Virgin Records

About Virgin Records

Virgin Records is a British record label, registered as Virgin Records Limited. Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell and the musician Tom Newman founded it in 1972 out of a London record shop, and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells was its first release in 1973; it grew into a major label, was sold to Thorn EMI in 1992 and passed to Universal Music Group when Universal acquired EMI in 2012.^[1] Companies House holds the name on registration 01070953, incorporated on 8 September 1972, active, with its registered office at 4 Pancras Square, London N1C 4AG.^[2] This page exists because Virgin owned Caroline Records: Virgin named a cut-price progressive rock subsidiary Caroline in 1973, reused the name in the United States from 1983 and founded the American label Caroline Records in 1986, which was merged into Virgin Records after the Thorn EMI takeover.^[3] Virgin Records America, Inc., the North American arm founded in 1986, is a separate company and has no page here.^[1]