Columbia Records is owned by Sony (Japan, NYSE: SONY), which acquired the brand on 5 January 1988, as part of a $2 billion deal that also included Sony Music.[1][2] Columbia Records was founded in 1887 in the United States and was independent until 1988.
Evidence: Sony Group Corporation Annual Report on Form 20-F filed 2026-06-18, SEC EDGAR, 18 June 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Columbia Records is the oldest surviving record label in the world, founded in 1887, and introduced the long-playing vinyl album in 1948. Its artists have included Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Beyoncé and Adele. Its name is a survival from the District of Columbia, where the company began selling phonograph cylinders, and it is unrelated to the film studio that shares the word.
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
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See the full Sony brand portfolio (8) →
Sony controls 8 brands on Brandtree, 5 of them in media & entertainment.
The 18 brands in record labels on Brandtree belong to 6 owners. The largest is Universal Music, with 5; Sony has 3.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Capitol Records | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Chrysalis Records | Reservoir | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Atlantic Records | Warner Music | 🇺🇸 United States |
| BMG | Bertelsmann | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| VAP | Nippon TV Holdings | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Def Jam Recordings | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Interscope Records | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Motown | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
Sony is a publicly listed company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1946. Brandtree records 8 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: SONY.
Sony was founded in a bombed-out Tokyo department store in 1946 and became a consumer electronics giant before buying its way into Hollywood and music. Entertainment now produces more of its profit than electronics, which is a reversal of what the name still suggests to most people.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Columbia Records among them.
Sony acquired CBS Records for about $2 billion, buying the oldest record label in the world along with it. It was the first of two purchases that turned a Japanese electronics manufacturer into a major American media owner, and it drew political alarm in the United States at the time.
The parent company of Columbia Records is Sony, a publicly listed company headquartered in Japan.
Columbia Records originated in the United States in 1887, but it is owned today by Sony, which is headquartered in Japan. So Columbia Records is an American-origin brand under Japanese ownership.
Sony completed its acquisition of Columbia Records on 5 January 1988, after announcing the deal on 18 November 1987. The deal, which also included Sony Music, was valued at $2 billion.
Columbia Records was an independent company from its founding in 1887 until Sony acquired it in 1988.
Yes. As of 16 September 2026, Columbia Records is still owned by Sony. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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