American Record Corporation


American Record Corporation , also referred to as American Record Company, American Recording Corporation, or ARC Records, was an American record company.

Overview

During 1929 the American Record Corporation was established with the merger of three companies. These were the Cameo Record Corporation, the Pathé Phonograph and Radio Corporation, and the Plaza Music Company.
Although Plaza's assets were included in the merger, the Plaza company itself was not, and the Scranton Button Company, the parent company of Emerson Records. Louis G. Sylvester, the former head of the Scranton Button Company, became the president of the new company, located at 1776 Broadway in Manhattan, New York City.
Consolidated Film Industries bought ARC in 1930, and Brunswick Record Corporation the next year. Full-priced discs were issued on Brunswick, and in 1934 on Columbia. Low-priced records on Oriole, Romeo, as well as Melotone, Vocalion, Banner, and Perfect. In December 1938, the entire ARC complex was purchased for $700,000 by the Columbia Broadcasting System. The record company was renamed Columbia Recording Corporation, which revived the Columbia imprint as its flagship label with Okeh Records as a subsidiary label. This allowed the rights to the Brunswick and Vocalion labels to revert to Warner Bros., who sold the labels to Decca Records in 1941.
During August 1978 ARC was reactivated by Columbia as Maurice White's vanity label. Acts such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Weather Report, Deniece Williams, Pockets, and The Emotions were signed to the label.
The ARC legacy is now part of Sony Music Entertainment.

Labels ARC issued or pressed (1929-1938)

Labels that existed prior to the formation of ARC are marked +