CBS RECORDS (AUSTRALIA)

Category: Foreign-owned record label Ownership: wholly owned subsidiary of CBS Records USA Location: Sydney, NSW Date: 1963-1986 See also: ARC

CBS Group History

CBS Records was the recording division of the giant American media conglomerate Columbia Broadcasting Systems. CBS was one of the two largest broadcasters in radio and television in the United States in the 20th Century and later acquired major interests in movies through its aquisition of Columbia Pictures. CBS Records' main house labels were Columbia (purchased in 1938) and Epic (founded in 1953) and over time the company acquired a large stable of other subsidary and affiliated labels, including the famous Brunswick and OKeh labels.

Although they became fierce corporate rivals in the later 20th century, the three major recording companies of the 20th century -- CBS, RCA and EMI -- shared common origins. The CBS group originated in 1927 when music agent Arthur Judson established United Independent Broadcasters (UIB) a network of sixteen radio stations, set up with support from Californian cigar tycoon William Paley of La Palina Cigar and the influential Columbia Phonograph Company (established in 1899). In 1928 UIB was restructured as the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), with 47 affiliate stations. Paley became its long-serving president, and by the mid-1930s it was one of the largest and most powerful broadcasting companies in America, second only to its rival NBC (owned by the RCA corporation).

CBS Records originated in the late 1880s with the founding of the Columbia Graphophone Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. In the wake of the sound recording experiments by Charles Sumner Tainter and his engineer colleague Chichester A. Bell (a cousin of Alexander Graham Bell) a patent was granted to them on May 4, 1886, specifically for an audio disc, although they eventually chose to use cylinders as the perferred recording medium. In place of the tin-foil that Edison had used in the development of his phonograph a decade earlier, they substituted cardboard coated with wax. Their new recording machine, the "Graphophone", was given its first major exhibition in Washington, DC in 1889.

In 1885 Tainter and Bell had established the Volta Graphophone Company to control and licence their patents, and the following year they founded the American Graphophone Company, which manufactured and sold graphophones in the United States and Canada under licence from Volta. In 1888 businessman Jesse Lippincott established the North American Phonograph Co. and set up a sales network of local companies to lease phonographs and gramophones as dictation machines. Lippincott invested $200,000 in American Graphophone and agreed to purchase 5000 machines per year, in return for sales rights to the graphophone (except in Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia). Lippincott also purchased Edison's phonograph patents for $500,000, and bought the exclusive sales rights to the phonograph in the United States from Ezrah T. Gilliand (who had previously been granted the contract by Edison) for $250 000, leaving Edison with the manufacturing rights. The right to sell Tainter-Bell graphophones was leased to regional subsidiaries across the country, each operating under a different name. 

One of these licencees was the Columbia Phonograph Company, which sold American Graphophone products in the Washington DC area, and which was also licenced by the North American Phonograph Company to sell phonographs in the same area. When these companies began making and marketing pre-recorded cylinders in the early 1890s, Columbia achieved particular success with recordings of military marches by John Phillip Sousa, popular songs, instrumental solos, speeches and novelty recordings. In 1891 Columbia was the first company to offer a catalogue of its phonographs and cylinders and by this time the company was producing hundreds of cylinders daily, and by the turn of the century it had a catalogue of more than 5,000 titles. 

By 1901 Emile Berliner's flat disc "Gram-O-Phone" had taken over from cylinders as the primary consumer medium and the same year, Columbia marketed its first discs -- 7-inchers for 50 cents, and 10-inchers for $1.00. One the best sellers that year was a rush-released 'cover version' of President McKinley's last public speech at the opening of the Buffalo Exposition on September 6, the day he was assassinated.

The evolution of the recording industry as a whole, and of CBS Records in particular, was determined by a long and complex chain of mergers, takeovers and divestitures. The process began in 1893 when Columbia Phonograph took over its former licensor, American Graphophone; by 1895 they were effectively operating as one company, with American Graphophone handling development and manufacturing and Columbia handling distribution and sales. In 1906 the companies officially merged to become the Columbia Graphophone Company and for the next decade it competed with the Edison Phonograph Company, Emile Berliner's Victor Talking Machine Company and The Gramophone Company of the UK as one of the leading names in recorded sound.

Right: the famous Columbia "Magic Notes" trademark.

