Labelcodes

The labelcode is a number with 4 or 5 digits, which is assigned by the GVL. Each label has an own code. Here can you find the formular for the brand registration in english.

fictive example of brand registration:

company: Ariola-Eurodisc GmbH
contact info: ....
brand name (label) of applicant: ISLAND
brand name's country of origin: UK
The brand name has been licensed to us by company: Island Records Ltd.
for the period from .... for the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.

2. We will immediately inform GVL if or when
• our authorization with regard to the brand name ... comes to an end, and, if relevant, inform GVL to whom authorization has passed,...

Other sources:

wikipedia (article in german)

Another definition:
The Label Code (LC) was introduced in 1977 by the IFPI (International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Industries) in order to unmistakably identify the different record labels (see Introduction, Record labels) for rights purposes. The Label Code consists historically of 4 figures, presently being extended to 5 figures, preceded by LC and a dash (*) (e.g. LC-0193 = Electrola; LC-0233 = His Master’s Voice). Note that the number of countries using the LC is limited, and that the code given on the item is not always accurate.(**)

(*) i have never seen a dash between the LC and ####
(**) it's possible that e.g. a Tuff Gong release used the ISLAND labelcode or a "10 Records" release used the VIRGIN labelcode. I have a Warner Bros. LP with WB-label design. the labelcode (LC 0392) is crossed out and replaced with the WEA labelcode (LC 4281). Cat# is WEA ## ###. The 7" says "from the warner LP "...." WB ## ###.

A short list of labelcodes of registered brands (i will update this list):

old 4-digit-system:

