"On Speaking Terms" Victor-era label, ca. 1912 |
|
| Former type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Recording industry |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Victor Talking Machine Company (immediate) EMI (current) |
| Founded | 1899 |
| Founder(s) | Frank Seaman |
| Defunct | 1903 |
| Headquarters | Camden, New Jersey, United States |
| Products | Phonographs, Phonograph records |
| Owner(s) | Seaman, Eldridge R. Johnson, then finally EMI |
Zonophone, early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company, but was applied to the records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899-1900 to 1903. The name was subsequently acquired by Columbia Records, Victor Talking Machine Company, and finally Gramophone Company/EMI Records. It has been used for a number of record publishing labels by these companies.
Contents |
Frank Seaman had worked for Emile Berliner's Berliner Gramophone. Seaman decided to start his own company to produce disc records and disc phonographs. Seaman's "Zon-O-Phone" records design and technology were stolen from Berliner, and the machines similarly copied from the products of Eldridge R. Johnson's Consolidated Talking Machine Company. Seaman then sued Berliner and Johnson for violating 'his' technology. With the help of lawyer Phillip Mauro, Seaman arranged for an alliance with Columbia Records (then manufacturing only cylinder records and machines), arguing that the patents held by Columbia concerning cylinders applied to any type of recording where a stylus vibrated in a groove, and that Zon-O-Phone would pay royalties if Columbia helped him drive Berliner out of business. In 1900 Seaman and Mauro succeeded in getting a judge to file an injunction that Berliner and Johnson stop making their products.
Johnson and Berliner counter-sued, and the following year emerged victorious in court—prompting the name of their new combined company, The Victor.
Further legal actions dragged on until 1903, when all of the United States and Latin American assets of Zon-O-Phone were turned over to Victor, and the Europe and British Commonwealth assets to the Gramophone & Typewriter Company (which would later become the Gramophone Company and launch the His Master's Voice record label).
Victor Talking Machine continued use of the "Zonophone" name to market cheaper records which for whatever reason were not of the technical standard of the Victor label until retiring the label in the US in 1912. In the United Kingdom, Australia and other British colonies Zonophone was the cheaper label for Gramophone Company issues. Issue under the cheaper label appears to have been an arbitrary choice. For example from the same session in 1905 the matrices of the famed Music Hall star Victoria Monks were either issued on full priced Gramophone Company recordings or the much cheaper Zonophone label -with no technical differences (or indeed popularity of song). In 1911 single sided Zonophones were withdrawn - existing titles were doubled under the Zonophone Twin label. This made the price difference between the still single sided Gramophone Company issues and the Zonophones even greater. Ten inch Zonophone Twins sold as 2s.6d. (£0.125) whilst single sided Gramo. issues (black label) sold at 4s.6d. (£0.225). In 1913 the Gramophone Company issued an even cheaper label ("Cinch") which sold at 1s.1d. (£0.06) whilst strangely keeping many of the titles for sale under the Zonophone label at 2s.6d.
At least some Zonophone recordings were marked with early End User License Agreements (EULAs), as demonstrated by the sample label (see image). The label EULA reads, "This patented record is licensed for sale and use only when sold at retail at a price not less than the price marked upon this record, and only for the purpose of producing sound directly from this record, and for no other purpose. The patents covering this record, and under which it is made, among others, are U.S. patents NO 534,543, dated Feb. 19, 1895, NO 548,623 dated Oct 29, 1895 ... This license is valid only so long as this label remains on this record, unaltered and undefaced. A purchase is an acceptance of these terms. Universal Talking Machine MFG CO, May 1, 1911."
In the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, the Gramophone Company continued to use the "Zonophone" label until 1931. When the company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd. (EMI), the lower-priced labels of the two firms were merged also as Regal Zonophone. Post WWII, Regal Zonophone was largely dormant in Britain until 1964, when the label was revived with a few beat group offerings but became primarily known for hosting the Salvation Army-affiliated band The Joystrings , who had a brace of chart placings and released several 45s, EPs and LPs through the end of the 1960s. The Joystrings appearance on the label hearkened back to the 1930s and 1940s when Regal Zonophone regularly released Salvation Army brass band recordings. Regal Zonophone was also widely used as a catchall EMI label in foreign territories, and often in regions or nations where the main EMI Columbia and HMV logos and trademarks were disputed/held by competitors.
In Anglophone West Africa (primarily today's Ghana and Nigeria) Zonophone was used as a label to record and produce Sakara, Juju and Apala music on 78rpm discs from 1928 to the early 1950s.[1]
In 1967 Regal Zonophone was revived again as an EMI label, featuring acts signed to music publisher David Platz's independent production group, Straight Ahead, several of which had seen chart action on Decca's Deram label. Chief among these were Procol Harum (with their label the inspiration for their "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)"), and The Move, joined by Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex and Joe Cocker. This new impetus was largely dissipated by 1970, when many of the Straight Ahead acts moved to the Fly and Cube labels, although new releases as well as reissues were issued on the Regal Zonophone label through the late 1970s.
In the early 1980s, Zonophone was revived by EMI to ride the post punk train with artists such as Angelic Upstarts, The Barracudas, The Cockney Rejects, and compilations such as the Oi! album.
By the mid 1980s the Zonophone imprint had disappeared again. It was not until the mid to late 1990s that it reappeared in a different guise, as a home for back catalogue artists of cult credibility and the odd one off single. Zonophone has now become the home to The Cramps' Illegal recordings in the UK alongside David Axelrod produced albums by David McCallum, the cult sitar classic Lord Sitar, Cilla Black and compilations of Capitol era material from such as Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry.
In 2007, the Zonophone label was re-launched again with the release of cult, hard to find, or unreleased material from the whole spectrum of EMI's back catalogue either as physical CDs, digital downloads or both.