Artone Holland

Dutch record company and manufacturer. The legal name of the company was Artone Gramophone N.V. Please use just Artone or Artone Gramofoonplaten if credited that way.

Note: The company at one point owned two pressing plants and one plating plant, none of which has a separate profile or can be clearly identified.

In the mid-1950s the brothers Willem and Casper Dingemans Slinger, two brothers from Dutch oil trading family, had started importing and distributing 78 RPM records from the United States through their contacts with local seller John Vis. The new operation started out in the Parklaan but quickly moved to a building in the Kruisstraat, the former hotel Funckler. In 1957 the brothers founded their own pressing plant under the name Argram Phonographische Industrie, manufacturing 7" records. The plant was built by a mister Koster and led by Dirk Moor, who was succeeded by Peter Bouwens (2). In 1961 a second plant was opened in Zandvoort called Fugram Phonographische Industrie. (It is unknown how long this plant was in operation.) In 1962 12" vinyl presses were installed. Licensee of Columbia Records to distribute CBS records throughout the Benelux countries.

The factory in the Nijverheidsweg in Haarlem originally did not have its own cutting studio nor galvanic department. Lacquers were initially cut in Cologne (Germany) by a certain mister Kliewer and metalparts were made by Vox-Imago GmbH, also based in Germany. A few years later Artone started their own galvanic factory (called Armetal Galvanische Industrie), led by Gijs Leijenaar, in the Kruisstraat, in the centre of Haarlem, but it had to move out after a sanitary inspection. (Waste was just dumped in the sewers at this point.) The galvanic department then moved to the factory building. Starting from 1966 lacquers were also cut with CNR in Rijswijk. In 1968 a Neumann lathe was installed in the factory and Artone started cutting its own lacquers. The cutting engineers were Joop Niggebrugge (coming over from CNR) and Harry Stoker.

In 1966 CBS bought a 50% share in Artone, and they started a printing company that year to make their own sleeves too. The first sleeve they printed was for Nancy Sinatra's "Like I do".

In this time Artone started to use the flipback covers, that were used till early 1968. Also in 1966 the (P) credits appears with bold P and the date below. This style was used till late 1967. Then the circled P came into use.

In 1971 CBS (Columbia) took over full ownership, and the Haarlem plant became CBS, Haarlem.

Musical Masterpiece Society releases with AH on the label or in the runouts are pressed by Artone Holland.

Timeline for the pressing site:
Artone Holland 1958-1971
CBS-Artone appeared in 1971
CBS, Haarlem 1971-1990
Sony/CBS, Haarlem 1990-1998
Record Industry 1998-...