Multinational label.
Label Code: LC 0305 / LC 00305.
The Philips label was created in 1950 by the Philips Phonografische Industrie N.V. (PPI), subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Electronics company.
The label was distributed globally by Philips' local subsidiaries or licensees. In the US the label was introduced by Mercury Record Corporation in 1962.
In 1972, Philips became a PolyGram label. Following a reorganisation in the early 1980s, Polygram's classical music labels, including Philips, became part of the new Philips Classics Productions division. From then on, Philips was mainly a classical music label and most of their releases used the Philips Classics banner.
In France, the Philips label continued to be used for pop releases well into the 1990s.
In 1999, after Seagram's acquisition of Polygram, Philips became part of the Decca Music Group Limited in London. Since 2010, Decca Music Group no longer uses the Philips brand as classical music label.
PLEASE NOTE - For Releases on Sam Phillips' Sun Records Subsidary, see Phillips International (2 'L').
The 7 digits numerical catalogue numbers xxxx xxx were introduced in April 1970. Any item with such a number is after that date. The six digit plus format code xxxxxx-x catalogue numbers were introduced on selected classical CDs in August 1982 for Japanese release only. They did not appear elsewhere until early 1983.
Words such as Medium, Deluxe and Select are price codes and not part of the catalogue numbers.
Printing dates on French EPs of the late 1950s / 1960s appear as "MY" or "MMY" (e.g. "81" = August 1961 ; "118" = November 1958).
French singles:
prefix N + suffix F (1954-1957 until "N 372.461 F") | prefix B + suffix F (1957-1970)
***
-Yellow labels (1954-1958 until "B 372.580 F")
-Light Green/White or Blue/White (1958-1964 until "B 373.341 F")
-Dark Green with "Mono" (1964-1966 until "B 373.861 F")
-Dark Green without "Mono" (1966-1970)
***
1954: 372.1xx | 1955: 372.2xx | 1956: 372.3xx | 1957: 372.4xx | 1958: 372.4xx - 372.6xx | 1959: 372.6xx - 372.7xx | 1960-1961: 372.8xx - 372.9xx | 1962: 372.9xx | 1963: 373.1xx - 373.2xx | 1964: 373.3xx - 373.4xx | 1965: 373.5xx - 373.6xx | 1966: 373.7xx - 373.8xx | 1967: 373.8xx - 373.9xx / 370.5xx | 1967-1968: 370.6xx | 1968-1969: 370-7xx - 370.8xx
French EPs:
suffix NE (1954-1957 until "432.203 NE") | suffix BE (1957-1970)
***
-Dark Green or Blue labels with "Minigroove 45" (1954-1960 until "432.505 BE")
-Light Green/White or Blue/White (1960-1964 until "434.545 BE")
-Dark Green with "Mono" (1964-1966 until "434.553 BE" / "437.249 BE")
-Dark Green without "Mono" (1966-1970)
***
1954-1956: 432.0xx | 1957: 432.2xx | 1958-1959: 432.3xx | 1960-1961: 432.5xx | 1961-1962: 432.7xx / 434.5xx | 1963: 432.9xx | 1964: 434.5xx - 434.9xx / 435.1xx | 1965-1966: 434.3xx - 434.5xx / 437.0xx - 437.1xx | 1966: 437.2xx | 1967: 437.3xx | 1968: 437.4xx
Rim text on labels of German LPs "Urheber- Und ..." was replaced by "Alle Urheber- Und ..." early 1977 (or may be late 1976).
