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Topic: Country of Sale vs. Country of Issue with HMV export issues

1st Nov 2017, 6:08 PM
	scrough No picture 'cos I'm not into 45rpm :( Member since Jan 2013 3425 Points Moderator	In the specific case of these UK pressed German language records post WW1 assigned to Germany, they must be in the wrong place. But is it better to assign them to UK as 'exports', or to have European, or even International classifications? Originally all Gramophone Company (ie HMV and earlier label) releases were 'International', but with the exception of the Americas, where Victor had all record distribution rights. The catalogue numbers indicated the language of the recording, so Caruso records have many different numerical language prefixes. We currently list these as 'countries' rather than languages. But as the markets expanded, different regions adopted their own catalogue number system for items of more limited local interest. The final result, especially after double sided records became the norm, was that each region had sets of letter prefixes, some prefixes being more local, and others representing 'International' material. I've just added two pages to this 1943 specialist Jazz catalogue which illustrate this. I've not discovered any earlier UK listings of the 'International' HMV catalogue contents before the 1940s, although a section of the UK B series (B4500-4999) was allocated as International export from 1919 and never listed in UK catalogues, and the UK DA/DB series (from 1923) were allocated catalogue numbers by 'region'. It seems to me that 'export', International, or European classifications for all these records will only lead to a confusing hotch-potch of listings - which is what we see with the UK exports, even though I've only transferred some. Perhaps we need a 'language' qualifier in Export, International or European listings, which might help to separate these listings into targeted audiences/countries? No easy answers here :(