Croatia Records

Croatia Records
Joint stock
Traded as ZSE: CROR
Industry Music industry
Founded As Jugoton in 1947, renamed in 1991, registered at the Commercial Court on January 30, 1996[1]
Headquarters Zagreb (Dubrava), Croatia
Key people
 Želimir Babogredac
Products Audio CD, DVD-Video, Audio Cassette, Gramophone record
Website www.crorec.hr

Croatia Records is the largest major record label in Croatia, based in Zagreb (Dubrava).

Summary

Croatia Records d.d. is a joint stock company currently led by the chief executive officer Želimir Babogredac, a notable sound engineer. It releases mostly (but not necessarily) mainstream music, and it has signed many prominent Croatian musicians of various music genres such as: Dražen Zečić, Arsen Dedić, Mišo Kovač, Josipa Lisac, Goran Bare, Teška industrija, Thompson, Maksim Mrvica, Crvena jabuka, Jelena Rozga, Novi fosili, Opća opasnost, Rade Šerbedžija, Jacques Houdek, Parni valjak, Leteći odred, Mladen Grdović, Dino Dvornik, Dino Merlin, Hari Rončević, Adastra, Radojka Šverko, Klapa Sveti Florijan, Giuliano, Dječaci, Mate Bulić, Disciplin a Kitschme, Srebrna krila, Divlje jagode, Bosutski bećari, Indexi, Sinan Alimanović and others. Today, Croatia Records claims to have 70% share of the Croatian music market and has 30 record stores. Being a continuation of Jugoton, from which it inherited a comprehensive audio and video collection, Croatia Records is also active in re-releasing numerous digitally remastered former Yugoslav pop and rock titles. Following the global retro trend, the company decided to re-introduce gramophone records as well.[2]

History

The company that is today Croatia Records was founded in 1947 in Zagreb, the capital of the then-People's Republic of Croatia under the name Jugoton, a publicly owned company which was the largest record label and chain record store in the former SFR Yugoslavia. During several decades of its successful existence, Jugoton signed many eminent ex-Yugoslav artists such as: Indexi, Bijelo Dugme, Električni Orgazam, Haustor, Idoli and Leb i Sol, and also numerous important foreign stars for the domestic market including: Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2, David Bowie, Queen, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Kraftwerk etc. The company also owned a chain of record shops across Yugoslavia. Many Yugoslav entries in the Eurovision Song Contest were signed with Jugoton including the 1989 winners Riva.

Croatian independence

After the transition from socialist state to parliamentary democracy in 1989, the question of Croatia's self-determination from Yugoslavia was raised. Shortly before the declaration of Croatian independence and the breakup of Yugoslavia, the company's name Jugoton, a portmanteau word of Jugoslavija (Yugoslavia) and tone, was changed to Croatia Records in 1991. Parallelly, the major labels in Serbia and Slovenia such as PGP RTB and ZKP RTLJ were renamed to PGP-RTS and ZKP RTVS respectively. The company was inherited by the now-independent Republic of Croatia and since the previous economic system was abandoned, it was privatized. Since the year of 2000, Croatia Records is managed by professionals from the music industry joined in the partnership company called AUTOR d.o.o. (limited company).[3][4][5] In 2001, the musician Miroslav Škoro became the leader of Croatia Records, until his resignation in 2006.[6]

Controversy

Often, the company was a target of public criticism on various issues.

Croatia Records has been the object of a controversy raised by singer Branimir Štulić over royalty rights. Štulić claims royalties of songs by former rock band Azra, whose lead singer and songwriter he was in the 1980s, and which was then managed by Croatia Record's predecessor Jugoton. Štulić has named a sum of 12 million Euros he believes the company owes him but has not opted to take legal action to claim it.[7] Želimir Babogredac replied that Croatia Records has all the legal rights to release titles by Štulić and Azra, as the company is a direct successor of Jugoton, whom these artists were signed for. He also said that the sum Štulić claims is exaggerated. However, he added that Croatia Records is proud to have the highly acclaimed Štulić in the list of its artists and that he may receive a payment from the sale of audio CDs only if he joins the Croatian Composers' Society - ZAMP.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Biznet - Business directory by the Croatian Chamber of Economy (in English)
  2. ↑ Borivoje Dokler (19 August 2008). "Povratak vinila u digitalnoj eri" [Vinyl makes a comeback in the digital age] (in Croatian). Nacional. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  3. ↑ http://www.poslovni.hr/63664.aspx
  4. ↑ http://www.burza.hr/poslovni_subjekti/subjekt/12190/?PHPSESSID=
  5. ↑ http://www.hr/wwwhr/arts/music/business/index.en.html
  6. ↑ 24 Sata newspaper, July 30, 2006: (Google cache version) (in Croatian)
  7. ↑ Slobodna Dalmacija, March 29, 2008: (in Croatian)
  8. ↑ Slobodna Dalmacija, April 5, 2008: (in Croatian)
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