Coulmbia UK records were pressed by Columbia USA,before 1953,when they
severed ties with EMI,and joined up with Philips.The old pre-1953
Columbias all have "W" matrices.
Roger
Matthew Barton <mbarton@xxxxxxx> wrote: I was unaware of this too, but I
don't think that the magnetic recording and patent situation explains the
emergence of independent recording companies in the 1940s entirely. Many
important indies, such as King in Cincinatti, Bullet in Nashville and
Modern in Los Angeles started before tape recorders were available in the
United States. Some, like King, were started before the end of the War.
Sam Phillips recorded to acetate when he started Sun Studios in Memphis
after the War and stayed it with it for awhile--I believe that Rocket 88,
recorded early in 1950, is an acetate. Starting in New Orleans at about
the same time, Cosimo Matassa cut acetates at his J&M studios, and his
1949 and 1950 recordings of Fats Domino for Imperial were done to acetate.
By the early 50s, to be sure, Indies were popping up everywhere, and I
have no doubt that this proliferation was greatly aided by the
technological and financial advantages offered by tape recording.
Matthew Barton
MBRS
The Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540-4610
202-707-5508
email: mbarton@xxxxxxx
"Steven C. Barr(x)" 7/5/2007 8:47:28 PM >>>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Olhsson"
-----Original Message-----
>From Steven C. Barr: "...Anyway, it was pretty well after WWII that the
"record industry" evolved
from a handful of big "record companies" that maintained their own
recording
studios, mastering facilities and pressing operations..."
Electrical recordings were covered by numerous patents held by RCA and
A.T.&T. prior to the late '40s that required one to lease the recording
equipment and pay royalties on every copy sold. Indi labels only appeared
after the emergence of magnetic recording and the end of the need to pay
royalties to the patent holders. The majors responded by making their
facilities available to indi labels.
Thanxes muchly! I wasn't aware of this fact, and had never seen it
mentioned
in any books or articles concerning the history of sound recording!
BTW, didn't Columbia(UK) develop a process which somehow side-stepped the
payment of royalties to WE and RCA...and indicate that by changing the
prefix
on their matrix numbers from "W" to "C?"
Steven C. Barr
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