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Correction, I meant Decca being third, but Capitol could have been larger by the late 50's. -- Tom Fine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 6:23 AM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] US record business in the 1950s > After RCA and Columbia and their subsidiaries, the shares would fall to smaller numbers. USA Decca > would probably be fourth in there, but I'm not positive about that. But my impression (not based > on actual sales figures) is that there was a second tier of "major independents" by the late 50's. > This included Capitol (which soon sold to EMI), Mercury (which soon sold to Philips), and there > may have been enough early-rock hits to Chess and Sun into this tier if we're talking sales > dollars or actual sales volume. > > I'm sure you know this, but many if not most Billboard issues are searchable and readable via > Google Books. You could also contact NARAS, since this cannot be considered "sensitive industry > data" by the wildest imagination, given that we're talking 50+ years ago. > > You could also check European business press from the time of EMI acquiring Capitol and Philips > acquiring Mercury and see if any details about the US market were provided either in corporate > filings or in news articles of the time. > > -- Tom Fine > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Pekka Gronow" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 5:26 AM > Subject: [ARSCLIST] US record business in the 1950s > > >>I have been looking for data on record company market shares in the USA in >> the 1950s, but I am still puzzled. There is RIAA data on total sales, and a >> lot of (mostly anecdotal) detail on specific companies. Sanjek's books on >> the music business are helpful, but do not follow the development >> systematically. If I had access to all issues of Billboard from this >> period, that might be the solution, but I do not have them >> >> It seems likely that the three biggest companies in the USA during this >> decade were CBS, RCA Victor and Decca. There were hundreds of other >> companies, of various sizes. But which were the ten, or twenty, biggest >> ones? I am not speaking of shares of hits in the charts (this has been >> studied), but market shares - real or at least estimated? >> >> All suggestions would be useful. >> >> Pekka Gronow >> Helsinki >> >