Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | phonographic industry |
Founded | 1962 |
Founder | Philip Kives |
Headquarters | , Canada |
Products | Television advertising, music |
Owner | Philip Kives |
Website | www |
K-tel International Ltd is a Canadian company which formerly specialized in selling consumer products through infomercials and live demonstration. Its products include compilation music albums, including The Super Hits series, The Dynamic Hits series and The Number One Hits series and consumer products, including the Record Selector, the Veg-O-Matic, the Miracle Brush, and the Feather Touch Knife. The company has sold more than half a billion units worldwide. [1]
K-tel is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and has been in business since the late 1960s. It has subsidiaries or other controlled entities in the US and UK. [2] [3]
K-tel was founded by Philip Kives, [4] a demonstration salesman from Oungre, Saskatchewan. [5] [6] Kives had worked at a number of jobs as a young man, including selling cookware door-to-door and in a department store, and as a pitch-man on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City.
In 1962 he used his own money and his fast-talking demonstration style to create a new kind of television advertisement in Canada. His first product was a Teflon-coated frying pan. [7] He made a deal with the Eaton's department store to carry the product and with a local television station to air the commercials on a per-inquiry basis with a guaranteed minimum.
Kives bought and marketed a number of products from Samuel Popeil, father of Ronco founder Ron Popeil, including the Dial-O-Matic and Veg-O-Matic food slicers and the Feather Touch Knife. In August 1965, he began selling the Feather Touch Knife in Australia and by Christmas had sold one million knives. Kives later began sourcing his own products, including the Miracle Brush, which sold 28 million units. [8]
K-tel was formally incorporated in 1968, with Kives as CEO. [9] The company operated profitably during the 1970s and expanded both through acquisitions in its core area of business and diversification into other areas. Kives' cousin Raymond worked as president of the K-tel US division from 1967 to 1977, and the K-tel Europe division from 1977 to 1984.
In the five years prior to 1981, K-tel sold more than $150 million of LPs in 34 countries. Its sales increased from $23 million in 1971 to $178 million in 1981. [10] The company diversified, forming subsidiaries in areas such as real estate and oil exploration and also acquired rival Candlelite Records in 1980. K-tel lost $15.9 million [11] when Candlelite's customers refused to pay for their shipments.
The failure of this and several other high-risk ventures forced the publicly traded US entity, K-tel International, to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1984. In 1986, the Bank of Montreal foreclosed on the K-tel Canadian subsidiary at the same time as the US Chapter 11 filing. [12] Advised by Minneapolis-based Sullivan Associates, K-tel negotiated settlements with banks and other preferred and unsecured creditors. Six years later, after all the legal battles, a settlement was reached with the Bank of Montreal, and in 1991, Kives got his Canadian company back.[ clarification needed ] [10]
In 1993, K-tel earned a $2.7 million profit on sales of $56 million, [13] and in 1994, ranked #7 on BusinessWeek 's annual Hot Growth List. Mickey Elfenbein, Kives' nephew, was appointed CEO of the K-tel International division in 1993 [14] and served until the late 1990s. Elfenbein's son, Mark, produced the company's highest selling music products of the 1990s with the creation of the "Club Mix" series [15] which reached RIAA gold and platinum sales success. [16] K-tel increased its worldwide sales, primarily of music-related products, and had a successful NASDAQ IPO trading under the symbol KTEL.
In 1966, Philip Kives released the company's first compilation album, a collection of 25 country songs entitled 25 Country Hits. [17] Every copy was sold. [18] The idea of compilation albums was new, [17] and the venture's unexpected success led to further releases. K-Tel's second release, 25 Polka Greats, [19] sold 1.5 million copies in the United States [18]
K-tel recruited Australian Don Reedman (twin brother of Peter Reedman, who was already working in the Australian office) to set up the UK-based division of K-Tel Records in the early 1970s.
