Crates Are For Digging Member since Aug 2012 25324 Points Moderator
Where were the records released is the question, if they were made in the USA for release only in Germany than it would be Germany but if they were released in the USA for the Ex-Pat German community then it would be USA.
For example a lot of pre 1914 78's were made in Prussia and Hanover but only released in the UK so are listed as UK.
Hope this is of help.
I have no way of knowing where they were released. My assumption is that an ethnic record made in the USA is for consumption in the USA for the specific community. This only makes it more confusing.
Perhaps, I will list it in USA, and a moderator may move it, if necessary?
No picture 'cos I'm not into 45rpm :( Member since Jan 2013 3429 Points Moderator
Bob,
I've researched this kind of situation and found no answers. In my case it was the record in this Why Sweden? blog, where a Scottish concertina player's 1908 UK discs had been released as 'Swedish' by Victor in 1915. So I'll be adding this to the USA.
There are certain labels where we can determine the intended country of issue from the catalogue number or prefix - UK Columbia for instance - which I've recently written up, but not had time to apply to the site yet. As Redpunk says, if more info becomes available, we'll change the country.
Both Victor and Columbia made a lot of records for ethnic communities in the USA. Sometimes, these recordings were even made abroad, but they were produced and sold in the United States. So all these discs should definitely be listed as US releases.
I've created lists for the different ethnic series by Victor and Columbia.
The Victor Ethnic Black Label list list so far contains:
Victor V-prefix; 69000-series; 78000-series; 18-, 25-, 26-prefixes.
There were also similar series of Bluebird recordings.
There is a great series of discographies on the topic of ethnic records by Richard K. Spottswood:
"Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893-1942."
v. 1. Western Europe -- v. 2. Slavic -- v. 3. Eastern Europe -- v. 4. Spanish, Portuguese, Philippine, Basque -- v. 5. Mid-East, Far East, Scandinavian, English language, American Indian, international -- v. 6. Artist index, title index -- v. 7. Record number index, matrix number index.
Even better, for private, non-commercial use, Dick Spottswood is now offering updated versions of his research in pdf-format as a free download via the Mainspring Press website: Columbia E-Series Columbia C-Series (releases for the Spanish-language market)