History of EMI

EMI is considered one of the greatest recording brands in British history. EMI (officially EMI Group Limited, often known as EMI Records and EMI Music) was a British multinational conglomerate It stands for electric and musical industry, founded in March 1931 and was based in London.

• At the time of its break-up in 2012, it was the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and was one of the big four record companies (now the big three)
•  Its EMI Records Ltd. group of record labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records and Capitol Records.
• Revenue : $1.65 billion (2009)
• Alan Blumlein, an engineer employed by EMI, conducted a great deal of pioneering research into stereo sound recording many years prior to the practical implementation of the technique in the early 1950s.
• During and after World War II, the EMI Laboratories in Hayes, Hillingdon developed radar equipment (including the receiver section of the British Army's GL-II anti-aircraft fire-control radar), microwave devices such as the reflex klystron oscillator (having played a crucial role in the development of early production types following on from the British Admiralty Signal School's pioneering NR89, the so-called "Sutton tube"), electro-optic devices such as infra-red image converters, and eventually guided missiles employing analogue computers.
• For the first 30 years EMI was run as a very traditional business, men focusing on the business and women were in the typing pool  - early contracts were with classical artists such as Sir Edward elgar. During this time EMI appointed its first A&R managers. These included George Martin, who later brought the Beatles into the EMI fold.
• From 1960 to 1995 their "EMI House" corporate headquarters was located at 20 Manchester Square London, England, the stairwell from which was featured on the cover of the Beatles' Please Please Me album.
• Post-war, the company resumed its involvement in making broadcasting equipment, notably providing the BBC's second television transmitter at Sutton Coldfield
• It also manufactured broadcast television cameras for British television production companies as well as for the BBC. The commercial television ITV companies also used them alongside cameras made by Pye and Marconi. Their best-remembered piece of broadcast television equipment was the EMI 2001 colour television camera, which became the mainstay of much of the British television industry from the end of the 1960s until the early 1990s
• With the rise of the teenage culture and the success Elvis presley's early singles which EMI had lisenced and released in the UK, suddenly the music industry was booming
• Pushed boundaries of popular music, suited the taste of the younger generation at the time
• The 60's were considered to be a decade of pop singles, whereas the 70's became the decade of mass selling albums.
• From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, the company enjoyed huge success in the popular music field under the management of Sir Joseph Lockwood. The strong combination of EMI and its subsidiary labels (including Parlophone, HMV, Columbia and Capitol Records) along with a roster of stellar groups such as the Hollies, the Shadows, the Beach Boys and the Beatles along with hit solo performers such as Frank Sinatra, Cliff Richard, and Nat 'King' Cole, made EMI the best-known and most successful recording company in the world at that time.
• During the late 60's and early 70's the company started to emerge more into the progressive rock genre - e.g. Pink floyd 
• Since the 1930s, the Baak Doi label headquartered in Shanghai had been published under the EMI banner, and since then, EMI had also been the dominant label in the cantopop market in Hong Kong until the genre's decline in the mid-1980s. Between the years 2004–2006, EMI then completely and totally divested itself from the c-pop market, and after that, all Hong Kong music artists previously associated with EMI have had their music published by Gold Label, a concern unaffiliated with EMI and with which EMI does not hold any interest.
• Pop star Robbie Williams signed a six-album deal in 2002 paying him over £80 million ($157 million), which was not only the biggest recording contract in British music history at the time, but also the second biggest in music history behind that of Michael Jackson.
• In May 2006, EMI attempted to buy Warner Music Group, which would have reduced the world's four largest record companies (Big Four) to three; however, the bid was rejected.Warner Music Group launched a Pac-Man defense, offering to buy EMI. EMI rejected the $4.6bn offer.
• The company was also for many years an internationally respected manufacturer of photomultipliers.
• Faced financial troubles and USD $4 billion in debt, leading to its acquisition by Citigroup in February 2011
• Defunct on 28 September 2012