Phonag Records AG

Swiss record company Phonag Records AG was founded as Phonag Schallplatten AG in 1960, has been a fixture on the Swiss music market. In the early years, the company distributed not only recording media, but also Atari games consoles (including the Pac-Man game), a series of Arkade compilations, and at a later stage VHS video cassettes. From the word go, Phonag was hugely successful with its own label, Helvetia, which fostered some of the greats of the folk music scene including Vreni & Franz Stadelmann, Adolf Stähli, and Trio Oesch, to name but a few. In time, other long-term partners joined Phonag, including the publisher Globi-Verlag (with the cult series of children's audio books in dialect Globi & Papa Moll). Phonag distributes and markets national labels such as Gadget Records (77 Bombay Street, Lovebugs, Dada (Ante Portas)), Zytglogge (Mani Matter), Turicaphon (with evergreens such as 40 Schwyzerörgeli Hits), and also well-known international names from foreign labels such as Skunk Anansie (Edel), Katie Melua (Dramatico), Adam Cohen (Cooking Vinyl), Scooter (Kontor Records), Bad Religion and Tom Waits (Epitaph, Anti-), and Stereophonics (Ignition Records Ltd.). Phonag also has exclusive contracts with an impressive number of Swiss artists such as Florian Ast und Francine Jordi, DJ Antoine, Bastian Baker, Remady & Manu-L, Mike Candys or ZIBBZ. In 2007, Phonag Records AG was taken over by TBA AG, thereby intensifying and reinforcing the long-term, successful cooperation between the two companies. Phonag remains an independent marketing and rep company under this new ownership.