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| Chrysalis Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1968; 56 years ago (1968) |
| Founder | Chris Wright Terry Ellis |
| Status | UK and Europe: Independent record company, owned by Reservoir Media Management Rest of the world: defunct, merged into Universal Music Group |
| Distributor(s) | U.S. and Canadian catalogues including those of Ramones, Robbie Williams and Belinda Carlisle: Universal Music Group
Most non-North American catalogues, plus the rights to artists not originally signed to Chrysalis: Blue Raincoat Music/Reservoir Media Management
Catalogues of Spandau Ballet, Jethro Tull, Ramones and The Proclaimers: Warner Music Group
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| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Official website | https://www.blueraincoatmusic.com/chrysalisrecords/ |
Chrysalis Records (/ˈkrɪsəlɪs/) is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis.[1] It started as the Ellis-Wright Agency.[2]
In an interview for Jethro Tull's video 20 Years of Jethro Tull, released in 1988, Wright states "Chrysalis Records might have come into being anyway, you never know what might have happened, but Chrysalis Records really came into being because Jethro Tull couldn't get a record deal and MGM couldn't even get their name right on the record". This was after the single "Sunshine Day/Aeroplane" was incorrectly credited to 'Jethro Toe'.
Chrysalis entered into a licensing deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records for distribution, based on the success of bands like Jethro Tull, Ten Years After and Procol Harum, which were promoted by the label. Jethro Tull signed with Reprise Records in the United States, which led Chrysalis to an American distribution deal with Reprise's parent company, Warner Bros. Records. This lasted from 1972 until U.S. Chrysalis switched to independent distribution in 1976. PolyGram handled international distribution and Festival Records covered Australia and New Zealand. In 1973, it signed British rock band UFO. Towards the end of the 1970s, the label began to extend its range of music, incorporating acts from the punk rock scene such as Generation X. The Chrysalis offshoot 2 Tone Records brought in bands such as The Specials and The Selecter.[3]
In 1979, Chrysalis bought and distributed U.S. folk label Takoma Records, naming manager/producer Denny Bruce as president, who signed The Fabulous Thunderbirds and T-Bone Burnett. Jon Monday who was Vice President of Takoma Records prior to the acquisition continued as General Manager,[4] later becoming Director of Marketing of Chrysalis Records.
Chrysalis made history in 1979 by creating the first "music video album", a videocassette featuring a corresponding music video for each song on Blondie's Eat to the Beat album (released at the same time as the LP).
In the 1980s, Chrysalis was at the forefront of the British new romantic movement with bands such as Gen X, Ultravox, and Spandau Ballet. The 1980s proved to be the most successful time for the label, whose roster then included Billy Idol, Pat Benatar, Blondie and Huey Lewis and the News.[5] Chrysalis also distributed Animal Records, the short-lived label founded by Blondie guitarist, Chris Stein. In 1983, after the label re-established itself in New York, Eric Heckman, formally of Atlantic and Epic Records promotion took over as Senior Director of Promotion and Marketing. Also in 1983, Daniel Glass moved to Chrysalis as Director of New Music Marketing, advancing later to Senior Vice President. During the next two years Chrysalis broke Huey Lewis and the News, Billy Idol and Spandau Ballet in the United States, whilst Pat Benatar continued to find success on both the traditional and dance music charts.
In 1984, Chrysalis bought Ensign Records, a record label Nigel Grainge started in 1976 (with the label's name coming from the idea that 'N. signs' as in 'Nigel Signs') which would go on to have The Waterboys, World Party and Sinéad O'Connor on its roster in the late 1980s.[6][7][8] Ensign joined TV marketing/compilations company Dover Records and dance label Cooltempo[9][10][11] as part of the Chrysalis family,[12] with Grainge staying on to run the label that he founded.
