Virgin Records
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Virgin Records is a British recording label founded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, and Nik Powell in 1972 after a period of selling discount records via their small shop in London. The name predates the record label which was set up after the music shops. The name Virgin, according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from a colleague of his when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin - as they were all new to business - like "virgins". As a further note the Virgin logo was formed when they met with a graphic designer - who scrawled Virgin on a napkin. They never hired him and just used the blotted image from the napkin.
The first release on the label was the classic progressive rock album Tubular Bells by multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield in 1973 (see 1973 in music). The group Genesis recorded various albums for this record company.
In 1977 they signed the Sex Pistols, who put the label on the map. Afterwards they signed groups like Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, and others.
Virgin Records opened up its American division, Virgin Records America, in 1987. Virgin Records America's releases were distributed by WEA with arrangement from Atlantic Records until 1992. Prior to the formation of Virgin Records America, its artists were licensed in the United States to labels such as CBS, A&M, Warner Bros., and others.
Virgin Records was sold by Branson to EMI in 1992 for a reported £550 million. It now faces competition from Branson's new label: V2 Records. The reason Branson sold Virgin Records (a beloved part of his business arsenal) was to fund Virgin Airlines.
After being acquired by EMI, Virgin launched several subsidiaries like Realworld Records, Innocent Records, blues specialty label Point Blank Records, and Hut Records, and continued signing new and established artists like Korn, The Rolling Stones, The Smashing Pumpkins, We Are Scientists, Bubba Sparxxx, Sharissa, Bossman, Purple Ribbon All-Stars, Janet Jackson, the Chemical Brothers, Shape:UK, Juliet, the Spice Girls and Paula Abdul.