The company built the business of releasing compilation albums that combined material from a number of popular artists onto a single theme album using the tag line "20 Original Hits! 20 Original Stars!". [7] The company negotiated directly with artists and labels for the rights to reproduce their original recordings, in the process also securing a long-term asset through adding those recordings to their catalogue. [20]
While most of the compilation albums relied on the pop charts of the day, there were some that focused on hits from a specific genre. Examples include:
The company also created original records, including the Grammy-nominated Hooked on Classics series of classical recordings with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1970 the company briefly began distributing foreign films in the United States, beginning with Mr. Superinvisible . They produced their own Pardon My Blooper film, based on one of their records.
In the early 1980s, K-tel dabbled in the video game business under the brands K-tel Software, K-Tek Software, K-tel International (UK) Ltd. [21] and Xonox. Although K-tel's other divisions left this market after the crash of 1983, K-tel UK continued to release several games into 1984. [21]
In the late 1980s, K-tel International (UK) Ltd. released [22] several novelty cassette tapes by The Comic Answer Company Ltd. [23] [24] Each tape contained several short audio clips which were intended to be played back aloud and re-recorded onto an answering machine. A five-second countdown preceded each message to help customers begin recording at the right moment, and a formal answering machine message in a neutral voice was included at the end of each tape in case they wanted to revert the novelty message.
These recordings included at least five spoken word tapes released in 1988, and made in partnership with ITV Central's popular satirical puppet show Spitting Image. Show regulars including Chris Barrie, Steve Nallon and Nigel Plaskitt participated as voice actors. Examples and the impersonations therein include:
In mid-April 1998, during the dot-com bubble, news that the company was expanding its business to the Internet sent the thinly traded stock shooting from about $3 to over $7 in one day (3:1 split adjusted). [28] The short interest of the stock swelled. The price of the stock peaked at about $34 [29] in early May, and began to decline, reaching $12 in November and eventually pennies. The sudden upswing was fuelled mainly by a large short squeeze. Traders with short positions either "bought in" or were forced to cover positions at very high prices because of the great losses. [30]
In 2007, Philip Kives took K-tel private again. The company completed a 1-for-5000 reverse split on July 18, 2007, reducing the number of public shareholders to under 300 and allowing the company to delist. [31] It changed its symbol to KTLI and moved from the NASDAQ to the over-the-counter market.
The company now earns profits from its catalogue of Billboard-charting hits, by the original artists, particularly songs from the 1950s through the 1980s. Tracks include "The Twist" by Chubby Checker, "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard, "Surfin’ Bird" by The Trashmen, and "Help Me Make It Through the Night" by Sammi Smith.[ citation needed ]
K-tel distributes 200,000 songs worldwide per year on digital platforms, including Amazon, Spotify and iTunes, and licenses songs from its catalogue for use in commercials (e.g., Nike, Fiat, Coke and KFC), films (e.g., Spider-Man , Baby Driver , [32] The Dallas Buyers Club and Hotel Transylvania 2 ) and television programs (e.g., Stranger Things, [33] Ray Donovan, Breaking Bad , Californication , Mad Men and Transparent ). [34]
K-tel Records has also produced a Canadian children’s music group called Mini Pop Kids, [35] a series of recordings in which a group of Canadian children aged 10 to 14 sing family-friendly pop hits. [32] The series sold millions of copies when it was originally distributed in the 1980s. K-tel brought the series back in Canada, the United States, and Israel as of May 15, 2004, and has continued to produce recordings. The latest album, Mini Pop Kids 18, was released in 2020 in Canada. [36] The series is promoted by a touring group that performs shows across Canada.
