Until May 1956 Columbia and CBS releases were distributed in Australia by EMI. In March 1956 EMI won the worldwide rights to distribute the American Capitol label from its previous distributor, the Australian Record Company (ARC), and ARC responded in kind by acquiring the rights to Columbia and CBS (both previously distributed by EMI) in May 1956.

However EMI had already registered the "Columbia" label in Australia as its own trademark, so ARC created a new imprint for its Columbia/CBS product -- the Coronet label, which quickly became ARC's flagship imprint . It was immediately recogniseable by its famous octagonal label, which was the only octagonal record label in the history of the industry worldwide. Although the label also carried the CBS initials, Coronet is considered to be a bona fide indigenous label.

In New Zealand Philips Electrical Industries also used the CBS Coronet imprint to release CBS records until it launched the CBS label in 1962.