Berliner Gramophone

1897 Berliner Gramophone Record
A more detailed description of this record

Emile Berliner started marketing his disc records in 1889. At first use of his disc records were leased to various toy companies, which made toy phonographs or gramophones to play them on; the audio fidelity of these earliest discs was well below that of contemporary phonograph cylinder records.

In 1890 Berliner started a company to produce his disc records in Germany, which became Deutsche Grammophon.

In 1892 he incorporated the United States Gramophone Company in Washington D.C.. This marketed the first disc records not for toys in 1894 on the Berliner Gramophone label. After various mergers, this company was to become part of the Victor Talking Machine Company, decades later purchased by RCA.

In 1898 Berliner opened up his United Kingdom branch in London. This became The Gramophone Company, then in 1900 The Gramophone & Typewriter Company, and then in 1910 His Master's Voice (HMV).

E. Berliner Gramophone of Canada was established in 1899 in Montreal and first marketed records and gramophones the following year. Early recordings were imported from masters recorded in the United States until a recording studio in Montreal was established in 1906. The Berliner name as a record label lasted longest in Canada, until 1924 when it was bought out by USA's Victor.