Talk:Berliner Gramophone

The Name of this article is a problem

The head of the article comments that "Berliner Gramophone" was an "early record label" when it was, in fact, the first. And it was not so much a "label" as it was an area of the record which identified the machine that it belonged to, patents information, selection, artist and recording date in most cases. It literally reads "E. Berliner's Gramophone" but not a single collector I know of, nor the many scholars that have dealt with it, use that term or "Berliner Gramophone" which appears to be a Wiki compromise. It is "Berliner," and the records are called "Berliner Records." The Gramophone is the name of the machine that they were played on, which deserves it's own article, and the name of the company that produced these records was the United States Gramophone Company, which produced both the machines and the discs.

I strongly suggest that the title be moved to "Berliner Records," as this is proper usage, and truly describes what the article is about. No one looking for information on the label will ever find it under the name "Berliner Gramophone." It is as if you listed "Columbia Records" as "Columbia Graphophone."Pinikadia 13:00, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

The above is true, but @Steelbeard1: has good reasons to change it back. @Pinikadia: is correct, they are commonly referred to today as "Berliner Records" now, and there is wikiprecedent for using common terminology. I need to try to find some old Berliner advertising. Perhaps "Berliner Gramophone Discs" or "Berliner Gramophone Records" would be an appropriate compromise so that an article separate about the company/machines can be created, if that terminology was ever used originally. 78.26 (I'm no IP, talk to me!) 04:05, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

There are three different Columbia Records articles in Wikipedia. The default one is the original Columbia Phonograph Company founded 125 years or so ago and is now owned by Sony Music. The alternate Columbia Records articles include the old EMI subsidiary Columbia Graphophone Company which was split off from the Columbia Phonograph Company. The third Columbia is Nippon Columbia of Japan. Looking up info on Berliner Gramophone, it was never called "Berliner Records." All references to Berliner 'records' used the word 'records' in lower case. I found this discography book about "Berliner Gramophone records" again with 'records' in lower case at [http://www.amazon.com/Berliner-Gramophone-Records-Discographies-Discographic/dp/0313292175]. While the Victor Talking Machine Company made "Victor Records," they also made the equipment used to play back those records so the Wikipedia article is about both the talking machine company and the records that company made. So this article should still be called "Berliner Gramophone" because it covers both the gramophones it made and their records which were played on their gramophones. Steelbeard1 (talk) 04:17, 8 April 2014 (UTC)