list your top-10 record-labels please !

1. ASCH-recordings (folk/country)
2. SMITHSONIA (folk/world/blues etc.)
3. INNERVISION (electronic, deep-house, minimal)
4. PHILOMENA (sub-label of INNERVISION)
5. ROCKET (postrock, stoner, psychadelic)
6. THRILL-JOCKEY (postrock, stoner, psychadelic)
7. ARHOOLIE (folk/world/blues/soul)
8. INVADA (progressive, alternative etc.)
9. WARP (varies)
10. NINJA-TUNES (varies)

 

To me that looks like a really esoteric list. I don't recognise any of the labels.

I won't attempt a top ten but a top five would probably be

RCA - Any label that has both Tomita and Vangelis has to be near the top
Virgin - For the Human League
Sire - For Madonna - the first pop star I fancied
Mute - For Depeche Mode and Yazoo
EMI - For Duran Duran and Kate Bush

I bought LPs by all of these back in the 1980s

Someone will probably now tell me that half of these labels disappeared in the 1990s

 

Chrysalis for Blondie
Factory for Joy Division/New Order
Warner Bros for Fleetwood Mac, Van Halen, Paul Simon etc.

 

I am one with the responders that I follow the Artists, not Labels when growing my collection. With a few exceptions:
ECM label for North-European jazz, most of their output ends here in my collection of CDs and LPs

4AD label because of Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil (oh, Boy, am I Goth or just creepy?!? My Boss says that its because I am subconsciously gay... I do not argue no more...)

Ninja Tunes (!!! Kudos to @autoreverser !!!) because of Amon Tobin! It is always safe to like Miles but Amon Tobin and "Khmer" by N-P Molvaer (ECM label) are my hit-you tunes for the house guests. The usual response: You, Euros, got some tricks out there!
My all-time fav Berlin Skool electronic music came out of Fax, ZYX, Brain... Also AD label from UK, but it is too "popsy" and mild to my tastes
KScope label for SW, PT, No-Man, Se Delan, Tesseract, Pineapple Thief, Riverside... Prog Rock, I hate you! With a few exceptions above...

Since I am approaching the Golden Age of my life, I frequent LA Opera and 90% of my listening is "classical". What do we have here:
Reference Recordings! Eiji Oue reading of Symphonic Dances (HDCD-CD or LP, I have both) is more "Rachmaninoff" than anything recorded by "true Russians". Do not get me wrong, Mravinsky "is" the only place to go after Tchaikovsky... So, Melodiya label should not be dismissed.
Living Stereo SACDs, should I say more?
JVC XRCD reissues of the above: if your CD player is more expensive than your car, this is the place to dump your extra cash!!
With "classical" it is more important to find Your reading than label or whatnot. Brahms under Bohm is my one and only vision, Tchaikovsky under Mravinsky or Monteux make me cry, Bruckner under Celibidache is my poison... Who cares about SQ or digital/analog if the tune hunts you down in your dreams?...?!!!

 

Mercury for -RUSH
Island for -U2
Swan Song- Led Zeppelin
Polydor- Saga
Def Jam- Beastie Boys
Capitol- Pink Floyd
Fisher Price- Because my it introduced me to "analogue" music. See my avatar



@Jorge- A tip of my hat to your selection of Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil. Check out Sigor Ros and I Break Horses for some other great sounds.

 

I wonder if you know Stairway to Heaven has been made in the Fisher Price format.



Actually I think that the Fisher Price meets all the criteria for being a Digital System
Maybe it is where they got the idea for the CD.

 

Sigur Ros is certified by The Boss, have all their CDs and LPs. As a "hit-back": listen to Mum, another Icelandic Miracle!!!

 

@Longman - That is pure genius! Now I wonder if this classifies as piracy Imagine the money Led Zeppelin's losing from this to Fisher Price nuts!

Where's Lars Ulrich to "de-Napster" the underground P2P Fisher Price 3D printers out there