Virgin Records Ltd.

Record (holding) company operating since 28 February 1973. Licensee of the Virgin (aka Virgin Records) brands / labels. First-incorporated as "Varmerny Ltd." on 8 September 1972. Wholly-owned by 'VRL Recordings', a subsidiary of 'EMI Group Limited'.

Founded by English entrepreneur artist 4812584, alongside Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and Tom Newman. Principal activities of the company and numerous subsidiaries include: record production, manufacturing, licensing, sound recording and exploitation of copyrights.

The company initially operated under the control of Virgin Records (Holdings) Ltd., later under renamed company label 268722 Due to the Virgin Group branching out internationally into other market sectors the conglomerate, Virgin Group Ltd. (later plc) was established in 1983, which became the immediate and ultimate parent. Virgin Group Plc operated as three principal divisions: Music, Communications, and Retail. In 1989 the group was demerged, with the music related companies, (which included Virgin Records Ltd. & its worldwide subsidiaries) being transferred to a newly-incorporated (holding) company, Glowtrack Ltd. In 1990 this holding company was renamed Virgin Music Group Ltd.

Principal subsidiaries at 30 June 1991: UK Associated Virgin Labels Ltd., label 146171, label 273159 label 311575, Circa Records Ltd., label 178559, Ten Records Ltd., label 268686, label 266376, label 221523, Virgin Studios Ltd - (label 267489), Virgin Agency Ltd. (which was the parent of label 307307 as of 1989), Virgin Overseas Ltd. (holding company for worldwide subsidiaries) - Australia - label 284469, Virgin Australia Music Pty. Ltd., Belgium - Virgin Belgium SA, Virgin Belgium Publishing SA Netherlands - label 273203, label 527706, Virgin Holdings BV Canada -Virgin Records Canada Inc., Virgin Video Canada Inc. Denmark - label 61073 Italy - Virgin Dischi S.R.L., Spain - label 358988, label 1493037 France - Virgin France S.A., label 312761 SA, Delabel SA, Greece - label 264607, Virgin Music EPE Japan - label 170748 New Zealand - Virgin Records NZ Ltd. Norway label 142802 Sweden - label 30782, label 399454 Germany - Virgin Schallplatten GmbH, label 934567 Schallplatten GmbH CokG USA - Virgin Records America, Inc., Virgin Music America, Inc., label 373790, label 368974, Caroline Records, Inc., Caroline Records, Calif. Inc., Charisma Records America, Inc., label 297325, label 276218 Hong Kong - label 352583, Virgin Music Publishers (Hong Kong) Ltd.

On 1 June 1992, Virgin Records Group Ltd. was sold by Richard Branson to label 118508 Plc., which would later become label 1032063 in 1996. From 2012 to 2017 the company was ultimately-owned by Vivendi S.A. and formed part of the Universal Music Group. On 25 April 2017 Bolloré Group became the ultimate parent. Today the Company remains an immediate subsidiary of Virgin Music Group (an unlimited entity), and is ultimately-owned by Universal Music Group N.V.

In the UK and most of Europe Virgin was distributed by EMI from 1 August 1992 and the EMI boxed catalogue numbering and barcode, price codes date from them. It was distributed in Germany by BMG until 1 August 1993 and the Benelux nations until mid-1994.

In North America, Virgin and associated labels were distributed by Atlantic/WEA untill the same date, whereupon they moved to Capitol. Again, any EMI catalogue numbering dates to after that.

Note:
The Virgin imprint (trademark) and other associated Virgin brands used by Virgin Records Ltd., its subsidiaries or affiliates have always remained under the direct control of Richard Branson through his IP holding company label 326037, which licenses the rights to use these trademarks. This company did not form part of the sale to Thorn EMI plc.

Also appears as: Virgin Records Ltd / Virgin Records Limited / Virgin Records, Ltd. / Virgin Rec Ltd