Arc Sound Ltd.

Arc Sound was founded by Phil G. Anderson in 1958 as a distributor of Pickwick Sales Corp.'s budget label Design Records (2). Arc soon picked up other budget labels like Somerset and Stereo-Fidelity from the Miller International Company. Then, in 1959, while still producing the impulse-buy records licensed from other manufacturers for the Canadian market, they decided to start producing records of their own (both LPs and singles) which were issued on Arc Records (4). The main series for the LPs started with number 501, while the main series of 45s started with 1001. There were other series, such as the Centennial Series to celebrate Canada’s Centennial in 1967 (which started with #250), a Christmas series that sported the AC prefix, and the International Artists (2) series (which was numbered from 3001 up with an IA prefix). There had been a short-lived Celebrity Series (4) before that, which was confusingly also numbered 3001 and up, but without the prefix. In addition to the various LP series, there were several 45 series, with their own particular numbering. One of these started out issuing U.K. and U.S. licensed masters branded as Smash (4), then Star (6), but, in 1964, Star switched to issuing homegrown talent. This morphed into Arc’s numbering for custom-pressed records issued by various independent labels and producers, but keeping the ST prefix as a common thread (see the Star (6) label profile for examples of this). In the early sixties, Arc achieved vertical integration by building Bay Studios, Toronto and purchasing Precision Records, thus controlling every stage of the record producing operation from recording to manufacture. To further control the music creation process, they also went into the publishing business, launching both Bay Music and later Canint Music. This allowed them to keep their costs down and the retail prices low, a model they learned from David L. Miller's operations. One of the main differences was that while Miller chose to record orchestral sounds, Arc didn't have to, as they were sourcing those from his operations. Instead, they opted to sate the Canadian thirst for country music with recordings from both homegrown talent and popular visiting U.S. artists like Lee Moore (4). Arc also branched out into other genres. One of their sub-labels was Yorkville, which found a measure of success concentrating on Toronto-based rock and pop artists. It should be noted that Arc Sound produced not only records, but also amplifiers bearing the same Arc logo. However, that line of business was soon abandoned. In February 1969, president of Arc Sound Phil G. Anderson decided to take the company public as Arc Home Entertainment Diversified Ltd. (AHED) in order to finance further expansion. The company continued successfully into the next decade, but ran into financial problems in 1986, when it went into receivership.