Columbia Records

=== The 1970s ===
==== Catalog numbers ====
The Columbia album series began in 1951 with album GL-500 (CL-500) and reached an awkward milestone in 1970, when the stereo numbering sequence reached CS-9999, assigned to the [[Patti Page]] album ''Honey Come Back''. This presented a catalog numbering system challenge as Columbia had used a four-digit catalog number for 13 years, and CS-10000 seemed cumbersome. Columbia decided to start issuing albums at CS-1000 instead, preserving the four-digit catalog number. However, this resulted in the reuse of numbers previously used in 1957–58, although the prefix was now different. In July 1970, the cataloging department implemented a new system, combining all their labels into a unified catalog numbering system starting with 30000, with the prefix letter indicating the label: C for Columbia, E for [[Epic Records|Epic]], H for Harmony (budget reissue line), M for [[Columbia Masterworks]], S for movie soundtrack and original Broadway cast albums, Y for [[Odyssey Records|Columbia Odyssey]], and Z for every other label that CBS distributed (collectively referred to as CBS Associated). The prefix letter G was also used for two album sets—or the number of records in the set after the label letter, such as KC2.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.globaldogproductions.net/c/cbs-lps-us.html |title=CBS LPs – US unified numbering system |website=Global Dog Productions |access-date=July 2, 2018}}</ref> The first CBS album released under the new system was [[Elvin Bishop|The Elvin Bishop Group]]'s self-titled album on Fillmore Records, assigned with F 30001 (the earliest Fillmore albums had the 'F' prefix, rather than a 'Z'), while the first actual Columbia release under the system was [[Herschel Bernardi]]'s ''Show Stopper'', assigned with C 30004.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.globaldogproductions.net/c/cbs-us-30000-30499.html |title=LP Discography for CBS Records US combined numbering system 30000-30499 |website=Global Dog Productions |access-date=May 5, 2019}}</ref> The highest catalog number released in the old system was CS-1069, assigned to ''[[Sesame Street discography|The Sesame Street Book and Record]]''. Chronologically, Columbia issued at least one album in this series in August, but by that time, the CBS Consolidated 30000 series, which started issuing albums in July with the new label design, was well underway, having issued nearly 100 albums. The system was later expanded with even more prefix letters (including R and V for [[Portrait Records|Portrait]], A and W for Special Products, L for [[Sony Wonder]], S for [[Sony Classical Records|Sony Classical]], N for [[Monument Records|Monument]], O for Chaos Recordings, and B for [[550 Music]]), which continued until 2005.

In September 1970, under the guidance of [[Clive Davis]], Columbia Records entered the West Coast rock market, opening a state-of-the art recording studio (which was located at 827 Folsom St. in San Francisco and later morphed into the [[Automatt]]) and establishing an A&R head and office in San Francisco at [[Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco|Fisherman's Wharf]], headed by [[George Daly (Music Industry)|George Daly]], a producer and artist for [[Monument Records]] (who inked a distribution deal with Columbia at the time) and a former bandmate of [[Nils Lofgren]] and [[Roy Buchanan]]. The recording studio operated under CBS until 1978.<ref>{{cite book |title=If These Halls Could Talk: A Historical Tour Through San Francisco Recording Studios |url=https://archive.org/details/ifthesehallscoul00heat |url-access=registration |last=Johnson |first=Heather |publisher=Thomson Course Technology |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ifthesehallscoul00heat/page/n104 90]–94 |isbn=1-59863-141-1}}</ref>

==== Quadraphonic Sound ====
During 1971 Columbia began producing records in four-channel [[quadraphonic sound]], using the "[[Stereo Quadraphonic|SQ Quadraphonic]]" [[Matrix decoder|matrix decoding]] system. These recordings were backward compatible on conventional two-channel stereo playback systems, but played four-channels of [[surround sound]] when heard with special amplifiers and additional speakers. Artists using this technology covered all genres, including classical music [[Leonard Bernstein]] and [[Pierre Boulez]], plus popular artists such as [[Electric Light Orchestra]], [[Billy Joel]], [[Pink Floyd]], [[Johnny Cash]], [[Barbra Streisand]], [[Ray Conniff]], [[Santana (band)|Santana]], [[Herbie Hancock]], and [[Blue Öyster Cult]]. RCA had already begun releasing quadraphonic recordings on [[8-track tape]] starting in 1970, and countered on LP record with the [[Compatible Discrete 4|Quadradisc]] system. The RCA process required a special [[magnetic cartridge|phono cartridge]] for "discrete" four-channel playback unlike the Columbia "matrix" system. Although the Columbia process was simpler and quite effective, many consumers were confused by competing systems and sales of both were disappointing. Columbia released its last quadraphonic recordings in 1978. Starting in the 1990s multichannel surround sound music surged again with the popularity of [[home cinema]] systems. Many quadraphonic recordings were reissued in new surround sound formats such as [[Dolby Digital]], [[DTS (company)|DTS]], [[Super Audio CD]] and [[Blu-ray]], however, multichannel music still did not reach mass-market acceptance.

