Record Company Research - Polydor

Polydor is a record company owned by Universal Music Group.

Polydor was originates from Germany. It was an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. It released popular music where as Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft became a classical music label. Polydor was Deutsche Grammophon's export label.

In 1972, Polydor merged with Philips-owned label Phonogram Records to create PolyGram in the US. Polydor continued to be run as a subsidiary label. The name PolyGram is a merge of the two names Polydor and PhonoGram. Throughout the 1970s, Polydor became a major rock label, as well as championing disco acts such as platinum-selling acts the Bee Gees and Gloria Gaynor. Through the 1980’s Polydor continued to do good business, but was being over shadowed by Mercury Records which was it’s sister label. In the beginning of the 1990’s Polydor began to under perform and as a result their was a staff cut and it shifted to operate under the umbrella of PolyGram Label Group, a newly constructed 'super label' designed to manage the operations of PolyGram's lesser performing labels. Polydor Records and Atlas Records merged, briefly called "Polydor/Atlas," and began operating through A&M Records. In 1995, Polydor/Atlas returned to being Polydor Records. Over the next few years, Polydor tried to keep itself afloat with new artist signings, new releases, and reissues.

Today in the United Kingdom Polydor remains one of the strongest labels in the country. Some of it’s most popular artists being Take That, Girls Aloud, N-Dubz, The Saturdays, Boyzone and Ellie Goulding. It also acts as the UK label for American-based acts such as Eminem, The All-American Rejects, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lady Gaga and The Black Eyed Peas.