Deutsche Harmonia Mundi

German label that specialises in early music and contemporary classical music. The label started in the late 1970s as a follow-up to Harmonia Mundi. The label's beginnings date back to the 1950s, when owner Rudolf Rudy from Germany met Bernard Coutaz from France. In 1958 both started a record company. Rudy did so in Freiburg, Germany and Coutaz in Paris, France. These record companies shared their artists and recordings and issued records under the same label: Harmonia Mundi. In the late 1970s the name of Harmonia Mundi in Germany changed to "Deutsche Harmonia Mundi". This was around the time that Harmonia Mundi's distributor BASF exited the recorded music industry. In 1977 for example, Billboard Magazine reported that Fonit Cetra of italy "acquired distribution rights for the Harmonia Mundi catalogue, which in Italy is known as Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, to set it apart from the French label with the same name." In Germany, distribution of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi switched from BASF to EMI. In 1986, EMI took over worldwide distribution until 1988 when it switched to BMG. Five years later Rudy sold Deutsche Harmonia Mundi to BMG. Nowadays the label is owned by Sony Music Entertainment. After the sale of Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Rudy started Ars Musici.