The oldest surviving name in recorded sound started out selling Edison's machines
Columbia Records began on January 15, 1889, as a local dealer for Edison phonographs in Washington, D.C., named after the District of Columbia. It is now the oldest surviving brand in the recording business, having outlived Edison's own label and passed through receiverships, a British takeover and a sale for just $70,000.
The founder, Edward Easton, was a stenographer and lawyer who had rights to sell and service Edison machines and cylinders in D.C., Maryland and Delaware. The company soon made its own cylinder recordings, with a 10-page music catalogue by 1891. When its link to Edison ended in 1894, Columbia went its own way, and from 1901 it also sold disc records, becoming one of the three leading names in American recorded sound alongside Edison and Victor.
It kept innovating to compete. Columbia hired Metropolitan Opera stars in 1903 for a prestige series, though the quality lagged behind rivals. In 1908 it began mass producing double-sided discs, a 10-inch record selling for 65 cents, and launched the Grafonola player to take on Victor's hugely popular Victrola. By July 1912 it had abandoned cylinder players entirely to focus on discs, and its circular logo of two sixteenth notes, the Magic Notes, dates from this era.
Financial trouble followed. Columbia went into receivership in late 1922 and in 1925 was bought by its own British offshoot, which brought in Western Electric's new electrical recording process. Its Viva-tonal records set a standard for clarity in the 78-rpm era. Buying Okeh Records in 1926 added jazz and blues artists such as Louis Armstrong to a roster that already included Bessie Smith, and in 1928 its executive Frank Walker made some of the earliest country music recordings in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The Depression nearly wiped out the industry. In 1931 the British parent merged into the new EMI, which meant Victor technically owned its biggest American rival, so antitrust worries forced the US arm to be sold off. After its next owner, a radio and refrigerator maker, went bankrupt, Columbia was sold in 1934 for $70,000 to a mysterious company with no named owners. Today it belongs to Sony Music.
Source: Columbia Records
