CBS

Unofficial releases which have a printed "CBS" logo can be found here: CBS (2)

The CBS label may also appear on a few releases as CBS Records, which also goes here.

Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., former owner of the various CBS companies, was established in 1928, and in 1961, its recorded music division CBS Records was founded although the CBS brand did not appear until 1962 (as below) with the exception of South Africa which (independently of this process) was using CBS from 1 January 1956. It was initially set up to distribute and market releases on the CBS label overseas, from their US catalog owned by their subsidiary Columbia Records, Inc..

This was mainly for Columbia releases due to trademark copyrights. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. couldn't use that brand outside the US, because Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI) subsidiary Columbia Graphophone Company Ltd. (later The Gramophone Co. Ltd.) owned the rights to the Columbia brand in most of the rest of the world, and Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. still has the rights to the name in Japan.

Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. set up a number of companies to market CBS releases. In Europe, the first to launch was the UK, where the CBS label was launched on May 1, 1962. It was initially distributed by Philips Records Ltd. until the acquisition of Oriole Records Limited in 1964, which was renamed CBS Records Limited. on April 1, 1965, and subsequently took this role. The rest of Europe followed. Greece was in September 1962, Spain in October, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden were in December 1962, CBS Disques S.A. in France, CBS Grammofoonplaten B.V. in the Netherlands and CBS Schallplatten GmbH in Germany were all in February 1963.

South and Central America introduced the CBS label in August 1962 and Asia in July of the same year.

In Australia and New Zealand, the CBS label replaced the Coronet (2) label in January 1963.

These companies also used the CBS label to release records by locally signed artists.

On January 5, 1988, CBS Records, including the sublabels Columbia and Epic, were sold by CBS Inc. (formerly known as Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.) to Sony Corporation of Japan. CBS Inc. granted Sony Corporation a temporary license to use the CBS brand for three years. Sony Corporation acquired the international rights for Columbia from EMI Records Ltd. on October 15, 1990.

Sony Corporation began using Columbia as a worldwide label instead of CBS on January 1, 1991, except in Spain and Japan, where the rights were owned respectively by BMG and Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. The holding company CBS Records Inc. was renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc. on the same date. The rights to the CBS brand were returned to CBS Inc. Sony Corporation acquired the rights for Columbia in Spain on August 5, 2004 when Sony BMG Music Entertainment was established.

On December 15, 2006, CBS Broadcasting Inc., the successor of CBS Inc., revived the CBS Records brand. The label uses CBS' television networks and its other mass media platforms to market their artists. They also release soundtracks of CBS television shows. The new CBS Records label is not related to the former CBS Records business or its artists or assets.

Label code: LC 0149 (only used until 1991 and on reissues).