Columbia was known for its technical and musical developments. In the spring of 1903, it began recording stars of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1904 it introduced the first 78 rpm discs, double-sided records with an inner core of rice paper and mica compound, surrounded by a durable layer of shellac. Radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi was hired to produce the 'indestructible' Velvet Tone record, which he delivered to Columbia in 1907 (anticipating the 'Silent Surface' records of the 1920s by more than a decade). In 1912 Columbia discontinued cylinder production, and in 1916 it began recording symphony orchestras, notably the Chicago and New York orchestras. In 1917 Columbia played a pivotal role in the emergence of jazz, with the release of "The Darktown Strutters Ball", the breakthrough recording by The Original Dixieland Jass Band from New Orleans. By 1919, Americans were buying more than twenty-five million 78 rpm records every year, and the industry reported annual sales of $150 million.

Other companies were also expanding into new media during this period. In 1919 Westinghouse, AT&T and General Electric founded the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) which soon became the pre-eminent radio network in America, expanding into radio and phonograph manufacture, broadcasting and recording. In 1926 RCA established the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and launched the NBC radio network in partnership with Westinghouse and GE. In 1929 RCA took over the Victor Talking Machine Company, one of top three US recording companies of the time, and established the RCA Victor label. This deal also gave RCA a controlling interest in The Gramophone Company of the UK (owner of the HMV label), which had been taken over by Victor in 1920.

Columbia's fortunes fluctuated greatly during the 20s and 30s. In 1925 Columbia Graphophone of the UK took over its former American parent, and in 1927 the newly merged company took over the Carl Lindström Company of Germany, which owned the Parlophone label. In 1926, Columbia took over the OKeh label (owned by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation), which had been issuing laterally-cut records since 1920; the OKeh catalogue featured some of the biggest names in jazz and blues, including Mamie Smith, Clarence Williams, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Lonnie Johnson, Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, Eddie Lang and Bennie Moten. However, like other recording companies, Columbia was hit hard by the development of network radio and the onset of the Great Depression, and by the early 1930s its value and sales had decreased considerably. 

In 1931 The Gramophone Company of the UK, Columbia Graphophone and Parlophone merged to form a new Anglo-American company, which was incorporated as Electric & Music Industries Ltd (EMI). However, EMI was soon forced to sell off American Columbia because of anti-trust action taken by its competitors and in 1934, both American Columbia and the OKeh label were taken over by ARC-BRC (American Record Company-Brunswick Record Company), who acquired the struggling Columbia label for just $70,500. 

In 1935 RCA sold its stake in EMI and finally, in 1938, ARC-BRC was taken over by CBS, who paid $7 million for Columbia alone (ten times what ARC-BRC had paid four years earlier). CBS executive Edward Wallerstein hired 28-year-old composer and music critic Goddard Lieberson to Columbia Masterwork's Artists and Repertoire division. Lieberson spent the rest of his life with Columbia, rising to become president in 1956. CBS operated the Columbia trademark in the Americas and Japan from 1938 onwards, but EMI retained the rights to the Columbia name in most other territories (including Australia and New Zealand) and continued to operate as an EMI subsidiary label in those territories until 1972, when it was retired and replaced by the EMI Records imprint.

In 1938 John Hammond made his name with the first of his two historic "Spirituals To Swing" concerts at Carnegie Hall. Hammond and his colleague George Avakian became A&R managers for Columbia and signed many top jazz acts of the era including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Harry James, and Billie Holiday. The Columbia roster grew to include Fred Astaire, Harry James, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Budapest String Quartet and many others. Hammond remained with the company into the 1970s, earning himself further fame and CBS great fortunes by signing two of the biggest stars of the rock era, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

CBS not surprisingly became an early and major player in television -- in 1941 it made the first commercial black & white television broadcast in New York, followed in 1951 by the first coast-to-coast live TV broadcast. CBS quickly became as powerful and influential in TV as it had been in radio, second only to its NBC in its importance in the American TV  market. 

In ???? RCA introduced the new 7" 45rpm vinyl "single", which quickly replaced the cumbersome 78rpm disc and became the primary format for marketing rock'n'roll and pop songs to teenage audiences. In 1948, Goddard Lieberson played a major role in the developmment of Columbia's own "secret weapon", the 33-1/3 rpm long-playing (LP) record. Both new formats were made from a durable new plastic called polyvinyl, instead of brittle shellac. The new formats  revolutionised the recording industry, offering both vastly improved fidelity and, in the case of LPs, greatly extended playing time, with up to 20 minutes per side. By 1955, the 7" single and the LP had taken over the US market and CBS phased out 78 rpm disc production in the USA.

