Gravações Musidisc S.A.

Brazilian company, created on 16 November 1962, by transformation of former Gravações Musidisc Ltda. in a Sociedade Anonima (S.A.). Shareholders and members of the management board were: Nilo Sergio (president and general director), Oswaldo Cadaxo (executive director), Dulce Lopes Domingues (commercial director) and José Magalhães Costa (treasurer). Oswaldo Cadaxo will resign in November 1963: in a short time he will found the Equipe label. In 1964 the company opened an office in São Paulo, headed by Jair Rodrigues (formerly with RCA and Chantecler). In the same year started operating a recording studio. In 1966, now completely independent (the company had previously been taken care of by RCA for promo and distribution), Gravações Musidisc acquired a record plant (formerly Fonográfica Brasileira S.A.) in Petropolis, near Rio de Janeiro. The A&R department was entrusted to Primo Jr. and Durval Ferreira. In July 1967 the company signed an agreement with United Artists as Brazilian affiliate. In the second half of the sixties there was a gradual decline: the company suffered from organizational deficiencies: lack of interdepartmental integration, lack of internal controls and operational coordination. These issues were brought to the attention of the company board on 18 November 1969: the shareholders, having identified the cause in the transformation to S.A., decided to return to a sociedade por quotas de responsabilidade limitada (Ltda.) (with Nilo Sérgio as the main shareholder with 92%). In the meantime, Musidisc had lost some of its best collaborators, including Ed Lincoln, who devoted himself to his own label. In 1970 the company represented in Brazil Metronome (Germany), Pye Records and Italian Saar. Unfortunately, trying to adapt to new market trends, now characterized by the hegemony of foreign models, especially Anglo-Saxon, Musidisc lost its strength, based on the ability to make the most of Brazilian artistic originality. The early Seventies were still a very problematic time, due to disorganization and bad distribution, with consequent economic difficulties. At the beginning of 1971 a contract was signed with Equipe which was entrusted with the distribution of Musidisc's products. In 1971 Gravações Musidisc decided to end activities as a record company. Its catalog was sold to RCA. Musidisc survived mainly as a recording studio. Trademark and rights were transferred in 1975 to Hara Internacional Música E Filmes Ltda, which released some records on Musidisc America label and, later, reissued Nilo Sérgio's Musidisc records on CD. After Nilo Sérgio's death, in 1981, his son, Nilo Sérgio Pinto, had to take over the business. In the 1990s and 2000s difficulties in managing rights allowed the circulation of unofficial releases: UK Whatmusic.com and Brazilian Discobertas were among the rare labels that negotiated with Musidisc Brasil the reissue of some Musidisc (5) albums. CGC 33.425.547