Editing Virgin Records (section)

==History==
[[File:virginrecordlogo.jpg|left|200 px|thumb|Virgin logo designed by [[Roger Dean (artist)|Roger Dean]] for the fledgling Virgin Records label]]
Branson and Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin Records and Tapes on [[Notting Hill Gate]], London, specializing in [[krautrock]] imports, and offering bean bags and free vegetarian food for the benefit of customers listening to the music on offer.<ref>{{cite news | last = Lott | first = Tim | title = The day my music died | newspaper = [[The Guardian]]|location=London | date = 26 March 2004 | url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,1177956,00.html | access-date = 17 September 2007 }}</ref> The first real store was above a shoe shop at the [[Tottenham Court Road]] end of [[Oxford Street]]. The name '''Virgin''', according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from [[Tessa Watts]], a colleague of his, when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin – as they were all new to business – like "virgins".<ref>[http://www.inc.com/magazine/19871101/6069_pagen_2.html ''Then Came Branson''] by Erik Larson at Inc Magazine Online, 1 November 1986, URL accessed 7 July 2011</ref>

After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label. The original Virgin logo (known to fans as the "Gemini" or "Twins" logo) was designed by English artist and illustrator [[Roger Dean (artist)|Roger Dean]]: a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed lizard and the word "Virgin" in Dean's familiar script. A variation on the logo was used for the spin-off [[Caroline Records]] label.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/forty-years-of-virgin-how-richard-branson-s-eccentric-record-label-changed-the-charts-8629363.html|title=Forty years of Virgin: How Richard Branson's eccentric record label|date=2013-05-24|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|access-date=2017-12-27}}</ref>

The first release on the label was the [[progressive rock]] album ''[[Tubular Bells]]'' by multi-instrumentalist [[Mike Oldfield]], who was discovered by Tom Newman and brought to Simon Draper – who eventually persuaded Richard and Nik to present it as their first release 
in 1973, produced by Tom Newman, for which the fledgling label garnered unprecedented acclaim.<ref name="timeline">{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/search?q=simon+draper+virgin+records#q=%22virgin+records%22+company+history&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=ivns&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=m04WTpC8EY72swO-u8TsDQ&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CGUQ5wIwCg&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=47420160db229f25&biw=970&bih=772 |title=Simon Draper: Virgin Records – timeline|website=Google.com |date=12 August 1978 |access-date=28 February 2013}}</ref> This was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album ''[[Phaedra (album)|Phaedra]]'' by [[Tangerine Dream]] (which went Top 20), and ''[[The Faust Tapes]]'' and ''[[Faust IV]]'' by [[Faust (band)|Faust]]. ''The Faust Tapes'' album retailed for 49p (the price of a 7" single) and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band a massive audience as the album sold over 60,000 copies<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.faust-pages.com/publications/theraver.melodymaker.html|title=Archived article |access-date=17 April 2021 |magazine=[[Melody Maker]]}}</ref> and also reached number 12 in the charts, though it was later redacted its spot on the grounds of the cover price.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://monolithcocktail.com/a-z/archive-f-k/faust/ |title=Faust|website=Monolithcocktail.com  |date=17 June 2010|access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://larecord.com/interviews/2011/04/25/faust-in-a-chaotic-state-of-mind |title=FAUST: IN A CHAOTIC STATE OF MIND|website=Larecord.com |access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref> Other early albums include [[Gong (band)|Gong]]'s ''[[Flying Teapot (album)|Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt. 1)]]'', which [[Daevid Allen]] has been quoted as having never been paid for.{{Citation needed|reason=no mention of this on Daevid Allen, Gong, or album articles|date=January 2010}}
<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.virgin.com/virgin-companies/virgin-records |title=Virgin Records |website=Virgin.com |access-date=July 13, 2024}}</ref>

The first single release for the label was [[Kevin Coyne]]'s "Marlene" (b/w "Everybody Says"), taken from his album ''[[Marjory Razorblade]]'' and released in August 1973.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/a-brief-history-of-virgin-records|title=A Brief History of Virgin Records|website=Loudersound.com|date=18 December 2015|access-date=4 May 2018}}</ref> Coyne was the second artist signed to the label after Oldfield.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kevin-coyne-676188.html|title=Kevin Coyne|website=The Independent|location=London|date=4 December 2004|access-date=4 May 2018}}</ref>     

