Decca

ALL RELEASES ON DECCA IN NORTH AMERICA BETWEEN 1943 AND 1999 SHOULD GO ON THE Decca (2) PAGE, NOT HERE.

Former stockbroker Edward Lewis formed The Decca Record Company Limited in the United Kingdom in 1929. The company started releasing records under the Decca trademark.

A US branch was launched in 1934. This branch was sold off during World War II, becoming Decca Records, Inc., responsible for the US Decca (2) trademark. The Decca Record Company released records in the US using the London Records trademark, as they couldn't use their own Decca trademark in the US anymore.

The 1970s were disastrous for the UK Decca label. Although The Decca Company set up the first of the British "progressive" labels, Deram, in 1966, by the time the punk era set in 1977, Decca had become known primarily as a classical label. Label founder Edward Lewis died in January 1980, and PolyGram acquired the Decca labels within days of his death.

In 1997, Seagram bought out MCA/Universal, giving them ownership of Decca US. They then acquired Decca UK's parent company PolyGram in 1998, thus consolidating Decca trademark ownership under the new Universal Music Group.

Today, Decca is a leading label for both classical music and Broadway scores. The Decca Music Group also includes the Philips Classics label, and those labels are grouped together with the Deutsche Grammophon and ECM labels into the Universal Classics group.

Labelcode: LC 0171

This label contains releases on multinational markets. Do NOT create imprints for different countries.
Cover that information on new releases with the country field and with proper notes about the
release (i.e. releasing company, labelcode, ℗&© note, BIEM).

For all unofficial releases (bootlegs, counterfeits ... , pirate compilations) that pretend to be a release of Decca please use Decca (3) !

Companies related to Decca:
Fonior - Local affiliate from 1973 to 1980, for Belgium; Exclusive importer for Decca in Belgium from 1934 to 1980
Hollandsche Decca Distributie (HDD) - Exclusive distributor for the Netherlands and colonies from 1929-1950