Zagreb, London, Berlin, New York : The Origins of the Record Industry in Croatia (1902-1939)

Abstract

The record industry grew rapidly between 1900 and 1914. Although record production was concentrated in the largest industrialised countries, companies set out to create a global market by recording songs in all major languages. Typically, they sent their engineers on expeditions which took them to major European cities. They made recordings with local artists selected by the company’s local representatives. The recording masters were shipped to a factory to be processed, and the finished pressings sent back to local retailers. The paper will discuss in detail the activities of the Gramophone Company (UK), which made at least 500 recordings in Zagreb and Osijek between 1902 and 1913. The company had several competitors, including the German Lindström group (Odeon, Beka, Parlophon) and Pathé in France, and their activities will also be considered. The Great War caused a break in recording, but after the war the companies returned. Gramophone was back in Zagreb in 1924, and the Germans followed. A new peak in global record sales was reached in 1929. Meanwhile, American record companies, especially Victor and Columbia, created large catalogues of »foreign-language« records for immigrants, including Croatian-Americans. They also issued material recorded by their European associates, such as Gramophone Co., for the American market. The early record industry had been dominated by a small number of multi-national companies which held the basic patents on recording technology. After World War I, local enterprises also entered the market, as independent record companies were started in smaller countries such as Sweden (Sonora), Latvia (Bellaccord), Czechoslovakia (Esta) and Yugoslavia (Edison Bell Penkala).