LC 0001: ULTRA PHONE
LC 0107: AMADEO
LC 0110: ANGEL (EMI label)
LC 0113: ARCHIV PRODUKTION
LC 0116: ARIOLA
LC 0120: ATCO
LC 0121: ATLANTIC
LC 0126: BARCLAY
LC 0133: BLUE NOTE
LC 0136: BRUNSWICK
LC 0137: BUENA VISTA (Disney label)
LC 0148: CAPITOL
LC 0149: CBS
LC 0162: COLUMBIA
LC 0171: DECCA
LC 0173: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
LC 0192: ELEKTRA
LC 0193: ELECTROLA
LC 0194: ELITE SPECIAL
LC 0199: EPIC
LC 0211: FONTANA
LC 0233: HIS MASTER'S VOICE
LC 0245: KARUSSELL
LC 0249: LIBERTY
LC 0253: LONDON
LC 0268: MERCURY
LC 0270: METRONOME
LC 0278: NONESUCH
LC 0287: ODEON
LC 0299: PARLOPHONE
LC 0305: PHILIPS
LC 0309: POLYDOR
LC 0310: POLYPHON
LC 0313: PRESTIGE
LC 0315: PYE (+early PRT)
LC 0316: RCA (+subs, e.g. RCA VICTOR)
LC 0322: REPRISE
LC 0325: RIVERSIDE
LC 0332: ROULETTE
LC 0346: SONET (+ VOLUME)
LC 0366: TELEFUNKEN
LC 0379: UNITED ARTISTS RECORDS
LC 0381: VANGUARD
LC 0383: VERVE RECORDS
LC 0392: WARNER BROS. RECORDS (+PAISLEY PARK RECORDS)
LC 0407: ISLAND
LC 0454: ABC RECORDS
LC 0485: A&M RECORDS
LC 0542: EMI
LC 0673: CHICKS ON SPEED RECORDS
LC 0720: FANTASY
LC 0835: HANSA
LC 0881: MOTOWN
LC 0894: PANDAIMONIUM
LC 0967: EUROPA
LC 0971: BUDDAH RECORDS
LC 0999: SUPERSTAR RECORDINGS
LC 1056: MCA or MCA RECORDS
LC 1074: APPLE RECORDS
LC 1109: INTERCORD
LC 1305: HARVEST
LC 1331: EMIDISC
LC 1409: CHARISMA ("THE FAMOUS CHARISMA LABEL")
LC 1421: BELLAPHON
LC 1477: CRYSTAL
LC 1557: EastWest
LC 1626: CHRYSALIS
LC 1632: THRESHOLD
LC 1633: VERTIGO
LC 1750: RAK
LC 1846: UNIVERSAL MCA MUSIC (UK)
LC 1866: CARRERE
LC 1941: HALL OF SERMON
LC 2070: WARP RECORDS
LC 2313: BRONZE
LC 2816: KITTY-YO
LC 2604: Sony Music Media (assumed)
LC 2619: RYKODISC
LC 2648: ASYLUM RECORDS
LC 2746: [TRISOL] MUSIC GROUP GmbH + TRINITY + APOCALYPTIC VISION
LC 2828: WARNER STRATEGIC MARKETING (?) WARNER MUSIC UK (?)
LC 2851: OBLIVION (division of SPV)
LC 2895: MOLOKO+
LC 2970: RSO
LC 3090: MASCOT RECORDS
LC 3098: VIRGIN (+some subs, e.g. "10 Records")
LC 3228: SIRE
LC 3272: CASABLANCA Record and Filmworks
LC 3311: NOVA (teldec label)
LC 3355: JET RECORDS
LC 3375: DARK HORSE RECORDS
LC 3379: JUPITER RECORDS
LC 3389: MAGNET RECORDS
LC 3455: JET RECORDS
LC 3475: PRIVATE STOCK
LC 3484: ARISTA
LC 3706: TELDEC
LC 4210: RED BUS RECORDS
LC 4281: WEA
LC 4324: POLYSTAR
LC 4435: Sky
LC 4513: KLING KLANG
LC 4516: Oasis
LC 4554: BABY RECORDS
LC 4593: OVERGROUND RECORDS
LC 4764: STIFF RECORDS
LC 4793: CONSEQUENCE RECORDS
LC 4810: LOLLIPOP RECORDS
LC 5013: TESS RECORDS EUROPE
LC 5163: ENIGMA
LC 5375: SYNTHETIC SYMPHONY (division of SPV)
LC 5485: BEGGARS BANQUET
LC 5511: APOLLYON
LC 5661: ROUGH TRADE GERMANY
LC 5717: EMI AMERICA
LC 5830: STRAND
LC 5834: MUTE RECORDS + TOAST HAWAII (german releases - licensee Intercord Tonträger)
LC 5865: Stockholm Records
LC 6001: Force Inc. Music Works, Intense Recordings, Riot Beats + other FIM sublabels
LC 6012: DARK VINYL RECORDS
LC 6209: Fax +49-69/450464
LC 6210: Full Moon
LC 6306: CREATION RECORDS
LC 6339: Pool
LC 6249: DANSE MACABRE
LC 6350: ZYX RECORDS / ZYX Music
LC 6444: Fiction Records
LC 6526: DARK STAR
LC 6556: DEDICATED
LC 6564: DEATHWISH RECORDS
LC 6655: EMERGENCY (Emergency Records)
LC 6693: ICE
LC 6769: Rocktopus
LC 6782: Reflektor Z
LC 6821: HYPERIUM RECORDS
LC 6832: DION FORTUNE
LC 6893: LIVELY ART
LC 6971: ANTLER SUBWAY
LC 7027: NUCLEAR BLAST (?)
LC 7036: MUSIC RESEARCH
LC 7037: MUSIC RESEARCH (misprint?)
LC 7060: Welt-Rekord
LC 7192: SETANTA RECORDS (?) GO!DISCS (?)
LC 7140: PRT Records
LC 7143: Musikant
LC 7266: Geffen Records
LC 7467: NOVA TEKK (Solar Plexus)
LC 7572: INTERFISH
LC 7590: TIS (=TELDEC IMPORT SERVICE)
LC 7800: PLAY IT AGAIN SAM
LC 7861: TOUCH & GO
LC 7871: VINYL SOLUTION, ELECTRON INDUSTRIES, SUBVERSION RECORDS, BASSMENT RECORDS (3) and presumably the rest of the sub-labels
LC 7925: Jive
LC 7987: ANXIOUS (Anxious Records Ltd.)
LC 8100: SPV RECORDS
LC 8121: BCM Records
LC 8323: SUB POP
LC 8428: EMI Columbia Austria
LC 8603: DOSSIER
LC 8637: Ariola Express
LC 8762: GiG Records
LC 8820: NORMAL
LC 9231: ROADRUNNER
LC 9628: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

5-digit-system (still active brands with a 4-digit-code start with a zero, e.g. LC 0407 -> LC 00407):

LC 01846: Universal Records (+?others?)
LC 02592: Certificate 18
LC 02604: Sony Music Media
LC 02816: Kitty-Yo
LC 04270: Trikont
LC 10387: Morr Music
LC 10521: Mille Plateaux
LC 10634: Cargo Records
LC 11269: Nettwerk UK
LC 11652: Keplar

Yes! Thank you!