In 1953 CBS launched a new label, Epic Records, whose bright-yellow and black "Radial Sound" logo became a familiar trademark on its early jazz and classical releases. The classical catalogue included such notable performers as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Juilliard String Quartet, Antal Dorati conducting the Hague Philharmonic, and George Szell conducting the Cleveland Philharmonic. Over the next two decades Epic also developed a formidable international roster of rock, pop, R&B, and country artists including Bobby Vinton, The Dave Clark Five, Donovan, The Hollies, Sly & The Family Stone, Edgar Winter, Charlie Rich, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Minnie Ripperton, LaBelle, Jeff Beck, Ted Nugent, Boston, Dan Fogelberg, REO Speedwagon, MeatLoaf, and The Jacksons.

In 1956 the Australian Record Company (ARC) lost the rights to distribute the lucrative Capitol Records catalogue in Australia after Capitol was purchased by EMI. Shortly after this, ARC struck a new deal with CBS Records to manufacture and marketing Columbia and Epic recordings in Australia, although ARC was obliged to create a new label, Coronet, because EMI still owned the Columbia name in Australasia. In early 1960 CBS Records USA purchased a controlling interest in ARC, with Goddard Lieberson and three other American CBS executives became directors. ARC phased out the Coronet label and in 1963 it founded the CBS Australia label, building an impressive roster of local talent under the guidance of A&R manager and producer Sven Libaek, as well as locally releasing recordings from American CBS and its affiliates.

From the 1950s into 1970s CBS Records enjoyed enormous international success in many genres. Columbia's pop-rock roster boasted some of the most biggest acts of the period including The Byrds, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Sly & The Family Stone and Blood Sweat & Tears. Its renowned jazz roster produced some of the most successful and influential jazz albums ever made, including the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Take Five -- one of the biggest-selling jazz albums in of all time -- a string of classic Miles Davis albums, inlcuding the epoch-making LPs Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew, and Thelonious Monk's most successful period, which included the album Monk's Dream. In the '70s, CBS enjoyed continued success in jazz with the innovative and groundbreaking 'fusion' bands Weather Report and Return To Forever.

In 1963 CBS set up its first European branch in the UK and through the mid-1960s and early 1970s the group expanded and diversified from its core business, purchasing interests in major sports, publishing and music businesses. It also established its own direct mail order club, Columbia House Company. This operation (now a joint venture with Time-Warner-AOL) has become the largest direct marketer of pre-recorded music and videos in the world. CBS bought the New York Yankees baseball team in 1965, a major toy business in 1966, and in 1967 it purchased both the famous Fender guitar company and the Rogers drum company. This made CBS one of the world's leading music equipment manufacturers, with products including the famous Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars, Fender amplifiers and the Fender Rhodes electric piano, and Rogers drums and percussion.

In 1968 CBS-Sony Records was founded in Japan, and this joint venture with the Japanese electronics giant would have enormous ramifications for the CBS group in later years. CBS-Sony was created to market CBS product alongside domestic Japanese product in Japan, Macao and Hong Kong. By 1978, worldwide sales for CBS Records had reached $1.2 billion, making it the first American record company to cross the billion-dollar threshold and the company continued to innovate and to expand its cross-media holdings in the Eighties. In 1982 CBS helped introduce Sony's Compact Disc, which eventually superseded both the 45rpm single and the vinyl LP. The same year CBS expanded its motion picture interests with the establishment of Columbia Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of CBS, the cable channel HBO (Home Box Office) and Columbia Pictures. In 1984 CBS bought a 33% stake in the SportsChannel regional sports network with the Washington Post.

