This isn't true. Polygram was originally 50% Philips/Phonogram and 50% Polydor, which owned DGG but
owned other things too. Philips bought out Polydor at some point and owned 100% of Polygram when
they sold it to Vivendi and exited the music business. British Decca was acquired at some point
separate from the consolidation of Polygram, by Philips/Phonogram. As of nowadays, the only
classical "labels" still active under this ownership are Decca and DGG, but what's left of Decca
retains very little of what was bought by Philips. The Philips and Mercury labels are dormant as far
as new recordings.

British Decca had marketed its music in the US under the London label since some point in the 78
era, my guess is sometime in the 1930s but I'm sure someone on this list knows the exact history. As
I said, it was still marketed in the US as London Records until after the Vivendi-Universal merger,
since only then did US and British Deccas come under the same ownership. One result of that
consolidated ownership was to move all classical CD manufacturing to Europe, one reason being that
separate US packaging was no longer required.

Another thing I don't know about the conglomeration that resulted in UMG is, what happened to the CD
plant in North Carolina, that was the Philips-DuPont partnership? Is it still in operation? Who owns
it nowadays?

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Music Hunter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 12:34 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Decca US / was Your taxpayer dollars being given to the Universal Music
Group.


> As a distributor, I always found this confusing as well.
>
> Prior to being called The Universal Music Group, a distribution company, they were known as
> Polygram, and London was one of their distributed labels. In those days, ownership was 50% Philips
> & 50% DG.
> Your search for sound & video ends here!
>
> Jay Sonin, General Manager
> Music Hunter Distributing Company
> 25-58 34th Street, Suite # 2
> Astoria, NY 11103-4902
> [log in to unmask]
> 718-777-1949
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 11:30 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Decca US / was Your taxpayer dollars being given to the Universal Music
> Group.
>
>
>> From the lengthy article posted a few moments ago, I find:
>>
>> On 2011-01-10 11:14 AM, Karl Miller wrote:
>>> The Universal Music Group, today the largest group of labels in the beleaguered recording
>>> industry, began its life in 1934 as Decca Records, the American affiliate of the British
>>> recording company of the same name.
>> I am so confused by this. If this is the case, why were all the Decca (UK) recordings sold on the
>> "London" label in the U.S.?
>>
>> Maybe everyone but me knows this, and if so, I apologize for my ignorance.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> --
>> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
>> Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
>> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
>> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
>>
>