| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music, entertainment, publishing |
| Genre | Pop music, rock, entertainment for children |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Founder(s) | Michael Haentjes |
| Headquarters | Hamburg, Germany |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | CD, DVD, books |
| Revenue | € 129.8 millions (2010) |
| Employees | 650 |
| Divisions | Edel Edition Optimal Media Production GmbH Kontor Records Kontor New Media |
| Website | www.edel.com/en/home/ |
Edel AG is a German music and entertainment group, based in Hamburg.
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Edel Music was founded in 1986 by Michael Haentjes in Germany as a mail order record company selling mostly soundtracks. With artists such as Scooter, SASH!, Holly Johnson and many others, it became a very successful pop music label. Edel was listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 1998.
Over the years, Edel purchased the music labels Eagle Rock Records, Face Down Records (not Facedown Records), Gang Go Music, Club Tools, Control Records and Belgian Play It Again Sam.
Edel's main office is based in Hamburg, but the Edel network extends the label presence all over Europe with affiliates offices and labels and in the rest of the world with a strong network of distributors, Edel is in fact still present in Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, and France.
In the most recent years, Edel released studio albums by JoJo, Lisa Stansfield, Toni Braxton, Sabrina Salerno, Deep Purple, Gregorian, Thomas Anders, Chris Rea, Jerry Lee Lewis, Status Quo, Ali Campbell (UB40), Europe, Nazareth, Jon Lord, Glenn Hughes, Turbonegro, and its roster is becoming among the strongest in the independent industry. Edel released also the mammoth last solo album project by Chris Rea, Blue Guitars. This record was nearly the largest album ever to reach the UK Top 75, however by the Sunday the record had dropped from its Top 75 midweek charts position.
Edel was the company chosen by artist Prince in 1994 when he parted from Warner Bros. Records. The company released in Europe the single "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" which was Prince's first UK #1 hit. They also released several Prince-produced albums such as The Beautiful Experience, NPG's Exodus, and Mayte's Child of the Sun.
The revenue of the company in 2009 was 123,0 Mio. Euro.[1]
Edelkids is a subsidiary of Edel founded in 1998. They handled the release of Sailor Moon videos and helped propel die Lollipops, a German children's band, to bestseller status.[2]
Edel Music is also well known for book publishing (under the brand EARbooks) with books about cities (New York, Barcelona, Genoa or Rome), history personalities (Che Guevara), Show Business Legends (Marilyn Monroe) and a series of music earbooks dedicated to top names like The Police, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Thin Lizzy, The Jam and Chris Rea.