1888: Columbia Records, the most famous name in recorded music, is founded in the Washington, D.C., area by Edward Easton. Easton’s firm also sells Edison phonographs and cylinders.
and phonographs.
1901: Columbia begins selling the new disc records and phonographs.
1908: Columbia sells its first double-sided records.
1912: Columbia stops making cylinder records and record-players.
1923: Columbia goes into receivership and is bought by its British subsidiary.
1925: Columbia begins recording with the new “electric process” licensed from Western Electric. Columbia calls the resulting records “Vivi-Tonal.”
1926: Columbia acquires Okeh Records, whose artists include Bix Beiderbecke, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Bessie Smith. The Okeh label is later home to great country and hillbilly artists like Bob Wills.
1928: Paul Whiteman, the “King of Jazz,” leader of America’s most popular orchestra, jumps to Columbia from rival Victor.
1931, the English Columbia Graphophone Company merges with the Gramophone Company to form the legendary British label EMI. As part of the deal EMI is forced to sell American Columbia to radio manufacturers Grigsby-Grunow.
1932: Columbia tests the \"Longer Playing Record,\" which boasts five minutes per side, but abandons the experiment later that year.
1932: Impresario-in-training John Hammond brokers a deal for the U.S. Columbia label to supply recordings to EMI and British Columbia. Hammond records jazz luminaries like Fletcher Henderson and a young Benny Goodman.
1934: Grigsby-Grunow goes bankrupt and sells Columbia to the American Record Company for $75,000. Two years later, the Columbia label is essentially nonexistent.
1938: ARC is bought by the Columbia Broadcasting System for $750,000, and the Columbia label is revived.
1942-44: The American Federation of Musicians bans new recordings, forcing record labels to scour their vaults, reissue old songs, and record new material without backing musicians.
1946: Columbia releases The Voice of Frank Sinatra, arguably the first concept album.
1948: Columbia introduces the long-playing record. The LP features smaller grooves and a slower rotation speed of 33? revolutions per minute, to be the industry standard for the next 60 years.
1950: Mitch Miller joins Columbia as head of A&R. Miller’s tenure is marked by a shift toward soft, singer-oriented “pop” music, a reluctance to embrace rock ‘n’ roll, and later by a phenomenally popular TV show and accompanying records.
1953: CBS launches Epic Records, which survives well into the rock era as Columbia’s “second” label.
1955: Columbia unveils its famous \"Walking Eye\" logo, designed by Art Director Neil Fujita.
1956: Columbia releases its first stereo recordings.
1961: CBS forms CBS Records, to distribute Columbia recordings outside the USA and Canada on the CBS label.
1962: John Hammond convinces Columbia to sign Bob Dylan and release his first album, “Blowin’ In The Wind.” Dylan, dubbed “Hammond’s Folly,” becomes the most important American artist of the rock era.
1963: Barbra Streisand cuts her debut album on Columbia.
1965: Mitch Miller leaves Columbia.
1967: Clive Davis becomes Columbia Records’ president and steers the label in a more rock-oriented direction.
1972: Clive Davis is dismissed as Director of Artist Relations after an inquiry into Davis’ use of company funds for personal purposes. Davis is replaced by former head Goddard Lieberson.
1973: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., is released on Columbia by John Hammond’s latest discovery, Bruce Springsteen. The album is followed up later in the year by The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.
1983: John Hammond brings his final discovery, Stevie Ray Vaughan, to Columbia and serves as executive producer on Vaughan’s debut album.
1988: Columbia and the CBS Records unit is purchased by Sony and repositioned as Sony Music Entertainment.
2004: Bertelsmann AG's BMG unit – the old RCA Victor – is merged with Sony Music Entertainment and renamed Sony BMG.
2008: Sony buys out Bertlesmann's share of Sony BMG and renamed the company Sony Music Entertainment.1961: CBS forms CBS Records, to distribute Columbia recordings outside the USA and Canada on the CBS label.