Early years Chrysalis entered into a licensing deal with
Chris Blackwell's
Island Records for distribution, based on the success of bands such as
Jethro Tull,
Ten Years After, and
Procol Harum, which were promoted by the label. Jethro Tull signed with
Reprise Records in the United States, which led Chrysalis to an American distribution deal with Reprise's parent company,
Warner Bros. Records. This lasted from 1972 until U.S. Chrysalis switched to independent distribution in 1976.
PolyGram handled international distribution and
Festival Records covered Australia and New Zealand. In 1973, it signed British rock band
UFO. Towards the end of the 1970s, the label began to extend its range of music, incorporating acts from the
punk rock scene such as
Generation X. The Chrysalis offshoot
2 Tone Records brought in bands such as
the Specials and
the Selecter. In 1979, Chrysalis bought and distributed U.S. folk label
Takoma Records, naming manager/producer
Denny Bruce as president, who signed
the Fabulous Thunderbirds and
T-Bone Burnett.
Jon Monday, who was vice president of
Takoma Records prior to the acquisition, continued as general manager, later becoming director of marketing of Chrysalis Records. In the 1980s, Chrysalis was at the forefront of the British
new romantic movement with bands such as
Gen X,
Ultravox, and
Spandau Ballet. The 1980s proved to be the most successful time for the label, whose roster then included
Billy Idol,
Pat Benatar,
Blondie, and
Huey Lewis and the News. Chrysalis also distributed Animal Records, the short-lived label founded by Blondie guitarist
Chris Stein. In 1983, after the label re-established itself in New York, Eric Heckman, formerly of Atlantic and Epic Records promotion, took over as senior director of promotion and marketing. Also in 1983,
Daniel Glass moved to Chrysalis as director of new music marketing, advancing later to senior vice president. During the next two years, Chrysalis broke Huey Lewis and the News, Billy Idol, and Spandau Ballet in the United States, whilst Pat Benatar continued to find success on both the traditional and dance music charts. In 1984, Chrysalis bought
Ensign Records, a record label Nigel Grainge started in 1976 (with the label's name coming from the idea that 'N. signs' as in 'Nigel Signs'). Ensign Records would go on to have The Waterboys, World Party, and Sinéad O'Connor on its roster in the late 1980s. Ensign joined TV marketing/compilations company
Dover Records and dance label
Cooltempo as part of the Chrysalis family, with Grainge staying on to run the label that he founded.
EMI In 1989, 50% of the Chrysalis Records label was sold, then the remaining half in 1991 to
Thorn EMI, Chrysalis Records was folded into EMI subsidiary and flagship label
EMI Records in 2005, with catalogue and artists such as
Starsailor being shifted to
EMI's main imprints. In 2010,
BMG Rights Management bought
Chrysalis Music's assets (the publishing division and The Echo Label),. In September 2012, after acquiring EMI's record labels,
Universal Music Group offered to divest several record labels, including EMI's Chrysalis and
Parlophone, to meet the
European Commission's demands. The deal did not include Chrysalis' North American catalogue (which was folded into
Capitol Records in 2007) or
Robbie Williams (who was transferred to
Island Records). In February 2013,
Warner Music Group announced that it would acquire many of EMI's European record labels, including Chrysalis and Parlophone, for £487 million. In July 2013, WMG completed its purchase of the Parlophone Label Group.
Later ownership Two weeks after announcing its acquisition of Parlophone, Warner Music agreed to sell roughly 30% of its own catalogue to independent record labels. Chrysalis Records was bought in May 2016 from WMG in a deal led by Blue Raincoat Music's
Jeremy Lascelles and
Robin Millar. The agreement had the co-founder and original owner of Chrysalis, Chris Wright, reunited with the label as non-executive chairman, 27 years after selling the company to EMI. Former
Virgin Media boss Robert Devereux was also part of the original consortium. In 2018, the Cooltempo label was relaunched by Blue Raincoat Music with the release of the
Eye Ring EP by
Francesca Lombardo and
Infinity Ink's debut album
House of Infinity. In August 2019, music rights company, Reservoir, partnered with Blue Raincoat, to make the Chrysalis record label part of Reservoir's extended global infrastructure and network.
2020s Chrysalis Records relaunched itself as a front-line label in February 2020, marking a return to releasing new music for the first time in over two decades. The first signing was in partnership with award-winning independent label
Partisan Records. The labels came together to sign British singer/songwriter
Laura Marling in a fully co-branded global release. As the first project released on Chrysalis' relaunched frontline label, Marling's album,
Song for Our Daughter, debuted in April 2020 to critical acclaim and a
Mercury Prize nomination. In September 2020, Chrysalis signed the indie singer-songwriter
Liz Phair. Phair's first album in a decade,
Soberish, came out later in 2021. On 6 August 2021, the second album from Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay's project Lump (styled in all caps), titled
Animal charted at number 65 on the
UK Albums Chart, and was one of the Top 20 selling albums for that week (6–12 August 2021). Chrysalis also reissued the first six albums by
De La Soul on physical, digital and streaming platforms in early 2023; those albums were originally released by
Tommy Boy, which, like Chrysalis, is also owned by Reservoir Media. In July 2023,
The Endless Coloured Ways was released under the Chrysalis Records label. It is a collection of songs by singer/songwriter
Nick Drake, performed and recorded by 30 artists, including
Fontaines D.C.,
Guy Garvey,
Aurora,
Feist,
Self Esteem, and
David Gray. ==See also==