Today we present to your attention the updates on the museum website in the collection section "Music Records”. The ‘Gramophone records’ subsection has been enriched with the records of the British record label 'Parlophone Records'. This record company was founded in 1923 as a subsidiary of the German label Parlophon (part of Carl Lindström company).

In the 1920s, Parlophone Records became the leading jazz label in the UK through records released under licence from the American label Okeh Records.

In 1927, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired the controlling interest in the Carl Lindström Company and thus in the British Parlophone. In 1931, Columbia merged with the Gramophone Company to form the diversified Electric & Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). As part of EMI, Parlophone initially retained its status as a jazz label.

In 1950, the company's general manager Oscar Preuss hired producer George Martin as his assistant. When Preuss retired in 1955, Martin succeeded him as the general manager in Parlophone. And in 1962, George Martin signed a contract with ’The Beatles’ – at that time a little known team of young musicians. And just a year after signing the contract, the company enjoyed unprecedented success. It was this firm that owned ‘The Beatles’ most commercially successful album, “Sgt. Pepper”.

‘Parlophone’ ceased to exist (except for The Beatles reissues) in 1973, when most of EMI's heritage labels were liquidated in favour of EMI Records, to be revived in 1980. The first single released on the revived Parlophone label was a composition by British band “The Cheaters”. Over the next decades, the label signed contracts with “Pet Shop Boys”, “Duran Duran”, “Roxette”, “Radiohead”, “The Chemical Brothers” and other stars.

On February 7, 2013, it was confirmed that Warner Music Group was acquiring ‘Parlophone Label Group’ for $765 million. The deal was approved in May 2013 by the European Union, ‘Parlophone Label Group’ is the old ‘EMI Records’ label, which included both ‘Parlophone’ and the cognominal ‘EMI’ labels. The ‘EMI’ trade mark remained with Universal (as ‘Virgin EMI Records’) and the ‘old’ EMI Records ceased to exist and was renamed ‘Parlophone Records Ltd’.