The introduction of barcodes on LPs

One of the most visible developments affecting the sale and inventorying of retail products was the advent of the UPC barcode, which was introduced on grocery items in 1973. By decade's end, barcodes were rapidly appearing on consumer products of all kinds...including record albums, with A&M, Chrysalis, and the CBS labels being the first major companies heading off the effort.

UPC codes on albums had a consistent structure. As on other retail products, the first six digits indicated the manufacturer...which corresponded to the label, or label group as the case may be. This was followed by four digits that correlated with the catalogue number, and one digit (specific to the record industry) indicating the format. The final digit was a checksum, and was often omitted from the human-readable print. In later decades this structure started to break down...but such developments were still years away from happening when UPCs started to fluorish on records in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Originally, UPC barcodes were almost exclusively a US phenomenon: Canadian releases into the 1980s were usually UPC-free. In Europe and the rest of the world barcodes often took on a longer 13-digit EAN format, and the timeline of implementation lagged anywhere from one to seven years behind the US.

See also (on 45cat): The introduction of barcodes on 45s.

List of 31 Vinyl Albums by andrewt3660

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	Click to View		Label		Cat#	Date	Format	Price Guide
1		Albert Brooks A Star Is Bought In the five-year lead-up to actual UPCs making their appearance on records, a few albums such as this 1975 Albert Brooks example featured mock barcodes as satirical design elements.		Asylum USA	7E-1035	Jun 1975	LP
2		Celebration Celebration Pacific Arts: Prefix 075051. The obscure Pacific Arts label was the first to implement barcoding, with a 1978 release: "Pacific Arts, the Carmel, Calif. independent label, has coded all new releases since a Pacific Steel Co. LP last November, believed to be the industry's first bar coded release." - Billboard 1979-06-16 Unfortunately, this album (PAC7-121) has yet to be added to 45Worlds; though the next catalogue number had a barcode as well.		Pacific Arts USA	PAC7-122	1978	LP
3		Elvis Costello Armed Forces CBS labels: Prefix 074643. "Elvis Costello's 'Armed Forces,' released this week, is CBS' first bar coded product, and Columbia's entire Materworks classical release later this month will also be bar coded. [...] 'Costello wanted to have his album with a bar code,' says the source, 'and he asked if he could be the first artist at CBS to have this. It was a very special request on his part and we were able to work it out.'" - Billboard 1979-01-20		Columbia USA	JC 35709	Jan 1979	LP	$10
4		Nazareth No Mean City A&M: Prefix 075021. "A&M's first bar coded products are four LPs in its release of Friday (12): Nazareth's 'No Mean City,' 'Head East Live,' 'The Best of Rick Roberts' and Milton Nascimente's 'Journey Till Dawn.'" - Billboard 1979-01-20		A&M USA	SP-4741	Jan 1979	LP
5		UFO Strangers In The Night Chrysalis: Prefix 075585. "Chrysalis...began bar coding in January with LPs by the Babys and UFO." - Billboard 1979-06-16		Chrysalis USA	CH2 1209	Jan 1979	Double LP
6		Mick Taylor Mick Taylor After letting Elvis Costello break the ice on barcodes in January 1979, the CBS labels were consistently barcoding all their output by midyear. Indeed, CBS appears to have been more aggressive about barcoding than any other label, pioneering them on 45s in 1982 and assigning UPCs to pre-1979 back catalogue albums to match.		Columbia USA	JC 35076	Jun 1979	LP
7		Pousette-Dart Band Never Enough Capitol: Prefix 077771. "Capitol's decision to bar code follows its test coding of $3.98 midline product this spring. The codes will appear on five full-line products due July 9: the Little River Band's 'First Under The Wire,' Pousette-Dart Band's 'Never Enough,' Moon Martin's 'Escape From Domination,' Crimson Tide's 'Reckless Love' and 'Surrender,' the debut album by the group of that name." - Billboard 1979-06-16 The "$3.98 midline product" was Capitol's SN-16000 series, which indeed appeared with barcodes from the outset.		Capitol USA	ST-11935	Jul 1979	LP
8		Styx Cornerstone The earliest A&M releases with barcodes printed the code vertically. By September, the label had changed the code to a horizontal orientation. Believe it or not, this was an intentional change spearheaded because a horizontal movement was more convenient with the pen-type barcode readers that were in use at the time, and this was alluded to in period Billboard articles.		A&M USA	SP-3711	Sep 1979	LP