By the mid-Eighties, CBS had become a highly desirable takeover target and in 1985 American tycoons Ted Turner, Jesse Helms and Ivan Boesky all made unsuccessful bids to aquire it. From this point on CBS began to divest itself of many its assets, and during the late Eighties and Nineties it was the subject of a series of takeovers, part of the international trend towards conglomeration and globalisation in the media and many other industries. In 1985 CBS sold its St Louis TV station to the media giant Viacom, and in 1985 it sold both the general books division of Holt Rinehart Winston and 33% of TriStar Pictures. In 1986 cigarette, tobacco, cinema and insurance conglomerate Loews bought a 25% stake in CBS and CBS sold its music publishing arm sold for US$125 million. 1987 CBS sold its remaining book publishing interests for US$500 million. and sold its stake in SportsChannel.

On 5 January 1988 CBS's Japanese partner the Sony Corporation, by then one of the world's largest companies, purchased the entire CBS Records division worldwide from the CBS group for US$2 billion. All manufacturing and administration of CBS affiliates now came under the Sony umbrella. In 1989 Sony also purchased Columbia Pictures. In 1990 EMI finally sold its remaining rights to the "Columbia" name to Sony and in 1991 CBS Records was renamed Sony Music Entertainment. In January, 1994 Sony reorganized the division into four label groups:

• Epic Records Group, comprising Epic, Epic Associated, Epic Soundtrax, OKeh, Crescent Moon, Sony 550 Music, Sony Wonder and associated labels
  
• the Columbia Records Group, comprising Columbia and the Santa Monica-based The WORK Group and its family of labels
  
• TriStar Music Group, comprising TriStar Music and Relativity Recordings, and
  
• Sony Classical.

In 1995 Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought the remaineder of the CBS group in its entireity. In 1996 CBS bought Infinity radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising group for US$4.7 billion. In 1997 Westinghouse Electric sold its traditional industrial holdings businesses, such as power-generation equipment and light bulbs, took over the CBS name and bought the American Radio Systems chain for US$2.6 billion, increasing the CBS radio holdings to 175 stations across America. The following year it sold 17% of Infinity Broadcasting for US$2.9 billion. In 1999 CBS bought King World Productions, the leading US television program syndicator, for US$2.5 billion and later the same year CBS was in turn bought out by entertainment colossus Viacom for US$50 billion.

CBS in Australia

Prior to 1960 CBS Records had no direct corporate presence in Australia so its recordings were distributed by locally-based companies. Until 1956 CBS releases were distributed in Australia by EMI but in March that year EMI's parent company purchased Capitol Records in the USA, thereby ending Capitol's Australian distribution deal with its previous distributor, the Australian Record Company (ARC). ARC responded by acquiring the Australian rights to the CBS catalogue the same month.

Coronet and CBS
Because EMI owned the rights to the Columbia trademark in Australasia, ARC had to create a new imprint for its Columbia and Epic product. The new Coronet label quickly became ARC's flagship imprint and was immediately recognisable by its famous octagonal label, which is thought to be the only label of this shape in the history of the industry worldwide. Although then label on Coronet releases of CBS recordings bore the CBS initials and 'sound-wave' logo, and it released a large number of CBS American recordings under licence, Hank Facer is unequivocal in declaring Coronet to be a bona fide indigenous label. ARC released numerous recordings by local artists in addition to licenced overseas recordings.

The Coronet catalogue comprised four main series -- "KP" (78rpm Popular music), "KS" (45rpm Popular), "KW" and "KR" (Country) and "KK" (Children's). The KP series commenced in 1956 and ended in 1958, when ARC evidently phased out all 78rp production. The KS 45rpm series began shortly after the KP series and many titles were released in both formats until 1958. The first Coronet 78 rpm release on was "The Bible Tells Me So" by Mahalia Jackson. The first 12" LP was Presenting Father MacEwan and the first 45 rpm disc was "Ninety Nine Years" by Guy Mitchell. The biggest selling LP released on Coronet was My Fair Lady, featuring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. The album was produced Goddard Lieberson, President of Columbia Records, who became one of the directors of ARC in 1960.

Although overseas releases were the bulk of Coronet's output, they began recording and releasing material by local performers, and according to label historian Hank Facer they were second only to Festival in terms of support for local artists. This was at a time when, according to Facer, most other companies (except Festival) were restricting local recordings to one every four to six weeks, and the popularity of the Coronet local releases forced other companies to meet the growing demand by increasing their local content.

In 1953 ARC became a publicly listed company. Sometime in early 1960 CBS Records took over ARC and in April 1960 the long-serving board of ARC resigned en masse and a new six-member board was installed. Two directors were Australian but the other four were all Americans, including the then President of Columbia, Goddard Lieberson and three other senior CBS executives.