===Rebranding===
Although Virgin was initially one of the key labels of English and European progressive rock, the 1977 signing of the [[Sex Pistols]] (who had already been signed and then dropped by both [[EMI Records|EMI]] and [[A&M Records|A&M]]) reinvented the label PM in a new-wave outpost, a move that plunged the record company into the mainstream of the [[punk rock]] era.<ref name="timeline"/> Under the guidance of [[Tessa Watts]], Virgin's Head of Publicity (and later, also Director of Production), the Pistols rocketed the label to success.<ref>[http://www.transatlanticrecords.com/biography.html ''Nathan Joseph – Renaissance Man''] by Transatlantic Records at Transatlantic Records Online, accessed 2 June 2010.</ref> Shortly afterwards, police raided the Nottingham record shop for having a window display of the Sex Pistols' album ''[[Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols]]'' in the window. Afterwards the label signed other [[New wave music|new wave]] groups: [[Public Image Ltd]], [[Boxer (band)|Boxer]], [[Culture Club]], [[Fingerprintz]], [[Gillan (band)|Gillan]], [[Holly and the Italians]], [[The Human League]] (whose "[[Don't You Want Me]]" was the label's first chart-topping single, in 1981), [[Magazine (band)|Magazine]], [[Skids (band)|Skids]], [[the Motors]], [[Penetration (band)|Penetration]], [[the Ruts]], [[Shooting Star (band)|Shooting Star]], [[Simple Minds]], and [[XTC]].

After modified versions of the twins label came the red, white and blue design introduced in 1975, which coincided with the height of punk and new wave.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.45cat.com/label/virgin/2 |title=Virgin Label Discography – UK – Page 2 |website=45cat.com |access-date=2017-07-21}}</ref> The current Virgin logo (known informally as "the scrawl") was created in 1978, commissioned by Simon Draper, then managing director of Virgin Records Limited. Brian Cooke of Cooke Key Associates commissioned a graphic designer to produce a stylised signature. The logo was first used on Mike Oldfield's ''[[Incantations (album)|Incantations]]'' album in 1978 and by the Virgin Records label exclusively until gradually other parts of the [[Virgin Group]] adopted it, including [[Virgin Atlantic]], [[Virgin Mobile]] and [[Virgin Money (brand)|Virgin Money]].

===Purchase by Thorn EMI===
Virgin Records was sold by Branson to [[Thorn EMI]] in June 1992 for a reported US$1&nbsp;billion (around £560&nbsp;million) ({{Inflation|US|1000000000|1992|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.virgin.com/aboutvirgin/allaboutvirgin/thewholestory/default.asp?era=199 |title=About Us – About The Virgin Group |website=Virgin.com |access-date=28 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060108031457/http://www.virgin.com/aboutvirgin/allaboutvirgin/thewholestory/default.asp?era=199 |archive-date=8 January 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/m4.html#m_202 |title=EUROPA – Competition – Cases from 200 to 249 |website=Ec.europa.eu |access-date=28 February 2013}}</ref> with a special non-competition clause that would prevent Branson from founding another recording company during the five years following the agreement (see the final paragraph in EU Merger Decision IV/M202 of 27 April 1992). It now faces competition from Branson's new label: [[V2 Records]]. Branson sold Virgin Records to fund [[Virgin Atlantic]], which at that time was coming under intense anti-competitive pressure from [[British Airways]]. In 1993, BA settled a libel action brought by Branson over BA's "[[Dirty Tricks (scandal)|dirty tricks]]" campaign, giving him £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline.

After being acquired by Thorn EMI, Virgin launched several subsidiaries like [[Real World Studios|Realworld Records]], [[Innocent Records]], blues speciality label [[Point Blank Records]], and indie music label [[Hut Records|Hut Recordings]], and continued signing new and established artists like [[Korn]], [[A Fine Frenzy]], [[Thirty Seconds to Mars]], [[Tina Turner]], [[Beenie Man]], [[The Rolling Stones]], [[Spice Girls]], [[The Smashing Pumpkins]], [[We Are Scientists]], [[The Kooks]], [[dcTalk]] (mainstream releases, contract ended in 2000), [[Belinda Carlisle]], [[Meat Loaf]], [[Placebo (band)|Placebo]], [[Janet Jackson]] (contract ended in 2006), [[Daft Punk]] (contract ended in 2008), [[My Favorite Highway]], [[Does It Offend You, Yeah?]], [[The Future Sound of London]], [[The Chemical Brothers]], [[Brooke Allison]], [[The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus]], [[The Almost]], [[Mariah Carey]] (contract ended in 2002), [[N.E.R.D]], [[Laura Marling]], [[Swami (band)|Swami]], [[RBD]], [[Thalía]] and [[Priscilla Renea]].

