A Brief History Of Budget Labels- Part 1

If you have ever flipped through a stack of records at a thrift store, you may have noticed the names of labels like Pickwick, Crown, Royale, Halo, Grand Prix, Design, Custom, or some other label that made cheap albums. I will tell you more about these records if you have not noticed them. Budget labels were and still are thought of by most collectors as inexpensive pieces of junk. However, budget labels put records into people's homes who may not have been inclined or able to obtain them from the higher-priced outfits.

Little Wonder was one of the early budget labels that changed the record industry; at that time, records (records then at that time played 78 rpm or thereabout) were about 75 cents to a dollar each, or about 20 bucks in today's dollars. Then the machines were also costly, so you
would have to be pretty well off to have a phonograph in your house with a decent set of records to play on them! One of the main reasons the records were so expensive was that Victor and Columbia Records held all the patents for the disk phonograph and kept the machines and records at high prices. Then that all changed; a man named Henry Waterson teamed up secretly with Columbia to make a cheap record that measured 5 1/2 inches across between 1914 and 1923. These records played for only 1-1 1/2 minutes and were single-sided. These records made records affordable to more people while causing the other big labels to lower their prices to compete with them, especially after 1919 when the patents for lateral disc records expired. There is no doubt that Little Wonder was one of the most critical budget labels of all time because of its lasting effects on the whole record industry.

"Back To The Carolina's My Love" (Al Jolson)

After Victor's and Columbia's patents expired, record labels started popping up everywhere; some were Grey Gull, and the million-budget labels used the Grey Gull masters for their releases. Soon, the Great Depression was on, and Hit Of The Week records blossomed and died in a few short years. Then, we had significant label budget subsidies in the '30s, such as Blue Bird and Harmony Records. Then World War Two broke out, and budget labels would take on the attributes that made labels such as Pickwick loathed and hated by the record industry. 

Grey Gull

Hit of The Week records.