Columbia Records What is a record label and what do they do? A record label is a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos, while also searching for new talent and development of new artists, and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers. Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment. It was founded in 1887, evolving from the American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business, and the second major company to produce records. Like many other record labels, they have evolved with the time in terms of the musicians they have signed to their record label, it branched off with various different genres of music (such as rock, rap, RnB, pop)...