OK, so now if I can see LC 0407 on a German release that has Island plastered all over it, I don't want anyone telling me to file it under Ariola! :)

Oh, genius! :)

Nice work!

Spy, should we add Labelcodes of all labels we know, or only the big players?

A complete list would be fine. Maybe teo can implement an optional LC-field with an automatic check. (e.g. somebody used "TELDEC" as label and the LC 3379 -> result is a warning "labelcode belongs to Jupiter Records, please doublecheck the label")

More important in my post above is the "brand registration" example, esp. the fields "company", "brand name" and "has been licensed to us by company" because it gives a hint for the "How to deal with Major Label organization?" question.

[Invalid Label], [Invalid Label], [Invalid Label], [Invalid Label], [Invalid Label] are not different labels. It is always the SAME "brand name". It makes no sense to split a brand into territorial pieces. ok, the releases are handled by different companies, but also in one country a brand can be marketed by different companies (e.g. the MCA brand in Germany: TELDEC "Telefunken-Decca" Schallplatten GmbH, Metronome Musik GmbH, Ariola-Eurodisc GmbH, WEA Musik GmbH etc.)

I'm totally in agreement with S_O_S here…

Please post labelcodes to this thread, and S_O_S, sjcee and I add to the list above

lol

some more labelcodes:
LC 5834: Mute Records
LC 3455: Jet Records
LC 6210: Full Moon/WEA
LC 3272: Casablanca Records
LC 6655: Emergency Records
LC 4210: Red Bus Records
LC 3389: Magnet Records Ltd.
LC 2816: Kitty-Yo

According to this thread,
LC 2604 appears on at least 2 Sony Music Media releases
LC 8121 appears on at least 1 BCM Records release
LC 10387 appears on at least 2 Morr Music releases

For those first two you might ask in that forum about the countries. BCM could be Germany or UK, it looks like.

LC 9628: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (from Mighty Sparrow: First Flight (not in yet)

Just a post-and-run, while I have this in front of me =)

hi,
I came across that topic in the forums.
great idea to make a list of all these labelcodes. I have been wondering before why that part of information wasn't included in discogs yet.
I've gone through a portion of my CD's & found already these that you can add to that list:

LC 0673: CHICKS ON SPEED RECORDS
LC 0894: PANDAIMONIUM
LC 0999: SUPERSTAR RECORDINGS
LC 1846: UNIVERSAL MCA MUSIC (UK)
LC 1941: HALL OF SERMON
LC 2070: WARP RECORDS
LC 2619: RYKODISC
LC 2746: [TRISOL] MUSIC GROUP GmbH + TRINITY + APOCALYPTIC VISION
LC 2828: WARNER STRATEGIC MARKETING (?) WARNER MUSIC UK (?)
LC 2851: OBLIVION (division of SPV)
LC 2895: MOLOKO+
LC 3090: MASCOT RECORDS
LC 4593: OVERGROUND RECORDS
LC 4793: CONSEQUENCE RECORDS
LC 5013: TESS RECORDS EUROPE
LC 5375: SYNTHETIC SYMPHONY (division of SPV)
LC 5511: APOLLYON
LC 5661: ROUGH TRADE GERMANY
LC 5834: MUTE RECORDS + TOAST HAWAII
LC 6012: DARK VINYL RECORDS
LC 6249: DANSE MACABRE
LC 6306: CREATION RECORDS
LC 6526: DARK STAR
LC 6556: DEDICATED
LC 6564: DEATHWISH RECORDS
LC 6821: HYPERIUM RECORDS
LC 6832: DION FORTUNE
LC 6893: LIVELY ART
LC 6971: ANTLER SUBWAY
LC 7027: NUCLEAR BLAST (?)
LC 7036: MUSIC RESEARCH
LC 7037: MUSIC RESEARCH (misprint?)
LC 7192: SETANTA RECORDS (?) GO!DISCS (?)
LC 7467: NOVA TEKK (Solar Plexus)
LC 7572: INTERFISH
LC 7800: PLAY IT AGAIN SAM
LC 7861: TOUCH & GO
LC 8100: SPV RECORDS
LC 8323: SUB POP
LC 8603: DOSSIER
LC 8820: NORMAL
LC 9231: ROADRUNNER

Questions? don't hesitate to contact me & I'll try to sort it out.

