Minos EMI
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| EMI Music Greece S.A. | |
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| Type | Holding Company (Private) |
| Founded | 1931 |
| Headquarters |  Athens, Greece |
| Industry | Music |
| Parent | EMI Group Ltd. |
| Subsidiaries | Minos EMI S.A. |
| Website | www.emimusic.gr |
EMI Music Greece, or more commonly known by its domestic trade name MINOS EMI, is the Greek Division of the British EMI Group, one of the big four music companies at the global level. A leader in the Greek music industry, it captures a large market share.
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[edit] Label Overview
All EMI recording operations in Greece have now been merged into a single Greek record company that is locally registered as Minos-EMI S.A., which in-turn is a subsidiary of the EMI Group holding company EMI Recorded Music Greece. This was as a result of complex local and global corporate consolidations and restructurings of EMI Group's businesses. Today the most common local repertoire imprint is MINOS, while artists who are not assigned to this specific imprint simply carry the EMI label. It has also utilized many of EMI's international labels as imprints for some of its artists over the years, such as the HARVEST label. Nevertheless the company and its roster of artists are referred to as Minos EMI, while the distinction of individual artists and their associated labels is usually only carried out on the back of CD covers and reflects internal artist management. This is now standard practice for the other multinational players in the Greek music industry. However MAD TV faithfully makes the distinction with regards to music videos.
[edit] Catalogue
Minos EMI holds the MINOS back catalogue of Minos Matsas & Son, the record company founded by pioneering Greek music industry executive and prominent rebetiko musician Minos Matsas, after EMIAL- the former name of EMI's Greek division- bought a controlling share of the company in 1991 and merged the two record companies together to form Minos-EMI.
In essence, the continuity of the Minos label as an imprint with the original logo represents a preservation of this once thriving Greek-owned record label. Its back catalogue now carries some important works that have contributed to modern Greek music heritage, notably in the Rebetika and Laïka genres, which Minos EMI has actively re-released. EMI has also re-released selected music from Minos EMI's catalogue for its international EMI Hemisphere world music label.
The company also retains a vast consolidated back catalogue of Greek releases by former Capitol Records Greece, Virgin Records Greece, and among others, which were once standalone record companies.
[edit] Current Artists
Current key artists include Pashalis Terzis (EMI), Peggy Zina (MINOS), Sakis Rouvas (MINOS), Giannis Ploutarhos (EMI), Yiannis Parios (MINOS), Yiannis Kotsiras (MINOS), Chrispa (MINOS), Tamta (EMI), Filippos Pliatsikas (HARVEST), Stelios Maximos (EMI), and many others.
Haris Alexiou also operates her own distinct vanity label called ESTIA.
[edit] Digital Distribution
In January 2008 EMI Greece launched its official online music store with 7digital, joining EMI divisions of other countries. It is part of a continual EMI wide effort to bring its music properties to the digital downloads market as DRM-free. Other popular Greek digital downloads sites (mpgreek.com, 123play.gr) that service the entire industry also carry vast selections. Newer Minos EMI releases can also be found at Amazon MP3. Such digital distribution initiates efficiently expose EMI Greece music for the first time to a much wider, global audience.
