Alfa Records

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Alfa Records Inc. アルファレコード
Founded	1969 (1977 as an independent label)
Founder	Kunihiko Murai
Distributor(s)	SMEJ (2001-present) Toshiba-EMI (1994-2001) Nippon Columbia (1991-1994) Warner-Pioneer Victor Music Industries
Country of origin	Japan
Location	Tokyo

Alfa Records Inc. (アルファレコード株式会社, Alfa Record Kabushiki Gaisha^?), originally Alfa Music, was established in 1969 by composer and record producer Kunihiko Murai. It was formed into an independent record label known as Alfa Records in 1977.

History

This section requires expansion.

The company faced much hardship in the 1990s. Due to financial troubles from the collapse of their previous diversification into foreign automobile dealerships, the record label was reformed into a new company "Alfa Music" in 1994. 1995 saw the closure of their Shibaura "A" Studio (as used by Yellow Magic Orchestra and other artists). In October 1998, operations were scaled back and Alfa withdrew from record production.

In April 2001, Sony Music Publishing (Japan) Inc. (a subsidiary of SMEJ) gained worldwide distribution rights for Alfa's back catalogue - re-issues have appeared on the Sony Music Direct (Japan) Inc. label for domestic releases and Epic for international sales.

Alfa were partners with A&M Records, Zomba Music and Mute during the 1980s and 1990s for Japanese domestic distribution.

Imprint labels

Yen Records

Yen Records (often printed as "¥EN") was an imprint that ran from 1982 to 1985 fronted by Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra. Most albums were produced by Hosono or Takahashi, and mainly focused on Japanese new wave music.

Alfa International

Alfa International was a sublabel which mainly published international (mostly European) releases of various music styles, including Italo-Disco, eurobeat (Italo-Disco and Hi-NRG), europop, synthpop and euro house.

GMO Records

GMO (Game Music Organisation) was a label for video game music releases. Several albums were released including music from Sega, Konami, Hudson, Capcom, and Tecmo games. The album "Video Game Music" (featuring music from Namco games) and the related Super Xevious 12" single were released on Yen before the formation of GMO.

Notable signed artists

This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Japanese artists

• Yumi Arai (1972–1976)
• Casiopea
• Garo
• Ayumi Ishida
• Izumi Yukimura
• Chiharu Matsuyama
• The Stalin
• P-Model
• Soft Ballet
• Yuzo Koshiro
• Yellow Magic Orchestra
  • Haruomi Hosono (1978–1982)
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto (1980–1981)
  • Yukihiro Takahashi (1981–1985)

Yen Records

• Sandii & the Sunsetz
• Miharu Koshi
• Hajime Tachibana (from Plastics)
• Guernica
• Jun Togawa
• Koji Ueno
• Inoyama Land

YMO, Hosono and Takahashi solo albums were also released on Yen during 1982-1985

Foreign acts licensed by Alfa

• Corbin/Hanner Band
• Depeche Mode
• Erasure
• The Police
• Falco
• Lulu
• Max Q (Michael Hutchence & Ollie Olsen)
• Kylie Minogue
• The Monroes
• PIG
• Billy Vera & the Beaters
• Elegy (1992–1995)
• Swamp Terrorists
• Telex
• Parish (Former members of Crimson Glory)

References

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