Park Foundation Music App

Home > Labels

Phonogram

Profile

Phonogram was a name used by Philips' record companies around the world. The name was introduced in the 1950s. In 1953 Philips Phonografische Industrie (PPI) established NV Phonogram. This company marketed and distributed Philips, Decca and London releases in The Netherlands. Various PPI affiliates in other countries also had Phonogram in their name. In 1962, all Phonogram companies became part of the Grammophon-Philips Group (GPG). GPG was a joint-venture between PPI and Siemens-owned Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, So far, the Phonogram brand had not been used on records. This changed in 1972. In that year, PPI and Deutsche Grammophon GmbH formally merged to form [l=Polygram]. [l=Philips Phonografische Industrie] NV was subsequently renamed to [l=Phonogram International B.V.] and became a subsidiary of Polygram. Most of Philips' foreign record companies were renamed to Phonogram in the years after. In 1978 Phonogram International came under control of the newly formed Polygram Record Operations. As a result, 19 of the Phonogram companies worldwide were renamed to Polygram. After the Benelux Brand Office's denial to register "Phonogram" as a trademark in 1995, Polygram decided to drop the name (February 1995). In the years following this decision, the remaining Phonogram companies were renamed to Mercury Records. Note that the Phonogram was primarily a record company responsible for labels like Philips, Decca, Mercury and Fontana. Releases will have logos of one of these labels on them as well. Only enter Phonogram as a label when their logo is present. Note also that, from 1975, a lot of French records have this company credited with this sentence "c'est une publication [Phonogram logo], or simply "Publication Phonogram". Please add Phonogram as record company in this case.