Ace Records (UK)

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Ace Records Ltd. was started in 1981 as a separate company from Swift Records Ltd. the limited company trading as Chiswick Records. The company is not connected to Ace Records out of Mississippi but the company did gain permission to use the name in the UK.[1] When Chiswick's pop side was licensed to EMI in 1984, Ace switched to more licensing and reissuing work. Over the years Ace acquired the rights of Fantasy Records, Stax Records, Specialty Records and Vanguard Records. In the 1980s it also gained the licensing for Modern Records [2], and its follow up company Kent Records, whilst in the 90's, the company bought the label(s) including all the master tapes, shipping them to their own vaults for secure storage[3]. Ace lost distribution rights to the Fantasy, Specialty and Stax recordings after the three labels were acquired by Concord Records in 2004.