50% of the Chrysalis Records label was sold in 1989, then the remaining half in 1991 to Thorn EMI,[5] with the Chrysalis Group (primarily a music publisher with other interests in radio and television production) setting up new indie labels such as Echo and Papillon in the mid 1990s.[13] Chrysalis Records was folded into EMI subsidiary and flagship label EMI Records in 2005, with catalogue and artists such as Starsailor being shifted to EMI's main imprints. In 2010, BMG Rights Management bought Chrysalis Music's assets (the publishing division and The Echo Label),.[14]
In September 2012, after acquiring EMI's record labels, Universal Music Group offered to divest several record labels, including EMI's Chrysalis and Parlophone, in order to meet the European Commission's demands.[15] The deal did not include Chrysalis' North American catalogue (which was folded into Capitol Records) or Robbie Williams (who was transferred to Island Records).
In February 2013, Warner Music Group announced that it would acquire many of EMI's European record labels, including Chrysalis and Parlophone, for £487 million. In July 2013, WMG completed its purchase of the Parlophone Label Group.[16]
Two weeks after announcing its acquisition of Parlophone, Warner Music agreed to sell roughly 30 percent of its own catalogue to independent record labels.[17]
Chrysalis Records was bought in May 2016 from WMG in a deal led by Blue Raincoat Music's Jeremy Lascelles and Robin Millar. The agreement saw the co-founder and original owner of Chrysalis, Chris Wright, reunited with the label as non-executive chairman, 27 years after selling the company to EMI.[18] Former Virgin Media boss Robert Devereux was also part of the original consortium.[19]
After the 2016 purchase, Warner Music kept the rights to namely Spandau Ballet, The Proclaimers, Jethro Tull and the Ramones, whilst Universal Music kept the rights to Chrysalis' American, Canadian and some British artists.
Chrysalis Records has represented over 20,000 recordings comprising many British and other, chiefly American, rock and pop tracks from the 1960s to 1990s. Artists on the roster include The Specials, Sinéad O'Connor, The Waterboys, Ten Years After, Debbie Harry, Fun Boy Three, Ultravox, Lucinda Williams, Dario G, Generation X, the Two Tone label, Grant Lee Buffalo, Everything but the Girl, Athlete, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Suzi Quatro, Steve Harley, Naked Eyes and many more.
In 2018, the Cooltempo label was relaunched by Blue Raincoat Music[20][21][22] with the release of the Eye Ring EPbyFrancesca Lombardo[23] and Infinity Ink's debut album House of Infinity.[24] In August 2019, music rights company, Reservoir, partnered with Blue Raincoat, to make the Chrysalis record label part of Reservoir's extended global infrastructure and network.[25]
Chrysalis Records relaunched itself as a front line label in February 2020, marking a return to releasing new music for the first time in over two decades.[26] The first signing was in partnership with award winning independent label Partisan Records.[27] The labels came together to sign British singer/songwriter Laura Marling in a fully co-branded global release. As the first project released on Chrysalis' re-launched frontline label, Marling's album, Song for Our Daughter, debuted in April 2020 to critical acclaim and a Mercury Prize nomination.[28]
In September 2020, Chrysalis signed the indie singer-songwriter Liz Phair.[29] Her raw lyrical style made her a trailblazer for a raft of female artistsinalternative music, when she began to make records at the start of the 1990s.[30] Phair's first album in a decade, Soberish, came out later in 2021.[31][32]
On 6 August 2021, the second album from Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay's project, Lump (styled in all caps),[33] titled Animal[34][35][36] charted at number 65 on the UK Albums Chart,[37] and was one of the Top 20 selling albums for that week (6–12 August 2021).[38] Chrysalis also reissued the first six albums by De La Soul on physical, digital and streaming platforms in early 2023;[39] those albums were originally released by Tommy Boy, which, like Chrysalis, is also owned by Reservoir Media.
On July 2023, The Endless Coloured Ways was released under the Chrysalis Records label. It is a collection of songs by singer/songwriter Nick Drake, performed and recorded by 30 artists, including Fontaines D.C., Guy Garvey, Aurora, Feist, Self Esteem and David Gray.[40]
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