrical system that was inferior, and that some of
the
Harmony's that I'd described as acoustic were actually crummy
electrics... .
Is this right? At what point did they get electrical equipment?

Columbia was in receivership during 1924-5 as a result of the post-WW I
recession and its own inept business practices. It needed to invest in
the WE system to be competitive with Victor but it did have a sizable
investment in acoustic equipment on the books. To satisfy the bean
counters the budget label Harmony was trotted out. Cheap records for
cheap players and no royalty to Western Electric. The acoustic system
had been tweaked for increased bass response and the records were very
popular among younger consumers of dance hits.

I've never seen any evidence that Columbia developed or adopted a
homegrown system in 1930. Perhaps they negotiated a suspension of
royalties for lower priced labels.



David J. Diehl
Library Director
Texas State Technical College