CBS (Australia)

From 1960 ARC was a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Records, although the company continued to trade as the Australian Record Company until 1977. The Coronet label was evidently wound up in early 1963, the same time that the Australian CBS label was launched. The talented young Norwegian-born musician-arranger-composer Sven Libaek was appointed as the new label's A&R manager and house producer and under his guidance CBS developed a strong roster of Australian pop, jazz and folk artists. One of his first local signings was Sydney surf band The Atlantics, whose famous single "Bombora" (BA-221037) was the first major hit for the new label and is now regarded as one of the classics of the surf-music genre.

Under Libaek, CBS Australia gave strong support to the folk scene, which was booming at the time, and many prominent Australian folk acts recorded for the label. One of the most successful CBS artists in this period was singer-songwriter Gary Shearston. His first two CBS singles sold well and his third 45, "Sydney Town" was a Top Ten hit in Sydney and sold well around the country. The next single "Sometime Lovin'" also charted. His debut LP Folk Songs And Ballads Of Australia capitalised on the success of these two singles and was a big seller. Gary recorded five more LPs for CBS over the next two years, becoming a major folk artist in Australia and the biggest record seller of the folk music boom of the mid '60s.

For many of the Australian folk songs on Gary's albums, it was the first time they had been heard by the general public, even though some had been recorded earlier (e.g. on the Wattle label in the late '50s). Many, such as "Put A Light In Every Country Window" (written by Don Henderson) and "The Springtime It Brings On The Shearing" have become staples of bush bands and country music performers all over Australia. Gary's popularity resulted in his own national folk music program Just Folk on the Seven Network. He also began writing his own songs and when Peter, Paul & Mary were on tour in Australia, they heard him perform his composition "Sometime Lovin'" -- which they subsequently recorded -- and they invited him to go to America, where he worked for many years.

The Australian CBS label was orange with black sans-serif text. The spindle hole pierced the centre of the famous CBS "walking eye" logo in the centre of the label, surrounded by a black square. Interestingly, although CBS Australia would continue trading as "The Australian Record Company" for another fifteen years, the new label carried no indication that it was manufactured or distributed by ARC -- the small print on the bottom edge of the label merely stated "Made in Australia by a registered user of the trade mark".

Our research into the CBS catalogue is still in its early stages, but it appears that all CBS Australia releases, whether recorded locally or overseas, were issued using the same catalogue series. For example, the 1963 single "Ruby Baby" by Dion (BA-221011) is an American recording, but the label clearly shows that this particular single was an Australian-made release. The many American CBS and Columbia recordings released by CBS Australia presumably accounts for why the Australian artist releases do not run in strict numerical order. CBS singles were prefixed "BA" and it is assumed that the singles catalogue began with BA-221001 (although we are yet to identify this release. The earliest known Australian CBS 45rpm release was "I'll Never Be The Same" / "Little Girl Lost" (BA-221002) by singer Kelly Green. 

CBS Extended Play records (EPs) were identified with the prefix "BG" and the numbering probably began at BG-225001, although the details of this released are yet to be identified. The first known Australian EP release on CBS was Bombora by The Atlantics (BG-225008). CBS albums were identified with the prefix "BP" and the numbering presumably began with BP-233001, although the earliest known Australian LP release (Bombora by The Atlantics) is catalogued BP-233036. Some releases deviated from this system, possibly because these were albums released under licence from local independent production companies. These were identified with an additional letter "S" in the prefix, such as Doug Ashdown's 1965 album This Is Doug Ashdown (SBP-233283) and The Wesley Three's 1966 children's LP Mister Thwump. It's possible that the "S" denoted stereo, although it was still uncommon to record in stereo at that time in Australia.

As noted in the previous section, one curious fact of CBS operations in Australia was that, although Columbia was its main label in the Americas and Japan, the company was unable to use the trademark in most other countries because it belonged to its British rival EMI. As a result, recordings released on Columbia in the USA and Canada had to be rebranded for release on CBS in Australia. Initially ARC did this by releasing Columbia recordings on Coronet, but after Coronet was retired  American Columbia recordings imported into Australia had to be physically marked to delete the Columbia name, and it was common to see import copies of albums by artists such as Bob Dylan on which the Columbia name was crossed out with black marker pen or covered by a sticker.