Because business models increasingly diverged, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of demerger proposals on 16 August 1996. The resulting media company became the EMI Group.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/vote-solid-for-thorn-demerger-1310081.html|title=Vote solid for Thorn demerger|website=The Independent|location=London|date=17 August 1996}}</ref> In 1997, Virgin absorbed the remainder of [[EMI Records|EMI USA]], which earlier consolidated [[EMI America Records]] and [[Manhattan Records]], with [[Capitol Records]] acquiring EMI's other American operations, and in 1998, opened a [[country music]] division called Virgin Records Nashville, of which record producer [[Scott Hendricks]] was president.<ref name="sound">{{cite book|editor=Frank Hoffman|title=Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound|date=12 November 2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FOSAgAAQBAJ&q=%22virgin+nashville%22&pg=PA973|page=973|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135949501}}</ref> The label's signees comprised [[Julie Reeves]], [[Jerry Kilgore (singer)|Jerry Kilgore]], [[Roy D. Mercer]], [[Tom Mabe]], [[Chris Cagle]], [[Clay Davidson]], and [[River Road (band)|River Road]]. In 2001, Virgin Nashville closed and its roster was folded into Capitol Records' Nashville division.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YxMEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22virgin+nashville%22&pg=PA6|title=Virgin Nashville to be folded into Capitol|date=3 February 2001|magazine=Billboard|access-date=24 May 2014}}</ref>

===Further mergers===
{{Main|Capitol Music Group|Virgin Music Group}}
Capitol Records and Virgin Records America merged in 2007 to form [[Capitol Music Group]] after a massive restructuring of EMI Group Ltd.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rapbasement.com/content/view/2380/35/ |title=Capitol Records Merges With Virgin |website=Rapbasement.com |access-date=28 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202172212/http://www.rapbasement.com/content/view/2380/35/ |archive-date=2 February 2007 }}</ref> Stepping down as chief executive of Capitol Records was Andy Slater, with Jason Flom, former executive of Virgin, taking the reins as chairman and CEO of the newly created company.

Universal Music Group (UMG) purchased EMI in 2012, thus acquiring Virgin. UMG absorbed Virgin's UK operations to create [[Virgin EMI Records]] in March 2013.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.emimusic.com/blog/2013/universal-music-uk-launches-virgin-emi-records-2/ |title=EMI Music &#124; Universal Music UK launches Virgin EMI Records |access-date=2013-04-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430133917/http://www.emimusic.com/blog/2013/universal-music-uk-launches-virgin-emi-records-2/ |archive-date=30 April 2013 }}</ref>

On 16 June 2020, Universal rebranded Virgin EMI Records as EMI Records and named Rebecca Allen (former president of UMG's Decca label) as the label's president, with Virgin Records now operating as an imprint of latter label.<ref>{{cite web|author=Mark Sutherland|title=Virgin EMI rebrands as EMI, Rebecca Allen appointed as label president|url=https://www.musicweek.com/labels/read/virgin-emi-rebrands-as-emi-rebecca-allen-appointed-as-label-president/080102|website=Music Week}}</ref>

In February 2021, the [[Universal Music Group]] announced that it would rebrand the [[Caroline Records|Caroline Music Group]] as Virgin Music Label & Artist Services. The name change was "inspired and influenced by the spirit and ethos of the iconic Virgin Records label".<ref name=rebranding/><ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-02-18|title=Virgin record label to relaunch backed by Universal Music and Richard Branson|url=https://inews.co.uk/news/media/virgin-record-label-relaunch-backed-universal-music-richard-branson-877916|access-date=2021-02-19|website=inews.co.uk}}</ref> In September 2022, UMG consolidated Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, [[Ingrooves|Ingrooves Music Group]], and the recently acquired mtheory Artist Partnerships as part of the newly launched division [[Virgin Music Group]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-13 |title=UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP LAUNCHES VIRGIN MUSIC GROUP |url=https://www.universalmusic.com/universal-music-group-launches-virgin-music-group/ |access-date=2022-11-24 |website=UMG}}</ref> UMG also appointed mtheory founders JT Myers and Nat Pastor as co-CEOs of the new division.