King Record Co., Ltd. | |
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Parent company | Parent: Kodansha Shareholders: TBS (2005 – present) |
Founded | January 1931 |
Status | Active |
Genre | Various |
Country of origin | Japan |
Location | Bunkyo, Tokyo |
Official website | company |
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Kingrecords_Company.jpg/220px-Kingrecords_Company.jpg)
King Record Co., Ltd. (キングレコード株式会社, Kingu Rekōdo Kabushiki gaisha),[1] commonly known as King Records, is a Japanese record company founded in January 1931 as a division of the Japanese publisher Kodansha. It initially began operating as an independent entity in the 1950s. It later became part of the Otowa Group. Today, King Records is one of Japan's largest record companies which is not owned by a multinational entity. The label's headquarters are in Bunkyo, Tokyo.
The label's name is actually based from the now-defunct Kingu magazine published by Kodansha from 1924 to 1957.
Sub-labels
Its Starchild label, was managed by animation producer Toshimichi Ōtsuki, specialised in anime music and film. King Records also distributes the Up-Front Works–owned and –operated labels Piccolo Town and Rice Music, and also released video games for the PC-88, Famicom, Game Boy Advance, and MSX2 platforms. On February 1, 2016, King Records restructured Starchild and renamed it King Amusement Creative.[2]
Paddle Wheel Records is a division of King Record Co.[3]
You! Be Cool was the official sub-label for AKB48.
Venus-B is the company's official urban music imprint.
Evil Line Records is the label's new division, established in April 2014, and comprises artists like Momoiro Clover Z and Meg, among others.[4][5][6]
Nexus is the label's division specialized for metal/underground music from Japan also overseas. Notable artists in it label are Earthshaker, etc.
Seven Seas is the label's division focusing on world music from overseas artists in many genres.
Notable artists
- Bolbbalgan4[7]
- Stomu Yamashta
- Inoran
- Kana Uemura
- Diedrich Hartmann
- Nogod
- Takeshi Terauchi
- Miho Nakayama
- Hiroko Moriguchi
- Morning Musume
- Tomomi Itano
- Atsuko Maeda
- Yuki Kashiwagi (AKB48)
- Momoland[8]
- Miss Monochrome
- Aice5 (Evil Line)
- Earphones (Evil Line)
- Hypnosis Mic (Evil Line)
- Charisma House (Evil Line)
- Otsuki Miyako
- Momoiro Clover Z (Evil Line, formerly Starchild)
- Meg (Evil Line)
- Lynch.
- Theatre Brook
- Haruka Fukuhara
- Sawa (Bellwood)
- Park Junyoung
- Hiroki Nanami
- Jan Linton (as dr jan guru) "Planet Japan"
- Rock A Japonica (Evil Line)
- Senri Kawaguchi
- Block B[9]
- Yuki Uchida
- Nana Mizuki (King Amusement Creative)
- Mamoru Miyano (King Amusement Creative)
- Suneohair (King Amusement Creative)
- Ryoko Shiraishi (King Amusement Creative)
- angela (King Amusement Creative)
- Ai Nonaka (King Amusement Creative)
- Yoko Takahashi (King Amusement Creative)
- Soichiro Hoshi (King Amusement Creative)
- Sumire Uesaka (King Amusement Creative)
- Inori Minase (King Amusement Creative)
- Shouta Aoi (King Amusement Creative)
- Satomi Sato (King Amusement Creative)
- Yuuma Uchida (King Amusement Creative)
- Yui Horie (King Amusement Creative)
- Niji no Conquistador (King Amusement Creative)
- B2takes! (King Amusement Creative)
- Miho Okasaki (King Amusement Creative)
- AMATSUKI
- AIMI (King Amusement Creative)
- Mardelas (Nexus)
- Light Bringer (Nexus)
Former artists
- Alice Nine (2005-2010; to Tokuma Japan Communications)
- AKB48 (You, Be Cool!) (2008-2023; to Universal Music Japan)
- CHAGE and ASKA (1985-1999; to Toshiba EMI)
- Eri Kitamura (2011-2016; to TMS Music)
- GFriend (2018-2021)
- Kagrra,
- Masumi Asano
- Matenrou Opera (to self-owned amairo records)
- Mikako Komatsu (2012-2016; to Toy's Factory)
- Megumi Hayashibara (1991-2019; freelance)
- Masami Okui (1993-2004; to Geneon until 2011 when she signed with Lantis)
- Michiyo Azusa
- Minori Chihara (2004)
- Sung Si-kyung (2023 -)
- Neko Jump (2006-2011; Former overseas partner of Kamikaze)
- Sound Horizon to Pony Canyon
- the pillows (1994-2006; to avex trax)
- The Gazette (2005-2010; to Sony Music Japan)
- TWO-MIX (1995-1998; to Warner Music Japan)
- YuiKaori
- Yui Sakakibara to 5pb. Records
- Yui Ogura (2012-2022; King Amusement Creative; to Nippon Columbia)[10]
- Yukari Tamura
- Yuko Ogura
See also
- Starchild, the former label under King Records
References
- ^ "会社情報". Archived from the original on 2022-07-02. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
- ^ "Starchild Label Restructured as King Amusement Creative". Anime News Network. January 30, 2016. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
- ^ "New York Unit – Now's the Time" (CD liner notes). Paddle Wheel Records. KICJ 108.
- ^ "Evil Line Records". Archived from the original on 2019-11-02. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
- ^ "Evil Line Records". Discogs. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
- ^ "Evil Line Records Official Store". Archived from the original on 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
- ^ "BOL4 Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ "Momoland Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ "Block B Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ 📝 小倉唯が所属レーベルを日本コロムビアに移籍。第1弾シングルを今冬リリース予定
External links
- King Records Japan (in Japanese)
- King Records Japan (in English)
- King Records Japan corporate websites
- King Records Japan NEWS websites
- King Records Japan PLAYLIST websites
- King Records Japan Twitter
- King Records Japan Instagram
- King Records Japan TikTok
- King Amusement Creative (in Japanese)
- EVIL LINE RECORDS (in Japanese)
- HEROIC LINE (in Japanese)