Favorite - Biography

Biography - Favorite

UK

History
Schallplattenfabrik Favorite GmbH was incorporated in Berlin as a limited company on August 27th 1904. Its first contract was probably to produce records for the French 'Éden' label using recordings made in France.

Favorite Records were introduced in Germany in February 1905. The first Favorite Record labels depicted the same prominent star with its surrounding stars, as used for the Éden discs. There is evidence to show that some use was made of Eden masters to press the first releases of Favorite Records for France, and many items in the initial Favorite German catalogue appear to be French.

Favorite demonstrated double sided discs at the industry's Leipzig Spring Fair in March 1905 - in spite of an existing patent owned by the proprietors of 'Odeon' records - and put them on sale from May 1905, also lodging an objection to the patent in May.

In April 1905 Favorite moved its headquarters from Berlin to Linden, near Hannover.

With 7ins. (17½cm). and 10ins. (25cm) diameter discs being sold, in January 1906 the first 12ins, (30cm) diameter Favorite Records were introduced in Germany, but as single-side records only.

Favorite Records arrived in Britain in September 1906, marketed by an agent - The International Favorite Record Co Ltd from 17 Hatton Garden, London EC. They were to be sold only by appointed dealers at 2s.6d. (12½p) for single side recorded 10ins. discs and at 4s.0d. (20p) for 12ins single side recorded discs. 10ins Double side recorded cost 3s.0d,.(15p.) with black labels and cost 4s.0d. (20p.) with pink (heliotrope) labels. 12ins single sided were announced in February 1907.

Favorite went through a number of agency changes in the following years. The German company registered itself in Britain in September 1908 and established a studio in City Road, London. Serial numbers were introduced to the British catalogue in May 1911. 1 to 299 were given to international material already in the catalogue, and 300 upwards to British material. New international issues retained the side numbering system detailed below.

By July 1914 British Favorite discs were being pressed in the UK at Lindström's Mead Works in Hertford, and disc issues continued into WW1, with serial 964 of May 1916 being the last to be issued. Some Favorite discs were later reissued by British Parlophone, which had taken over the Mead Works in 1923.

Side Numbering System
Size: The first digit followed by a hyphen.The 10ins.show a 1 - , the 12ins. show a 2 -.

Territorial Numbers
The number proper's first digit, after 'size hyphen', indicates the country or area of the recording, except for France (no digit).
1:German; 2:Austro-Hungary; 3:Italy; 4:Iberia (Spain & Portugal);5:Ottoman-Oriental (Greece,
Turkey & Egypt);6:Britain;7:Polish, Russian & Jewish; 8:Scandinavia 9:Belgium and the Netherlands.
Later additions to the catalogue added more double digit codes (eg 10=Balkan,21=China,45=Brasil, etc)

Genre
The 'third' digit indicates genre:
1 =band or orchestras (eg military marches)
2 =band or orchestras (eg dance music)
3 =band or orchestra (other genres)
4 =instrumental performers
5 =male voices
6 =female voices
7 =comic songs
8 =spoken word
9 =combined voices

All following digits are 'catalogue' numbers. Note that many labels show a recording date in day-month-year format.

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