| 1887 | Emile Berliner demonstrates the first gramaphone, the technical foundation of the business. |
| 1897 | The Gramophone Company and Columbia Phonograph open for business in London. |
| 1898 |
The Gramophone Company makes its first recordings.
Branches opened in Germany, France, Italy and central Europe. |
| 1899 | The Gramophone Company buys Francis Barraud's painting, 'His Master's Voice' (with 'Nipper' the dog) and adopts the image and title as its trademark. |
| 1900 | Gramophone Company opens offices in Russia and Australia. |
| 1901 |
10 inch shellac disc introduced.
Gramophone Company opens offices in India. |
| 1902 |
Gramophone Company opens offices in Japan and record pressing plant in Russia.
Tenor Enrico Caruso becomes Gramophone Company's first major artist. In his first studio session he recorded 10 songs in two hours. |
| 1903 |
Gramophone Company presence established in China.
The 78 rpm 12-inch shellac disc introduced. |
| 1904 | Gramophone Company Ltd is listed on the London Stock Exchange. |
| 1906 | 60% of Gramophone Company profits come from outside the UK. |
| 1912 | Gramophone Company now has factories operating in Austria, England, France, Germany, India, Poland, Spain, Russia and sales Branches 11 countries. |
| 1913 | One-third of British households now own gramophones. |
| 1914 | Gramophone Company sells nearly four million records a year. |
| 1917 |
German and Russian Gramophone Company businesses lost as a result of World War I.
Columbia Phonograph renamed Columbia Graphophone . |
| 1921 | Composer Sir Edward Elgar opens the first HMV shop on Oxford Street, London. |
| 1925 |
Gramophone Company starts using an electrical, rather than mechanical, sound recording system.
Gramophone Company establishes Electrola company in Germany. |
| 1926 |
O, for the wings of a dove by Ernest Lough is the Gramophone Company's first million-selling release. |
| 1927 | Columbia Graphophone acquires controlling interest in the parent company of the Parlophone label. |
| 1930 |
Gramophone Company opens in Greece.
The Gramophone Company's artist roster includes Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Thomas Beecham, Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwanglar. |
| 1931 |
Gramophone Company merges with Columbia Graphophone to form Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). The new company has operations in 19 countries.
EMI scientist Alan Blumlein patents the technology for stereo recording.
The world famous recording studios at Abbey Road in London are opened. |
| 1946 |
EMI signs many new artists including Herbert von Karajan and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
EMI establishes a European licensing agreement with Hollywood studio MGM. |
| 1948 | Long playing 33rpm vinyl records introduced in the USA. |
| 1951 | EMI releases its first 33rpm vinyl LP in France. UK releases begin in 1952. |
| 1952 |
EMI releases its first 45rpm singles.
Maria Callas signs with EMI.
EMI and Angel Records are launched as labels in the US. |
| 1955 | EMI acquires Capitol Records in Los Angeles, one of the largest record labels in the US whose roster includes Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Les Paul and Gene Vincent. |
| 1956 | EMI releases the first Elvis Presley hits outside North and South America under a license deal with RCA. |
| 1957 |
EMI Records UK label established.
EMI opens company in Mexico.
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| 1958 |
EMI releases the first stereo LP.
EMI signs Cliff Richard and releases his first single, Move It. |
| 1960 | EMI issues its last new 78rpm release in the UK. |
| 1961 | EMI establishes a joint venture record company with Toshiba in Japan. |
| 1962 |
EMI signs The Beatles and releases their first single, Love Me Do.
Capitol Records releases the first Beach Boys album, Surfin' Safari. |
| 1964 | Eight EMI artists hold the number one position in the British singles charts for a total of 41 weeks. |
| 1966 | EMI releases its first pre-recorded cassettes. |
| 1967 | EMI signs Pink Floyd. |
| 1969 | EMI buys Keith Prowse Music Publishing and Central Songs. |
| 1972 | EMI signs Queen. |
| 1973 | EMI purchases Affiliated Music Publishers. |
| 1974 | EMI Music Publishing formed. |
| 1976 | EMI Music Publishing acquires the Screen Gems and Colgems music publishing companies from Columbia Pictures Industries. |
| 1979 | EMI purchases the Liberty/United Artists record company which includes the Blue Note label. |
| 1983 | EMI releases its first compact discs. |
| 1986 | EMI begins manufacturing CDs. |
| 1989 | SBK Entertainment World acquired. |
| 1990 |
EMI acquires 50% of Chrysalis Records, purchasing the remaining 50% a year later.
EMI Music Publishing purchases the Filmtrax catalogue.
EMI enters the Taiwanese market. |
| 1992 |
Acquisition of the Virgin Music Group which includes record labels and publishing catalogues.
EMI acquires Sparrow Records, a leading Christian music company, and forms EMI Christian Music Group. |
| 1994 | EMI gains controlling interest in Japanese joint venture Toshiba-EMI.
Leading German independent record company Intercord is acquired. |
| 1996 | EMI acquires 50% of leading US independent Priority Records, acquiring the remaining 50% in 1998. |
| 1997 |
EMI establishes independent music education charity the EMI Music Sound Foundation.
EMI Music Publishing acquires a 50% stake in the Jobete music publishing catalogue of classic Motown songs.
EMI enters Lebanon and Turkey. |
| 1998 | Massive Attack's Mezzanine is the first album to have all its tracks streamed over the internet.
EMI sells HMV to HMV Media Group joint venture. |
| 1999 |
EMI Music Publishing acquires 40,000 active titles from the Windswept Pacific catalogue.
EMI acquires 51% of Hit & Run Music Publishing.
Utada Hikaru's First Love becomes the best selling album in Japanese history. |
| 2000 |
EMI launches industry's first digital album download, David Bowie’s Hours.
EMI Music Publishing signs ground-breaking ringtone deal with Nokia. |
| 2001 |
EMI launches the first internet video single, Dig In by Lenny Kravitz.
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| 2002 |
EMI wins Queen's Award for Enterprise for fourth time.
EMI acquires Mute.
Herbert Grönemeyer’s Mensch becomes the best selling German language album of all time.
EMI is the first major music company to make new music available digitally at the same time as it is released to radio.
EMI music features in the global debut of ‘ring back’ tones in South Korea.
HMV Group floats on the London Stock Exchange.
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| 2003 |
Norah Jones sweeps the Grammys with an unprecedented eight awards out of eight nominations including all major categories.
EMI launches the biggest European music download initiative by a record company in Europe with over 140,000 tracks from more than 3,000 EMI artists. |
| 2004 |
EMI completes acquisition of all of Jobete.
EMI outsources manufacturing in Europe and the USA.
EMI Music Publishing announces ground-breaking agreement on new digital products with Sony BMG. |
| 2005 | EMI signs agreement with SNOCAP to drive revenue streams for legal peer-to-peer distribution of music. |
| 2006 |
EMI signs first ever pan-European P2P download agreement
EMI becomes the first major music company to make its catalogue available to Qtrax, the world's first ad-supported, legitimate P2P service
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| 2007 |
EMI Music launches DRM-free superior quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire
EMI is acquired by private equity firm Terra Firma |