Many of the 45rpm CBS pop releases identified so far from 1963-64 either feature The Atlantics, or The Atlantics backing solo singers like Kelly Green, Kenny Shane and Johnny Rebb. Libaek signed local more 'beat' acts to the label and achieved significant success with several of them, most notably Melbourne band The Groop and solo singer Lynne Randell, whose classic version of "Ciao Baby" has become one of the most enduring Australian pop hits of the period.

Other notable acts who were signed to or who recorded for CBS Australia in this period include The Jackson Kings (the Melbourne band featuring Brian Cadd and Ronnie Charles, who joined the second lineup of The Groop), Vyt & The World, The Jet Set, The D-Men, Python Lee Jackson, The Kinetics, The Delltones, Johnny Devlin and April Byron. Popular New Zealand-born vocalist John Rowles was another prominent CBS act; he released a string of singles between 1967 and 1969, including several tracks recorded in the UK. One particularly interesting CBS act was The Wesley Three, a folk trio that included twin brothers Martin and Peter Wesley-Smith. Martin went on to become a renowned composer and taught for over twenty years at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Peter, a writer and lawyer, became a senior academic and was Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Hong Kong until 1999. Many of Martin's vocal works feature lyrics by Peter. Another CBS folk act that enjoyed commercial success in this period was Melbourne band The Idlers Five, who scored a national Top 40 hit in early 1968 with the single "Melborn and Sideny", which satirised the much-touted rivalry between the two state capitals.

As noted above, CBS-ARC issued a number of albums and singles which were leased from independent producers. One of the most notable (and collectible) of these is Evolution, the 1969 debut album by Sydney 'underground' band Tamam Shud, who recorded the LP independently (in a matter of hours) as the soundtrack to the Paul Witzig surf film of the same name. Tamam Shud and Witzig leased the masters to CBS, who pressed and distrubuted it locally. Original copies of the LP and the "Lady Sunshine" single are now highly prized by collectors and the LPs are now worth several hundred dollars in good condition.

Sven Libaek left CBS around 1970 and it appears that the label released virtually no Australia-made recordings for the next few years -- the last Australian recording we have located from this period was The Mixtures' single "Ten Thousand Children", which was released in March, just before the imposition of the 1970 Radio Ban. In the five years between 1970 and 1975 it appears that CBS concentrated almost entirely on its overseas roster. This included many of the top US acts of the period -- Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Santana, Chicago, Blood, Seat & Tears, Earth Wind & Fire, Johnny Cash, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Neil Diamond, Mac Davis, Barbra Streisand and Bruce Springsteen -- and UK acts like Chicory Tip, Mott The Hoople, David Essex and Ian Hunter.

CBS resumed recording local acts in 1975 with the release of singles by hard rock band Rabbit (fronted by former AC/DC lead siger Dave Evans) and former Masters Apprentices lead singer Jim Keays. From 1976 onwards CBS began to rebuild its local roster under the guidance of its new house producer and A&R manager Peter Dawkins (formerly of EMI) and the label enjoyed great critical and chart success in the latter half of the Seventies with acts including Ariel, Ross Ryan, Dragon and Mi-Sex. Into the '80s CBS enjoyed further local success with Midnight Oil, including the hugely successful albums 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. and Red Sails In the Sunset. By far its biggest international success was with the mega-selling Air Supply, whom Dawkins signed purely on the strength of their demo tape.

In October 1977, the company's name was finally changed from ARC to CBS Records Australia Limited. Over the next few years CBS Australia expanded and reorganised -- the Printing Division and Record Warehouse moved from Artarmon to 10 Carter Street, Lidcombe, CBS Musical Instruments and the Fender Sound House in the city were both closed and the Australian Record Club was sold to Record Clubs of Australia. The old ARC warehouse at Lidcombe was closed and a new distributor called EDC took over all distribution for CBS. This joint venture between CBS and EMI was located at the old EMI complex on Parramatta Road, Homebush.

In the early 1980s compact discs were introduced to the Australian marketplace. Initially they were manufactured for CBS externally. Cassette manufacturing was moved from Artarmon to Lidcombe and manual compact disc assembly was introduced at Lidcombe. In 1988 the Sony Corporation of Japan purchased CBS Records worldwide for US$2bn, and on 11 January 1991 CBS Records Australia was renamed Sony Music Australia Limited. During the Nineties it became the biggest record company in Australia under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Denis Handlin.

