AmericasEvent

Columbia Phonograph Company formed in Washington, D.C.

When: 1889
Where: Washington, D.C.
Episodes: 1

The Columbia Phonograph Company was established in Washington, D.C., in January 1889 as a regional licensee for the North American Phonograph Company. It initially held a local monopoly on the sales and service of Edison phonographs and cylinders in Washington, Maryland, and Delaware. The company also produced its own commercial cylinder recordings, establishing a catalog that grew significantly by 1891.

Episodes

15 January 1889 · Washington, D.C.Formation of Columbia Phonograph Company
Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in Washington, D.C., in January 1889 as a regional licensee for the North American Phonograph Company.

Background and detail

Regional Monopoly. Initially, the Columbia Phonograph Company held a local monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Delaware. As was customary for regional phonograph companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own, expanding its catalog of musical records to 10 pages by 1891.

Sources

Columbia Records Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-12

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.