9		Carlene Carter Two Sides To Every Woman Warner Bros.: Prefix 075992. "The information will appear only on selected new LPs on Warner Bros., beginning in August." - Billboard 1979-06-16 Warner Bros. Records was the first constituent of WEA to implement barcoding. Its implementation was somewhat slow, however, with some titles slipping through without barcodes as late as 1981.		Warner Bros. USA	BSK 3375	7 Sep 1979	LP
10		Artful Dodger Rave On Ariola: Prefix 078231. Bertelsmann entered the North American music market by introducing the Ariola America label in 1975, then by buying Arista four years later. Not surprisingly, Ariola and Arista adopted barcoding in tandem, and had similar UPC prefixes.		Ariola America USA	OL 1503	1980	LP
11		Melissa Manchester For The Working Girl Arista: Prefix 078221. "The record industry has come a step closer to greater implementation of bar coding with the recent announcement by Arista that it will institute bar coding on its packaging." - Billboard 1980-08-16 It's worth noting that Arista recatalogued its entire catalogue to a new uniform numbering series in mid-1983...so everything they barcoded in 1980 had to be rebarcoded three scant years later!		Arista USA	AL 9533	Aug 1980	LP
12		Air Raid Air Raid 20th Century-Fox: Prefix 078638. The 20th Century-Fox studio's on-and-off foray into records was distributed by RCA at the dawn of the 1980s. Ergo, 20th Century-Fox added barcodes at the same time RCA did in 1981.		20th Century-Fox USA	T-617	1981	LP
13		Billy And The Beaters Billy And The Beaters Alfa: Prefix 030051. Alfa was a short-lived independent label that had middling success in 1981 and 1982. As with Boardwalk, its product had a unique prefix and was barcoded from the outset.		Alfa USA	AAA-10001	1981	LP
14		Terri Gibbs Somebody's Knockin' MCA: Prefix 076732. "MCA is about ready to take the plunge." - Billboard 1980-08-16 "Warner Bros. and MCA have limited bar-coded releases." - Billboard 1981-07-11 When, precisely, did MCA first implement barcodes? It's hard to say for sure...although this particular title seems to have been one of the first. Nevertheless, most of MCA's releases until the tail end of 1981 remained barcode-free.		MCA USA	MCA-5173	Jan 1981	LP
15		Phil Seymour Phil Seymour Boardwalk: Prefix 079123. Boardwalk was a short-lived label that had chart successes in the early 1980s, and its output was barcoded from the very outset. The label's initial distribution was done by CBS (which may have precipitated their wholesale embrace of UPCs); however, they always used a unique prefix.		Boardwalk USA	FW-36996	Jan 1981	LP
16		Elvis Presley Guitar Man RCA: Prefix 078635. "RCA Records will start bar coding new LPs starting Jan. 1, thus bringing the industry closer to an era of implementation by major manufacturers." - Billboard 1980-10-04. This happened a little too late for Dave Davies, whose 1980 album cover was not a legitimate UPC barcode!		RCA Victor USA	AAL1-3917	Jan 1981	LP
17		Kenny Rogers Christmas Liberty/United Artists: Prefix 077775. Capitol-EMI initially indicated that it would begin barcoding Capitol, EMI America, and United Artists albums simultaneously in July 1979. Due to issues adapting the pre-existing UA numbering system to Capitol conventions, however, the lattermost label didn't get coded until late 1981...by which point UA had been renamed Liberty, and was well on its way towards being shut down! The addition of barcodes also coincided with a "5" being added to the catalogue number.		Liberty USA	LOO-51115	Oct 1981	LP
18		Wishbone Ash Hot Ash MCA started barcoding its releases consistently in December 1981 after first implementing the codes on an ad hoc basis earlier in the year.		MCA USA	MCA-5283	Dec 1981	LP
19		X Under The Big Black Sun Elektra/Asylum: Prefix 075596. "Elektra/Asylum will also begin bar coding 'in the very near future,' accoding to Stan Marshall, vice president of sales. 'We're not quite ready to do our first one, but it should be in the next few months." - Billboard 1979-06-16 There are three types of lies: Lies, lies, and executive proclamations. It took Elektra three long years to be ready for barcodes, not beginning its efforts until six months after adopting a consolidated worldwide numbering system in 1982!		Elektra USA	60150	Jun 1982	LP	$21
20		Poco Ghost Town Atlantic: Prefix 075678. Atlantic Records was the last constituent of WEA to implement barcoding, not doing so until adopting the consolidated worldwide 80000-series numbering system in late 1982. By this point in time, Elektra had been barcoding its output for months and Warner Bros. for years!		Atlantic USA	80008-1	Sep 1982	LP