==== Yetnikoff becomes president ====
In 1975, Walter Yetnikoff was promoted to become President of Columbia Records, and his vacated position as President of CBS Records International was filled by Dick Asher. At this point, according to music historian Frederic Dannen, the shy and introverted Yetnikoff began to transform his personality, becoming (in Asher's words) "wild, menacing, crude, and above all, very loud". In Dannen's view, Yetnikoff was probably over-compensating for his naturally sensitive and generous personality, and that he had little hope of being recognised as a "record man" (someone with a musical ear and an intuitive understanding of current trends and artists' intentions) because he was tone-deaf, so he instead determined to become a "colourful character".{{sfnp|Dannen|1991|p=19}} Yetnikoff soon became notorious for his violent temper and regular tantrums: "He shattered glassware, spewed a mixture of Yiddish and barnyard epithets, and had people physically ejected from the CBS building."{{sfnp|Dannen|1991|p=21}}

In 1976, Columbia Records of Canada was renamed CBS Records Canada Ltd.<ref name=ce /> The Columbia label continued to be used by CBS Canada, but the CBS label was introduced for [[French language|French-language]] recordings. On May 5, 1979, Columbia Masterworks began [[digital recording]] in a recording session of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Petrouchka]]'' by the [[New York Philharmonic Orchestra]], conducted by [[Zubin Mehta]], in New York (using [[3M]]'s 32-channel multitrack digital recorder).

==== Dick Asher vs "The Network" ====
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2017}}
CBS Records had a popular roster of musicians. It distributed [[Philadelphia International Records]], [[Blue Sky Records]], the [[Isley Brothers]]' [[T-Neck Records]] and [[Monument Records]] (from 1971 to 1976). But the music industry was in financial decline. Total sales fell by 11%, the biggest drop since World War II. In 1979, CBS had a pre-tax income of $51&nbsp;million and sales of over $1&nbsp;billion. The label laid off hundreds of employees.

To deal with the crisis, CEO [[John Backe]] promoted [[Dick Asher]] from Vice President of Business Affairs to Deputy President. Charged with cutting costs and restoring profits, Asher was reportedly reluctant to take on the role. He was worried that Yetnikoff would resent his promotion. But Backe had confidence in Asher's experience. In 1972, Asher had turned the British division of CBS from loss to profit. Backe considered him to be honest and trustworthy, and he appealed to Asher's loyalty to the company. Employees at CBS thought Asher was a bore and an interloper. He cut back on expenses and on perks like limousines and restaurants. His relationship with Yetnikoff deteriorated.

Asher became increasingly concerned about the huge and rapidly growing cost of hiring independent agents, who were paid to promote new singles to radio station program directors. "Indies" had been used by record labels for many years to promote new releases, but as he methodically delved into CBS Records' expenses, Asher was dismayed to discover that hiring these independent promoters was now costing CBS alone as much as $10&nbsp;million per year. When Asher took over CBS' UK division in 1972, a freelance promoter might only charge $100 per week, but by 1979 the top American independent promoters had organized themselves into a loose collective known as "The Network", and their fees were now running into the tens millions of dollars per year, Music historian [[Frederic Dannen]] estimates that by 1980 the major labels were paying anywhere from to $100,000 to $300,000 ''per song'' to the "Network" promoters, and that it was costing the industry as whole as much as $80&nbsp;million annually.

During this period, Columbia scored a Top 40 hit with the [[Pink Floyd]] single "[[Another Brick in the Wall]]", and its parent album ''[[The Wall]]'' would spend four months at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' LP chart in early 1980, but few in the industry knew that Dick Asher was in fact using the single as a covert experiment to test the extent of the pernicious influence of The Network – by ''not'' paying them to promote the new Pink Floyd single. The results were immediate and deeply troubling – not one of the major radio stations in Los Angeles would program the record, despite the fact that the group was in town, performing the first seven concerts on their elaborate [[The Wall Tour (1980–81)|The Wall Tour]] at the [[Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena]] to rave reviews and sold-out crowds. Asher was already worried about the growing power of The Network, and the fact it operated entirely outside the control of the label, but he was profoundly dismayed to realize that "The Network" was in effect a huge [[extortion]] racket, and that the operation could well be linked to organized crime – a concern vehemently dismissed by Yetnikoff, who resolutely defended the "indies" and declared them to be "mensches". But Dick Asher now knew that The Network's real power lay in their ability to ''prevent'' records from being picked up by radio, and as an experienced media lawyer and a loyal CBS employee, he was also acutely aware that this could become a new [[payola]] scandal which had the potential to engulf the entire CBS corporation, and that the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) could even revoke CBS' all-important broadcast licenses if the corporation was found to be involved in any illegality.{{sfnp|Dannen|1991|pp=4–27}}