| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music, Movie, Artist management |
| Founded | 2004 (Gold Label Entertainment) 2008 (Gold Typhoon Entertainment) |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong, People's Republic of China |
| Area served | Macau CHN, Hong Kong CHN,China, Taiwan |
| Key people | Chan Fai-hung, CEO (Hong Kong) Johanna Huang, General Manager (Taiwan & Mainland China) |
| Subsidiaries | Gold Typhoon Pictures Ltd Gold Typhoon Music Co.Ltd Gold Typhoon Beijing Ltd Typhoon And Fire Ltd Famous Star Entertainment Berhad |
| Website |
Gold Typhoon Corporate Website |
Gold Label is an independent, Hong Kong-based entertainment company launched with the support of EMI, and acquired EMI Music Taiwan / EMI Music China (Typhoon Records) in 2008, reforming to Gold Typhoon.
In 2004, former Go East Entertainment CEO Paco Wong decided to not work with the parent company of Go East, Universal Group Hong Kong, but to instead work for EMI Hong Kong as they promised to launch a new label. Paco Wong was to have total control of the new label which became Gold Label Entertainment.
All products of Gold Label Entertainment share the same ISRC and bar-code system with EMI which include, "07243-", "00946-" and newly released "50999-". Gold Label under EMI has released the first DRM-free music downloading agreement with Hong Kong's local mobile brand CSL mobile. In addition to marketing and distribution, the company is also involved in artist and concert management.
EMI Music Hong Kong decided to delegate its local activities to Gold Label, leaving EMI to concentrate on international artists. Gold Label has also taken over EMI Hong Kong's local artists roster, which includes Kary Ng, Stephy Tang, Cookies, Ping Pung, Edmond Leung. With the launch of Capitol Music Taiwan by EMI, Gold Label is now working to market Taiwanese diva Jolin Tsai in Hong Kong. The label has signed local singers Miriam Yeung and Sandy Lam. Together, with re-shaping local stars Ronald Cheng, Leo Ku and Edmond Leung, Gold Label is now one of the largest music companies in Hong Kong.
The company also promotes new artists. Justin Lo, a singer-songwriter from the United States, won all new artist's awards in Hong Kong in 2005 by having the top-10 best selling records in Hong Kong 2005.
In the circulated materials such as the Red Bus Airplay Calculation, Gold Label Entertainment is still referred as EMI.
In July 2008, EMI Group and Gold Label announced EMI would sell all its 50% stakes at Gold Label Entertainment Ltd., Push Typhoon Records and the whole EMI Music Taiwan to Typhoon Group. And Gold Label Records and Gold Label Entertainment would change its name to Gold Typhoon with branches in the Greater China region. Also, EMI would appoint Gold Typhoon as its only distributing partners in the region. Conversely, Gold Typhoon would release through EMI internationally.
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Gold Label Entertainment is one of the largest labels in Hong Kong with over 30% local sales within the region. EMI Hong Kong is now leaving itself to managing and arranging international releases and promotion in the region while all Chinese records promotions and releases have been given to Gold Label. According to IFPI Hong Kong, Gold Label owned local best-selling rosters including Leo Ku, Justin Lo and Stephy Tang. However, the label was facing the problems of new challenges brought by rising Universal Music Hong Kong and Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG) and with the leaving of its own diva Miriam Yeung in 2007. In comparison with other labels, the label owns the nearly all of the best-selling South East Asian rosters including Stefanie Sun, Jolin Tsai, Amei, David Tao, Show Luo and Stanley Huang.
With the departure of the original CEO in 2008, Sam Chen, Jolin Tsai, Nicholas Teo and Stanley Huang left to join Warner Music which Sam Chen landed. Gold Typhoon has filed a legal action against Sam for releasing albums of those artists in order to finish their contracts with Gold Typhoon and could join Warner Music later.
In 2008, since the loss brought by the leaving of several major artists, the original EMI sold all shares of EMI Music China, EMI Music Taiwan and Gold Label Entertainment to Typhoon Group, which led by former EMI Asia CEO, Norman Cheng. The newly-formed Gold Typhoon united the names of all branches to Gold Typhoon and set up subsidiaries focusing on A&R, film, music production, concert production and artist management. The first months on Gold Typhoon was in the shadow of massive changes of EMI SE Asia, including ceasing operation in some South East Asian countries.
Though the departure of major rosters hurt Gold Typhoon, they have signed back their very own diva, Elva Hsiao and kept the contracts with Amei, Show Luo, Lollipop and David Tao. Also, they have signed the group Choc7 who was signed to Warner Music and Cyndi Wang who was signed to Avex Trax Taiwan.
In 2010, Gold Typhoon has signed its first international act, Stewart Mac[1] (under Vybrant Music UK), for Greater China releases. The album hit No. 1 in Mainland China and went top 20 international albums in Taiwan in the first week.
Gold Label is named one of the best promotion agencies in the region as they use both traditional media and so-called new media in promoting. For each new local release in 2007, the label focused on TV ad promotion, train advertisements and billboards. According to AdManGo, an advertising agency-circulated online database, Gold Label Records has spent, on average, over HKD1,500,000 on television commercials per local releases alone and about HKD 300,000 for regional Mandarin releases.
Gold Label was started as a small artist management agency. Paco Wong was named the "Golden Agent" in Hong Kong as he helped many once unsuccessful artists build up their careers, including Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Sammi Cheng, Miriam Yeung, Sally Yeh, Sandy Lam, and Leo Ku. Generally speaking, rosters from Gold Label Management are signed to its music department when artists start their singing career. Before EMI Music Hong Kong delegated local artist activities to Gold Label Entertainment, Gold Label Management was already home of EMI's rosters, including Edmond Leung and The Cookies.
After the formation of Gold Typhoon, the artist management department has growth. The newly set-up department in Taiwan is now home for Lollipop. They also shared the rights to manage their own artists like Stefanie Sun, Amei, Elva Hsiao etc.
The label also set up a new division for movie productions. The division has produced over 20 low-budget movies, most of which earned over HK$8,000,000 at the box office. The division doubles as a movie distributor and releases include DVD/VCD promotion.
In 2009, former music head Paco Wong was promoted to Chairman of Hong Kong and started focusing on Film production. They have projects with other film makers like Shaw, Neway Pictures, etc.
In 2004, Gold Label began concert production. The first concert produced was Miriam Yeung's KungHiFatChoi Concert Vol. 3 in February 2004 in association with East Asia Entertainment, Abbas Entertainment Hong Kong and Yiu Wing Entertainment. After gaining experience through independent concerts, they are now producing for their own rosters by outsourcing to other entertainment firms and production houses. Other concert productions include Edmond Leung's I love Kitchen Concert, Jolin Tsai's Pepsi Dancing Diva Live Hong Kong, Leo Ku's Magic Moments Live 2007, Stephy Tang's See Thru Concert 2007 and Kary Ng's Lady K Concert 2008.
Lynn Cheung (張蓮) (singer)