Do you have a favorite record label?


There has been much consolidation in the music industry, so many independent labels are now parts of corporate conglomerates, but through out the history of recorded music individual labels have had identities.

  I grew up in Detroit in the sixties so of course Motown was front and center in my consciousness.  I just returned from a few days in Memphis and loved visiting the Stax, Sun Records, and especially the Rock and Soul Museums.

  I don’t listen to much Jazz but I am aware that labels such as Blue Note had distinct profiles.  The same is true for Reggae and World Music labels.

  My genre is Classical and many small independent labels have really driven the creativity in the industry.  While the so called major labels were duplicating the Classical Top 100 ad infinitum, labels such as Naxos, Musical Heritage Society, Erato, and then later Hyperion, BIS, Chandos and most importantly cpo have greatly expanded the amount of repertoire available to listeners.  It’s never been a better time to be a listener.

  Other favorites?  Any genre goes, and perhaps offer a few words about why you value that label

mahler123

I was a big fan of Philips during the '70s, when the oil embargo in the US degraded the quality of vinyl from most labels.  The imported Philips LPs continued to have the quietest surfaces, and generally the recordings were good, with top classical artists.

Now I like BIS and Harmonia Mundi.  Some of the other labels others have mentioned also seem good--cpo, etc.

@jsalerno277 

Pentatone is interesting.  They were started by ex Phillips engineers who had been involved in Quad releases.  The bought they rights to these recordings and reissued them in SACD while recording new material in SACD.  Eventually they stopped focusing on multichannel and SACD.

 I have dozens of Pentatone SACDs , but since they dropped their multichannel emphasis when they issue a new release that interests me I just stream it

@drmuso 

I also was a fan of Phillips LPs but I could barely afford them.  It would also drive me crazy when I would shell out for one and after a few playings those pristine surfaces would start developing pops and clicks.  I was so ready for CDs

My favorite record label of all time is Black Patti, but they went out of business.  Classics was also a great label, but they only issued CDs.  

For record labels currently operating, my favorites are Reference Recordings,  Frog Records, and Hyperion.