By 1991 the compact disc had become the primary consumer music format and sales of vinyl had dropped to a tiny fraction of their former levels. On 28 June 1991 the Artarmon Vinyl Plant finally closed its doors, although the Sales Division and Mastering Services remained on the office level of the building. Shortly after the closure of vinyl plant, EDC left the Homebush address and set up operation at the Huntingwood complex in Victoria. Also at this time the Sony Corporation of Japan successfully negotiated with EMI to regain exclusive use of the Columbia name worldwide, including Australia, ending EMI's decades-long ownership of the Columbia name in Australasia. In December of 1992, SMA opened the Hi-Tech CD Manufacturing Plant at Huntingwood. At the end of March 1993 the remaining Lidcombe operation was phased out and the printing and cassette operations were also manufacturing moved to Huntingwood. Not long after, mastering services vacated Artarmon and also set up studios at Huntingwood.

On 23 February 1995 Sony Music Australia Limited became Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Limited. In 2004 Sony Music merge with BMG, the music division of the German-based Bertelsmann media conglomerate, which had already merged with RCA Records in 1985. In 2007 Sony's publishing arm, Sony/ATV Music Publishing purchased two major publishing catalogues, buying the Lieber & Stoller catalogue for US$40m and Famous Music (from Viacom) for US$370m.

Since the merger Sony BMG has been dogged by controversy -- in 2005 it was fined US$10 million after the New York Attorney General's office found that the company had been practicing payola, mostly in the form of direct payments to radio stations and bribes to disc jockeys to promote various artists including Franz Ferdinand, Audioslave, Celine Dion and Jessica Simpson; Epic Records was specifically cited for using fake contests in order to hide the fact that the gifts were going to disc jockeys rather than listeners.

Late in 2005 another controversy erupted over digital rights management (DRM) software encrypted on CDs, which automatically installed itself on people's computers and made them more vulnerable to computer viruses. The tactic triggered numerous lawsuits and forced Sony BMG to recalling all affected CDs. In late 2007 Sony BMG controversially sued an American woman who had made 24 songs available for download on the Kazaa file-sharing network. Jammie Thomas, a single mother who makes US$36,000 a year, was ordered to pay $222,220 in damages; she is currently appealing the decision.

Discography, 1963-1975 (Australian recordings)

Note: The discography below lists known Australian-made recordings released by CBS (ARC) in Australia between 1963 and 1975. Most of the available disographies concentrate on rock and pop recordings, but CBS released many other Australian recordings in the Sixties including jazz, folk and "middle-of-the-road" titles, which are yet to be identified.

Singles

Note: Full discographies of CBS single releases in the 221000 series (1963-73) and 222000 series (1973-82) are available at the Globaldog Productions website  http://www.globaldogproductions.info/cbs-2.html

EPs

Albums

References / Links

Wikipedia
"Columbia Graphophone Company"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Graphophone_Company
"Columbia Records"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Records

Library and Archives Canada
"A Chronology of the Sound Recording Industry, 1878-1924"
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/gramophone/m2-3009-e.html

Hank Facer
"The Australian Record Company"
Logo, Vol. 3, No. 4, Aug. 1981

Ross Laird / Screensound
The First Wave: Australian Rock & Pop Recordings 1955-1963
The Sixties: Australian Rock & Pop Recordings 1964-1969

Vernon Joyson
Dreams, Fantasies & Nightmares: Australia (Borderline Books, 1999)

Mel Mayer
Sony Music Company History
http://www.sonymusic.com.au/business/history/histtext.html

ketupa.net media profiles
CBS chronology
http://www.ketupa.net/cbs2.htm

Columbia Records History
http://www.sonymusic.com.au/labels/columbia/historytext.html

chiprowe.com
History of Music Clubs
http://www.chiprowe.com/articles/cdclubs/cdclubs2.html

g45 Central - "Downunder Bites"

Gary Shearston official website
http://www.garyshearston.com

Malcolm J. Turnbull
"The Early Years of the Folk Revival in Adelaide"
http://warrenfahey.com/revival_adelaide_3.htm

Please email webmaster@milesago.com if you have extra information or corrections, or to add to report any broken links.