Young God Records was originally formed by Michael Gira in 1990 to facilitate the release of Swans music (1982-1997). After the breakup of the band, the label focus expanded to include a wide variety of other music, both by Gira and a growing roster of unique artists. Focus was on highly personalized, and emphatically original, non genre-specific songwriting, orphaned soundtracks, and experimental music. The label does not focus on the commerciality of its music, but rather looks for music of genuine passion, originality and personal commitment, regardless of “style”. Since Swans has reformed in 2010, Yong God Records has reduced its releases to solely those of Swans and Gira's solo project.

For the first several years, Young God titles were released in the UK/Europe with catalog numbers in the YGCD # and YGLP # formats. The final release in this numbering series was Swans Are Dead 2xCD (YGCD 012).

In the US, the first few Young God titles were released via Rough Trade, and had catalog numbers in the YG ###-# format. In 1991, Rough Trade went bankrupt and Young God teamed up with Sky Records, followed by Invisible Records in 1994. During those times, releases did not feature a Young God catalog number.

In 1996, Young God partnered with Atavistic, and the releases featured catalog numbers for both labels, with the Young God numbers starting a new series in the YG## format. This partnership ended around 1999, at which point Young God went completely independent (with distribution via Revolver) and continued the catalog series started with the Atavisitic co-releases.