[3] In 1930, Music Publishers Holding Company (MPHC) paid US$28 million to acquire Brunswick Records (which included Vocalion), whose roster included Duke Ellington, Red Nichols, Nick Lucas, Al Jolson, Earl Burtnett, Ethel Waters, Abe Lyman, Leroy Carr, Tampa Red and Memphis Minnie, and soon after the sale to Warner Bros., the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby, Mills Brothers, and Boswell Sisters.

With the record business booming – sales had topped US$500 million by 1958 – Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros. to make deals with other companies to release its soundtracks when, for less than the cost of one motion picture, they could establish their own label, creating a new income stream that could continue indefinitely and provide an additional means of exploiting and promoting its contract actors.

[9] Conkling was an able administrator with extensive experience in the industry—he had been instrumental in launching the LP format at Columbia and had played a key role in establishing the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences the previous year.

When Stevens scored her own hit single with "Sixteen Reasons" in 1960, Warner Bros. refused to allow her to perform it on Hawaiian Eye because it was not published by MPHC, and they also prevented her from singing it on The Ed Sullivan Show, thereby robbing her of nationwide promotion (and a $5000 appearance fee).

Herman Starr effectively gambled the future of the company by approving what was reputed to be the first million-dollar contract in music history,[19] which guaranteed the Everly Brothers $525,000 against an escalating royalty rate of up to 7 percent, well above the industry standard of the day.

Interviewed for the official Warner Bros Records history in 2008, Newhart recalled that at the time he signed with the label he was totally unknown outside Chicago, he was still working full-time as an accountant, and he had done only a few local radio and TV appearances.

Warners arranged to record him at a Houston, Texas club called The Tidelands, where he was booked for a two-week residency as the opening act, beginning February 12, 1960, and Newhart freely admitted to being "terrified" on his first night.

When Newhart contacted Warners in April to find out when the album would be released, he was amazed to be told that the label was rushing all available copies to Minneapolis, because radio DJs there had broken it, and it had become so popular that a local newspaper was even printing the times that tracks would be played on air.

The album, which satirized the folk boom, became a major hit, selling over a million copies, and winning a Gold Record award, and is cited as being the fastest-selling LP ever released in the US up to that time.

Bill Cosby broke through soon after and he continued the label's dream run with comedy LPs into the late 1960s, releasing a string of highly successful albums on Warner Bros. over the next six years, alongside his groundbreaking career as a TV actor.

The label's fortunes had finally turned around by 1962 thanks to the Everly Brothers, Newhart, folk stars Peter, Paul & Mary, jazz and pop crossover hit Joanie Sommers and comedian Allan Sherman, and Warner Bros. Records ended the financial year 1961–62 in the black for the first time since its founding.

[18][22] Reprise was heavily in debt at the time of the takeover, and the Warner Records management team was reportedly dismayed at their balance sheet being pushed back into the red by the acquisition, but they were given no choice in the matter.

[28] Later he worked with the small San Francisco label Autumn Records, founded by disc jockeys Tom Donahue, Bobby Mitchell, and Sylvester Stewart (who would soon become famous as a musician under his stage name Sly Stone).

'"[37] Although not widely known to the general public at that time, Van Dyke Parks was a figure of high repute on the L.A. music scene thanks to his work as a session musician and songwriter (notably with the Byrds and Harper's Bizarre), and especially because of his renowned collaboration with Brian Wilson on the legendary unreleased Beach Boys album Smile.

It sold very poorly despite rave critical reviews, so publicist Stan Cornyn (who had helped the label to sign The Grateful Dead) wrote an infamous tongue-in-cheek advertisement to promote it.

Anthem of the Sun proved to be the least successful of The Grateful Dead's 1960s albums—it sold poorly, the extended sessions put the band more than $100,000 in debt to the label,[38] and Warner Bros. executive Joe Smith later described it as "the most unreasonable project with which we have ever involved ourselves.

Aided by the growth of FM radio and the album oriented rock format, LPs became the primary vehicle of Warner Bros. sales successes throughout the 1970s, although artists such as the Doobie Brothers and America also scored many major US and international hit singles.

Like Atlantic, the new acquisition came with a very valuable back-catalogue, which included the Doors, Love, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Tim Buckley, the Stooges, MC5 and Bread, but Elektra soon began producing more major hits under the Warner umbrella.

[57][full citation needed] In 1971, UK-based pop rock trio America were signed to the recently established British division of Warner Bros. Their debut album, released late in the year, at first enjoyed only moderate success, but in early 1972 their single "A Horse with No Name" became a major international hit, reaching No.

In early 1975, they signed with Curb Records (which was distributed by WBR) just as lead singer Frankie Valli scored a surprise hit with his independently released solo single "My Eyes Adored You".

By the time of The Doobie Brothers 1976 album Takin' It to the Streets, founding member Tom Johnston had effectively left the band and he was replaced by former Steely Dan session man Michael McDonald, whose distinctive voice helped to propel the group to even greater success.

[65] Although primarily associated with mainstream white acts in the Seventies, Warner Bros.' distribution deals with smaller labels also brought it some success in the disco, soul and funk genres in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

His next album, Hearts and Bones (1983) was well received by critics but neither it nor the lead single "Allergies" made the chart and Simon's career took a nosedive and it was several more years before the label's patience eventually paid off.

However, the sexually explicit album track "Darling Nikki" generated a major controversy that had lasting effects—when politician's wife Tipper Gore heard her 12-year-old daughter listening to the song and investigated the lyrics, her outrage led to the formation of the conservative lobby group Parents Music Resource Center.

The same was true of Prince; he scored numerous hit albums and singles through the latter half of the 1980s, but his record sales declined and Warner Bros. executives became increasingly concerned that he was producing far more material than they could release.

His image was also tarnished by the failure of his later film ventures, his embarrassing refusal to participate in the recording of "We Are The World" and his sacking of guitarist Wendy Melvoin and long-serving keyboard player Lisa Coleman.

Prince's fortunes in the Nineties were mixed; he scored more hits and renewed his contract in 1992, but his relationship with Warner Bros. Records soon soured, climaxing in a highly publicized legal battle and his eventual departure from the label.

Despite his close ties to Morris, Danny Goldberg was initially told he could remain as WBR president but he left the company in August 1995 after negotiating a settlement with Time Warner to terminate his five-year, US$20 million contract, which still had four years to run.

Founded in 1992, Maverick had scored a major success in 1995 with Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, and Madonna and her two partners, Guy Oseary and Ronnie Dashed, jointly held a controlling 60% stake.

Finally, in 2005, after multiple management reshuffles and a steady decline in revenue, News Ltd sold the group and its recording archive (said to contain over 20,000 master tapes) to Warner Music Australia for a reported AU$10 million.