Who owns Parlophone?
Parlophone is owned by Warner Music (the United States, NASDAQ: WMG), which has owned the brand since 1 July 2013.[1]
Evidence: Warner Music Group Corp. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2025-11-20, SEC EDGAR, 20 November 2025. Verified from filings; last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Warner Music Group Corp. verified
- Owned since
- Owner HQ
- 🇺🇸 United States, New York, New York
- Origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, London
- Founded
- 1896
- Category
- Media & entertainment › Music › Record labels
- Parent ticker
- NASDAQ: WMG
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About Parlophone
Parlophone signed the Beatles in 1962 after every other British label had turned them down. Warner Music acquired it in 2013 for about £487 million, in a divestment forced by regulators when Universal bought EMI. Its logo is a stylised pound sign, which was originally a German letter L for its founding company and has been misread as currency for a century.
What Warner Music's annual report says about Parlophone
Sentences about Parlophone from Warner Music's latest annual filing[1], copied word for word.
The purchase of Parlophone Label Group ("PLG") in 2013 strengthened the Company's presence in core European territories, with recording artists as diverse as Coldplay, David Bowie, David Guetta and Iron Maiden.
How often Warner Music names Parlophone in its annual report
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.
Ownership timeline of Parlophone
- 2013 – present Warner Music [1] verified
Where Parlophone sits in Warner Music
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Warner Music ownership tree →
See the full Warner Music brand portfolio (4) →
Other brands owned by Warner Music
Warner Music controls 4 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in media & entertainment.
Also in media & entertainment
- Atlantic Records (1947)
- Elektra Records (1950)
- Warner Records (1958)
Other brands in record labels, and who owns them
The 18 brands in record labels on Brandtree belong to 6 owners. The largest is Universal Music, with 5; Warner Music has 4.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Capitol Records | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Chrysalis Records | Reservoir | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Columbia Records | Sony | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| BMG | Bertelsmann | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| VAP | Nippon TV Holdings | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Def Jam Recordings | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Interscope Records | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
| Motown | Universal Music | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
About the owner: Warner Music
Warner Music is a publicly listed company headquartered in New York, New York, United States, founded in 1958. Brandtree records 4 brands under its control, and it is listed as NASDAQ: WMG.
Warner Music is the smallest of the three companies that control most recorded music. It was sold out of Time Warner in 2004, bought by Len Blavatnik's Access Industries in 2011, and listed again in 2020 while remaining under his control.
Warner Music: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇬🇧 Parlophone and other British brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 552 brands that began in the United Kingdom. 291 of them (53%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Parlophone among them.
- Anime Limited — TOHO 🇯🇵
- BelfastLive — Reach 🇬🇧
- Celtic FC Women — Celtic plc 🇬🇧
- Chrysalis Records — Reservoir 🇺🇸
- Country Life — Future 🇬🇧
- Eventim Apollo — CTS Eventim 🇩🇪
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Parlophone?
The parent company of Parlophone is Warner Music, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is Parlophone British or American?
Parlophone originated in the United Kingdom in 1896, but it is owned today by Warner Music, which is headquartered in the United States. So Parlophone is a British-origin brand under American ownership.
Since when has Warner Music owned Parlophone?
Warner Music has owned Parlophone since 1 July 2013.
Is Parlophone still owned by Warner Music?
Yes. As of 10 October 2026, Parlophone is still owned by Warner Music. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Warner Music Group Corp. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2025-11-20 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 10-K, published 20 November 2025; retrieved 16 September 2026.
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