Good luck with sorting out the 'majors' chaos :-)
I'm surely going to keep an eye on that forum.

Cheers,
Paul aka psychonausea
Good luck

thanks nik & teo that you removed the edit function. Absolutely idiotic.

(editing should be re-enabled for this topic now, S_O_S)

edited S_O_S list with the missing codes of the additional lists (only forum admins can...)

if everyone is fine I'd think it be good if we'd delete posts with additional codes, once they've been added to keep the topic as small as possible. --> any thoughts, complains???

please keep the last list at the moment. i will check all "brand names" (therefore i will remove again the "germany" in "Rough Trade" + what is the Brand of the Trisol ... GmbH?, UNIVERSAL MCA MUSIC (UK) sounds also like a division name and not like a brand). secondly i think some "new" brands belong to the 5-digit-section (perhaps we need 2 lists 4-digits & 5-digits or better one thread for discussions & additions + one (closed) thread for the 4-digit-system & one (closed) thread for the 5-digit-system?).

sjcee: should you make a database somewhere else and link to it in the main post? That way the original posts + posters aren't lost, if there are discussions to be had about the validity of the labelcodes.

This will get REALLY long, as it's to be over 10,000 labels.

And a few more labelcodes:
LC 02592: Certificate 18, from Pilote's Kingfood™
LC 04270: Trikont, from a comp not yet in the system
LC 5865: Stockholm Records, from Antiloop's LP CD
LC 10521: Mille Plateaux, from Kid606's PS I Love You
LC 11652: Keplar, from Tigric's Compact Disco

I found a German radio station that seems to include labelcodes in their playsists, for whatever reason. But it seems their info should be taken with some scepticism and research, as I came upon this site when looking for "LC 5865" (from my copy of LP, which seems to be on Stockholm Records). That site lists it as being attributed to a Stockholm Records sub-label, Trampolene, while my copy of Antiloop's album is on Stockholm Records itself. Or if we are to include this in the release guidelines with some built-in cross-referencing, the system would have to be able to reference the parent labels, not just the main label of the given release.

On this - does anyone know what the PY code is? I think I've only seen it on Antiloop's LP CD. The design is very similar to the LC style, with a circle around the PY, with an oval extending to the numbers following.

don't know the use of this codes, but i guess if it has a PY prefix than it belongs to the PolyGram label family. CB ### was CBS and WE ### Warner. Older Polydor have POL ###.

Stockholm Records / labels (S)
Profile: A PolyGram Company

+
i think it has to do with the format. A lot of releases have the same ###

e.g.
The Time -> CB 491
From Source To Sea -> CB 491

Ah, quite possible. Thanks!

Another labelcode:
LC 10634 - Cargo Records, from Operator's album "Welcome To The Wonderful World) - not yet in the DB (submitting it now), and matches with some listings on this German radio station playlist

LC 11269 - Nettwerk UK appears on Amazing and Go.

LC 7871 - Vinyl Solution, Electron Industries, Subversion Records, Bassment Records (3) and presumably the rest of the sub-labels.

I guess it's the Schnozza Music label code?

Can we always go for the label-code?
See e.g. this release :
LC 5834, so label should usually be Mute Records.
But it was submitted as being on Intercord Tonträger GmbH.

No, we can't rely on it for licensed releases.

But it's useful for sublabels of major labels (e.g. within Universal Music (Germany): Polystar Records, Zeitgeist)

about POL ###, PY ###, CB ###, etc. codes :
these are french distributor codes. if i remember well, they have something to do with the wholesale price.
i've already added some notes on various profiles like Wagram or Virgin France S.A.. they mustn't be entered as cat# or part of cat#.

