The Story of PolyGram Records

The record label I chose was PolyGram Records. PolyGram Records was founded in 1929 as Hollandische Decca Distribute, and acted as the Netherlands distributor for Decca Records, a large record company. HDD became large enough that it was sold to Philips, a large multinational electronics firm, in 1942. During the 1940s, Philips, already a radio manufacturer, got into the gramophone record market. The various portions of Philips in the gramophone record business were consolidated as Philips Phonografische Industrie (PPI) in the late 1940s. Over the years, PolyGram acquired many record labels under their umbrella. These record labels included A&M, Decca, Island, Mercury, Def Jam, Polydor, and many others. They had nearly every musical genre under the sun. By 1988 they were considered one of the "Big Six" record companies. In 1998, Philips sold off the company, which was acquired by Seagram (the ginger ale company) and merged into Universal Music Group by 1999.