King Records (Japan)

King Records Co., Ltd.
King Records Co., Ltd.
Parent company	Parent:; Kodansha; Shareholders:; TBS (2005 – present)
Founded	January 1931; 90 years ago
Status	Active
Genre	Various
Country of origin	Japan
Location	Bunkyo, Tokyo
Official website	www.kingrecords.co.jp

King Records head office

King Records Co., Ltd. (キングレコード株式会社, Kingu Rekōdo Kabushiki gaisha) is a Japanese record company founded in January 1931 as a division of the Japanese publisher Kodansha. It initially began operating as an independent entity in the 1950s. It later became part of the Otowa Group. Today, King Records is one of Japan's largest record companies which is owned by a multinational entity. The headquarters are in Bunkyo, Tokyo.

Sub-labels[]

Its Starchild label, managed by animation producer Toshimichi Ōtsuki, specialises in anime music and film. King Records also distributes the Up-Front Works–owned and –operated labels Piccolo Town and Rice Music, and also released video games for the PC-88, Famicom, and MSX2 computers. On February 1, 2016, King Records restructured Starchild and renamed it King Amusement Creative.^[1]

Paddle Wheel Records is a division of King Record Co.^[2]

You! Be Cool is the official sub-label for AKB48.

Venus-B is the company's official urban music imprint.

Evil Line Records is the label's new division, established on April 2014, and comprises artists like Momoiro Clover Z and Meg, among others.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Nexus is the label's division especialized for metal/underground music from Japan also overseas. Notable artists in it label are Earthshaker, etc.

Seven Seas is the label's division focusing world music from overseas artists in many genre.

Notable artists[]

Bolbbalgan4^[6]
GFRIEND^[7]
Stomu Yamashta
Matenrou Opera
Inoran
Kana Uemura
Nogod
Takeshi Terauchi
Miho Nakayama
Hiroko Moriguchi
AKB48 (You, Be Cool!)
Tomomi Itano
Atsuko Maeda
Yuki Kashiwagi (AKB48)
Momoland^[8]
Miss Monochrome
Aice5 (Evil Line)
Earphones (Evil Line)
Hypnosis Mic (Evil Line)
Otsuki Miyako
Momoiro Clover Z (Evil Line, formerly Starchild)
Meg (Evil Line)
Lynch.
Theatre Brook
Haruka Fukuhara
Sawa (Bellwood)
Park Junyoung
Hiroki Nanami
Jan Linton (as dr jan guru) "Planet Japan"
Rock A Japonica (Evil Line)
Senri Kawaguchi
Block B^[9]
Yuki Uchida
Nana Mizuki (King Amusement Creative)
Mamoru Miyano (King Amusement Creative)
Suneohair (King Amusement Creative)
Ryoko Shiraishi (King Amusement Creative)
angela (King Amusement Creative)
Ai Nonaka (King Amusement Creative)
Yoko Takahashi (King Amusement Creative)
Soichiro Hoshi (King Amusement Creative)
Sumire Uesaka (King Amusement Creative)
Inori Minase (King Amusement Creative)
Shouta Aoi (King Amusement Creative)
Yui Ogura (King Amusement Creative)
Satomi Sato (King Amusement Creative)
Yuuma Uchida (King Amusement Creative)
Yui Horie (King Amusement Creative)
Niji no Conquistador (King Amusement Creative)
B2takes! (King Amusement Creative)
AMATSUKI

Former artists[]

Alice Nine (2005-2010; to Tokuma Japan Communications)
CHAGE and ASKA (1985-1999; to Toshiba EMI)
Eri Kitamura (2011-2016; to TMS Music)
Kagrra,
Masumi Asano
Mikako Komatsu (2012-2016; to Toy's Factory)
Megumi Hayashibara (1991-2019; freelance)
Masami Okui (1993-2004; to Geneon until 2011 when she signed with Lantis)
Azusa Michiyo
Minori Chihara (2004)
Neko Jump (2006-2011; Former oversea partner of Kamikaze)
Sound Horizon to Pony Canyon
the pillows (1994-2006; to avex trax)
the GazettE (2005-2010; to Sony Music Japan)
TWO-MIX (1995-1998; to Warner Music Japan)
YuiKaori
Yui Sakakibara to 5pb. Records
Yukari Tamura
Yuko Ogura

References[]

^ "Starchild Label Restructured as King Amusement Creative". Anime News Network. January 30, 2016. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
^ "New York Unit – Now's the Time" (CD liner notes). Paddle Wheel Records. KICJ 108.
^ "Evil Line Records". Archived from the original on 2019-11-02. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
^ "Evil Line Records". Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
^ "Evil Line Records Official Store". Archived from the original on 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
^ "BOL4 Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
^ "GFRIEND Profile". Archived from the original on 2021-02-28. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
^ "Momoland Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
^ "Block B Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-09-22.

External links[]

[1] "Starchild Label Restructured as King Amusement Creative". Anime News Network. January 30, 2016. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.

[2] "New York Unit – Now's the Time" (CD liner notes). Paddle Wheel Records. KICJ 108.

[3] "Evil Line Records". Archived from the original on 2019-11-02. Retrieved 2019-10-29.

[4] "Evil Line Records". Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-29.

[5] "Evil Line Records Official Store". Archived from the original on 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2019-10-29.

[6] "BOL4 Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2020-09-22.

[7] "GFRIEND Profile". Archived from the original on 2021-02-28. Retrieved 2021-02-23.

[8] "Momoland Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2020-09-22.

[9] "Block B Profile". Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-09-22.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]