CBS

Multinational label.
Label Code: LC 0149 / LC 00149

Unofficial releases which have a printed "CBS" logo can be found here: CBS (2)

The CBS label may also appear on a few releases as CBS Records, which also goes here.

label 567392, former owner of the various CBS companies, was established in 1928, and in 1961, its recorded music division CBS Records was founded although the CBS brand did not appear until 1962 (as below) with the exception of South Africa which (independently of this process) was using CBS from 1 January 1956. It was initially set up to distribute and market releases on the CBS label overseas, from their US catalog owned by their subsidiary label 269353.

This was mainly for Columbia releases due to trademark copyrights. label 567392 couldn't use that brand outside the US, because label 293204 (EMI) subsidiary label 97841 (later label 253617) owned the rights to the Columbia brand in most of the rest of the world, and Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. still has the rights to the name in Japan.

label 567392 set up a number of companies to market CBS releases. In Europe, the first to launch was the UK, where the CBS label was launched on May 1, 1962. It was initially distributed by label 293581 until the acquisition of label 142275 in 1964, which was renamed label 1105348 on April 1, 1965, and subsequently took this role. The rest of Europe followed. Greece was in September 1962, Spain in October, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden were in December 1962, label 109547 in France, label 286313 in the Netherlands and label 46221 in Germany were all in February 1963.

South and Central America introduced the CBS label in August 1962 and Asia in July of the same year.

In Australia and New Zealand, the CBS label replaced the Coronet (2) label in January 1963.

These companies also used the CBS label to release records by locally signed artists.

In 1981 CBS introduced CX noise reduction technology for vinyl records and started to release CX encoded records. To properly play those records user is required to use CX encoder.
Playback without decoder is possible but then quality is potentially worse then for non CX encoded records. CX encoded records (from CBS or other record labels) are noted with CX logo on the record label or cover. Additionally for CBS all records with catalog number starting with 'CBS CX' are CX encoded. But CBS was also releasing those records with normal release numbers.

Please put "CX Encoded" text in Format Free Text field to properly tag CX encoded releases.

On January 5, 1988, CBS Records, including the sublabels Columbia and Epic, were sold by label 211334 (formerly known as label 567392) to label 353657 of Japan. label 211334 granted label 353657 a temporary license to use the CBS brand for three years. label 353657 acquired the international rights for Columbia from EMI Records Ltd. on October 15, 1990.

label 353657 began using Columbia as a worldwide label instead of CBS on January 1, 1991, except in Spain and Japan, where the rights were owned respectively by BMG and Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. The holding company CBS Records Inc. was renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc. on the same date. The rights to the CBS brand were returned to label 211334 label 353657 acquired the rights for Columbia in Spain on August 5, 2004 when Sony BMG Music Entertainment was established.

On December 15, 2006, label 272286, the successor of label 211334, revived the CBS Records brand. The label uses CBS' television networks and its other mass media platforms to market their artists. They also release soundtracks of CBS television shows. The new CBS Records label is not related to the former CBS Records business or its artists or assets.