Jugoton

About

Record label, company, pressing plant, and record store chain founded on 10 July 1947 in Zagreb, Croatia (then Yugoslavia) when the record label Elektroton was nationalized. Jugoton started pressing microgroove records in 1957 and the first stereo records in 1961. On the 11 September 1963, a larger factory was opened to meet the demands of the growing market, and production numbers increased to 30,000 records a day. In 1971 cassette production started, and by 1982, 20,000 cassettes were manufactured per day. Although it frequently produced licensed releases, Jugoton lowered the number of foreign artists' releases in favor of Yugoslav artists. The most well known programme departments were Fonoars, Discothalia and Fonolingua. At its peak, Jugoton was the largest record label, pressing plant and chain record store in Yugoslavia. After the Republic of Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Jugoton formally changed its name to Croatia Records on 1 October 1991. Service pressing catalog numbers As Jugoton had the largest pressing capacities in Yugoslavia, starting from early 1970s many smaller domestic major labels (such as Suzy, Beograd Disk/Jugodisk, RTV Ljubljana/ZKP RTVL, etc.), foreign partners, various cultural, religious and state organizations and companies, as well as independent labels and individuals (starting from mid/late 1980s), had their records pressed at Jugoton's facilities. These numbers started with the following combination of letters (there's likely more out there): UCA-#, UCAY-#, UEP-#, ULP-#, ULS-#, USD-#, UMC-#, USP-#, ULPS-#, ULPV-#, ULPVS-# (often without hyphen, or hyphen inserted after "U"). "U" stands for "uslužni" (service), and the following letters usually denote the format - EP, LP, single, cassette. From 1989 to 1991, when Jugoton had their own catalog numbers changed from LSY-##### to a longer format (which corresponded to the barcode which was introduced at the same time), the service pressing catalog numbers were changed as well. The format of these was U ##### E (EPs), U ##### L (LPs), U ##### S (singles) and U ##### C (cassettes). This format was retained when Jugoton changed its name to Croatia Records, which continued to press vinyl records (mostly small-run promos and service pressings) until the very end of 1994. These markings, regardless of formatting, are found in the matrix and on center labels, often backed with text "Proizvedeno u Jugotonu", "Prešano u Jugotonu", "Tehnička usluga - Jugoton Zagreb", "Proizvedeno u Croatia Recordsu" etc. Additionally, the "U"-numbers were sometimes used even on Jugoton's own releases, but these were always branded with their logo on labels and/or sleeve, so any other company mentioned on these releases should be entered as an additional label. Info on (missing) catalog numbers MCY - this designation was used before EP was introduced to Jugoton, after which MCY series was discontinued and EPY series was introduced. The last record with this designation was MCY-122. Numbers 56, 68, 86, 87, 92, 95, 115, 117, 121 were never released. Mastering engineers working at Jugoton JN = Nikola Jovanović ZP = Zvonko Petrinec BM = Bernard Mihalić SB = Silvano Bulešić DP = Damir Pavunić MK = Milivoj Kalafatić VL = Veljko Lipovšćak VP = Vjeko Pernarić KG = Kurt Grieder