Label Guide: Odeon

Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label.

In 1904 Odeon launched the first double-sided gramophone record. The Berlin Odeon plant recorded, processed and exported records to many countries. There were extensive national catalogs for some of these countries: Greece, Scandinavian countries, India, all of Arabia, Netherlands, Estonia, Portugal, South and Central America, Rumania, Turkey, Hungary, China, Dutch East Indies, Siam, the Balkan countries etc. In the 1920s and 1930s about 70% of the German Odeon production was exported.

After World War II the Odeon label survived as an EMI subsidiary in many non-Anglophone markets like West Germany, Japan, Spain, Scandinavia, Latin America, and France. The Odeon Dome logo was kept alive in most of these markets, but they all usually had their very own label design.

This guide is focused on German and French Odeon labels, but due to the huge number of label variations, not just in Germany and France but also internationally, we won't even attempt to compile a complete label guide for Odeon. Instead we present you an Odeon guide for Germany and France, beginning with the Beat era in the early 1960s, and additionally a number of label samples from all over the world.