@ gonzales:

that's too obvious mate:
read the label:
Mute Records LTd = British company
Marked by Intercord Ton = German licensee
GEMA = released in Germany

--> german release with german LC

I've just updated the list with the new codes...

neocactar asked me to pass this along:

Hospital Records = LC 12939

As spotted on Weapons Of Mass Creation Two and When The Lights Go Down / Only Two Can Play

As suggested above, I'm cool with keeping only the "list" in this thread and trashing all subsequent posts re. additions to it.

Also, as a point of interest: I've not seen a single South African release with an LC number.

Apparently, LC numbers appear only on releases that are intended for sale in Germany, I believe (but not necessarily only in Germany / you'll see them on pan-EU releases originating in other countries). So I wouldn't expect to see it on a South African release.

My problem with keeping just the list is that people will make mistakes and we won't know what they were basing their info on. Some of the comments above make it clear that people might think "oh LC (whatever#) is (whatever label)" at first, then find out that the code applies to a family of labels, or the parent, or the successor, or whatever. Discogs having its own label naming & organization system makes for further room for people to be confused. So I like to be able to see what releases people used as evidence of the codes that were added to the list.

For example, did you know LC 0407 (Island) is used for all Island, 4th & Broadway, Mango, etc. branded releases in Germany, whether issued via Ariola/BMG, PolyGram, Island Mercury Labelgroup, Polydor Island Group, or Universal Music Domestic Division? If we didn't know about LC 0407 and someone saw just one of those releases, they might attribute the code to the wrong label, and this could lead to people misfiling things in Discogs as they try to make the Discogs label match the Label Code label.

LC 7026 - Carat Record GmbH spotted on this
LC 4117 - Juventus (Sublabel of AZ-Records) spotted on this
LC 6584 - Luna Musik
LC 1118 - Piccobello
LC 4306 - Flower (Sublabel of AZ-Records)
LC 8117 - Avon Musik
LC 8076 - Blow Up
LC 2801 - Bungalow
LC 3389 - Magnet Records Ltd.
LC 7023 - SBK Records
LC 8662 - Rush Records
LC 8243 - PWL Records
LC 0405 - Chic (Germany)
LC 7276 - Master Records (3)
LC 4589 - Beserkley Records
LC 7472 - Coconut Records

LC 01127 - Bookmark
LC 13848 - Zentimental Records
LC 04728 - Overdose / Pulse
LC 05496 - Vision Soundcarriers
LC 06172 - EDM
LC 04731 - Dos Or Die Recordings
LC 10526 - Gang Go Music
LC 10432 - Zeitgeist
LC 12090 - Konsum
LC 02182 - Kontor Records
LC 02220 - Unsubmissive Records
LC 02226 - Drizzly
LC 06748 - Urban
LC 6850 - 101 Records
LC 6131 - Direct Effect (Germany)
LC 05375 - Synthetic Symphony
LC 8721 - Animalized
LC 2171 - Movement (Germany)

I'm currently adding labelcodes to labels where I can compare many releases by either available images or my own collection.

The labelcode should guide submitters into the right direction to choose the proper label.
But it's not definitive, since sublabels can use the same LC, and there's also a lot of complex licensing stuff. Some big labels also changed their LC with the distributor, e.g. Jive.

One more for the list: LC 11683 = Modernsoul

LC 7192 - Go! Beat / Go! Disc

LC 5807 / LC 05807 - 4AD

By now wikipedia has quite a big list of Labelcodes.

Thanks, gonzales4ever!

Here's a new one:
Strange Ways = 7147
per The Perc Meets The Hidden Gentleman - The Fruits Of Sin & Labor, and Wolfsheim - 55578

Hmm, Spy_On_Summer, has the Edit function still been disabled in this forum?

Anyway, here's another code for the list:

LC 13285 - Get Physical Music
(Appears on at least 4 releases I have on that label).

LC 9158 - Naxos

Interesting presentation of a LabelCode:

"German License: LC1801"

LC 7259 was the (now defunct) labelcode for Korova Records.

London Records used (uses) the LC 7654 (LC 07654) for their continental European releases. The German GVL lists for LC 07654 the following 3 labels: FFRR Records, Slash Records, London Records