21		The Cats The Cats EMI (and PolyGram) were the first label groups to begin barcoding in earnest in European markets, doing so in 1983. EMI was also the first to put 13-digit EAN barcodes on LPs.		EMI Germany	1C 028 1270671	1983	LP
22		Creedence Clearwater Revival Green River Fantasy: Prefix 025218. Fantasy's output of new music in the 1980s wasn't huge, and its primary repertoire devolved into an endless stream of CCR reissues. That said, the label (and its subsidiaries, like Stax) adopted UPC barcoding in 1983.		Fantasy USA	ORC 4514	1983	LP
23		Def Leppard Pyromania PolyGram labels: Prefix 042281. PolyGram was the last big label conglomerate to implement barcoding on US market releases, in early 1983. In doing so, they were faced with the unenviable challenge of having to consolidate and simplify its catalogue numbering across its entire worldwide sphere of labels...which ran the gamut from archaic alphanumeric series in the US and Canada to a complex seven-digit system of computer-generated numbers in Europe. PolyGram's solution was to become the first label conglomerate to implement uniform barcoding on a worldwide basis. When the dust settled, PolyGram had initiated the 800000 series of numbers, subdivided into blocks by label group: Mercury/Phonogram, Polydor, and London/Decca.		Mercury USA	422-810 308-1 M-1	Jan 1983	LP	$30
24		Divinyls Desperate Chrysalis: Prefix 044114. Chrysalis was nearly the first label to implement UPCs in January 1979. Chrysalis then became the first label to change UPC prefixes, doing so when they inked an exclusive US distribution arrangement with CBS in early 1983. The resulting inconsistency was a bane for retailers and "one stop" distributors handling product, particularly since CBS wouldn't accept the older 075585-prefixed product as returns...		Chrysalis USA	FV 41404	Feb 1983	LP
25		Various Artists The Big Chill - Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Motown: Prefix 050109. "The National Association of Recording Merchandisers is intensifying its efforts to obtain the endorsement of bar-coding among the remaining label hold-outs. [...] The principal targets of NARM's campaign are PolyGram Records Inc., Atlantic, Elektra and Motown, none of which has any product using the UPC system of product identification." - Billboard 1981-07-11 "With the exception of WEA and Motown, most everybody else is three-quarters or more barcoded on LPs and cassettes. WEA [is] 50% on LP and 40% on cassette, and Motown [is] down in the one-third range." - Billboard 1986-10-11 Quick, which was the last major label to embrace barcodes? The answer is Motown...which didn't barcode anything until late 1983, and didn't barcode back-catalogue product until years after that! It took the MCA/Boston Ventures sale of 1988 before Motown was barcoding its catalogue and single product with any level of consistency.		Motown USA	6062 ML	Sep 1983	LP
26		Z. Z. Hill I'm A Blues Man Malaco: Prefix 048021. Some small labels lagged behind Motown in the barcode department...although here, the delay was understandable. Malaco, a Mississippi blues label, adopted barcoding by the fourth quarter of 1983.		Malaco USA	MAL 7415	Nov 1983	LP
27		Various Artists Nuggets Vol. 8 The Northwest Rhino: Prefix 081227. Rhino Records, the stalwart reissue label, adopted UPC barcoding when it switched to Capitol distribution in late 1985. At the same time, the company began padding out its catalogue numbers to five digits with a "70" prefix.		Rhino USA	RNLP 70032	1985	LP
28		Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre Born To Be Tiled Rounder: Prefix 011661.		Rounder USA	3054	1986	LP
29		The Accelerators The Accelerators Profile: Prefix 015151. Profile Records was founded in 1981, well within the UPC era, and released its first album in 1983. Surprisingly, however, the label didn't start barcoding its covers until the late date of 1988.		Profile USA	PRO-1246	1988	LP
30		The Johnny Smith Quintet Moonlight In Vermont Roulette: Prefix 085913. It was abundantly clear that the UPC had truly arrived when even Morris Levy's moribund Roulette label, which was a front for organized crime, started barcoding its wares!		Roulette USA	SR-59063	1988	LP
31		The Jimi Hendrix Experience Radio One Ryko: Prefix 014431. Rykodisc was founded in 1983. Although primarily a CD label, the company also briefly released vinyl albums in the late 1980s, and these were barcoded from the outset.		Ryko Analogue USA	RALP 0078-2	Nov 1988	Double LP