K-tel’s company founder Phillip Kives died in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on April 27, 2016. [37] [38] [39]
K-tel helped define the way people purchased music in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2013, Forbes wrote a piece on K-tel, entitled "K-Tel Records: The Spotify of the 70s", pointing out that the way people discovered new music in the 70s was through K-tel compilations, in the same way that Spotify playlists are now used to find related artists. [40]
In 2013, Dave Grohl, the front man of Foo Fighters, gave a keynote speech at SXSW, praising K-tel for exposing him to music early in his life, specifically "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group: "Grohl told the crowd earnestly that the song's inclusion on a 1975 K-tel Records Blockbuster compilation – the first album that he ever owned – was 'the record that changed my life.'" [41]
K-tel infomercials were spoofed on late night television, leading to skits such as Dave Thomas's character Harvey K-Tel pitching Stairways to Heaven and 50 Psalms by 50 Stars on SCTV, Dan Aykroyd’s "Bass-o-Matic" Saturday Night Live performance, and The Simpsons cartoon series, where the fictional B-movie actor Troy McClure promotes widgets on a show called I Can’t Believe They Invented It! . [42]
Stealers Wheel were a Scottish folk rock/rock band formed in 1972 in Paisley, Scotland, by former school friends Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty. Their best-known hit is "Stuck in the Middle with You". The band broke up in 1975 and re-formed briefly in 2008.
Now That's What I Call Music! is a series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Sony Music and Universal Music which began in 1983. Spinoff series began for other countries the following year, starting with South Africa, and many other countries worldwide soon followed, expanding into Asia in 1995, then the United States in 1998.
Greatest Hits II is a compilation album by the British rock band Queen, released on 28 October 1991. The album consisted of Queen's biggest hits between 1981 and 1991, from the UK chart-topper "Under Pressure" to "The Show Must Go On".
Priority Records is an American distribution company and record label known for artists including N.W.A, Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy-E, Master P, Snoop Dogg, Silkk the Shocker, Jay-Z, Paris, Mack 10, 504 Boyz, Brotha Lynch Hung, C-Murder, Mia X, Westside Connection, and Ice-T. It also distributed hip hop record labels including Death Row Records, Hoo-Bangin' Records, No Limit Records, Posthuman Records, Rap-A-Lot Records, Rawkus Records, Roc-A-Fella Records, Ruthless Records Duck Down Records, and Wu-Tang Records. According to Billboard, "few record labels were as important to the rise of West Coast hip hop as Priority Records."
Mauro Picotto is an Italian electronic music producer and DJ, and previously a member of the Italian Euro house group "R.A.F.". He became well known as a solo artist with songs including "Komodo ", "Pulsar", "Iguana", and "Lizard". He has collaborated with other electronica/trance musicians such as Tiësto and Mario Più.
"The Ballroom Blitz" is a song by British glam rock band The Sweet, written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. The song reached number one in Canada, number two in the UK Singles Chart and the Australian Chart, and number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. It remains an enduring favourite, with more than 90 million streams on Spotify alone by the end of 2022.
Simitar Entertainment, Inc. was an American media company that sold music, videos, DVDs, and computer software. The company specialized in compilation albums, special interest video, and urban media. Simitar also distributed its own label.
American singer-songwriter Kelly Clarkson has released ten studio albums, eight extended plays, one compilation album, one remix album, and 54 singles. In 2002, she won the inaugural season of the television competition American Idol and was immediately signed to a recording deal with 19 Recordings, and RCA Records. She made her chart debut in September 2002 with the double A-side single "Before Your Love"/"A Moment Like This", latter of which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart and eventually became the year's best-selling single in the United States. Her debut album, Thankful, was released in April 2003 and entered the US Billboard 200 chart at number one. Thankful produced the hit lead single "Miss Independent" and was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The Bells, a.k.a. The Five Bells, were a Canadian soft rock band from Montreal, Quebec, active from 1964 to 1974. They released four albums and several singles, two of which were major hits in the early 70s, "Fly Little White Dove Fly" and especially "Stay Awhile".
Quality Records was a Canadian entertainment company which released music albums in Canada on behalf of American record labels. They also released recordings by Canadian artists.
Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City, Razor & Tie releases were distributed by Universal Music Group.
Scott Christopher Shephard is a British music industry executive and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of So, Let's Talk and former President of Europe for American record label, Global Music Group.
Philip Kives was a Canadian business executive, entrepreneur, and marketing expert from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is best known for founding K-tel, which sold household gadgets including the Miracle Brush, Feather Touch Knife, Veg-O-Matics, as well as many compilation record albums.
Arcade Records was a British record company specialised in multi-artist compilation albums, founded in 1972. In the 1970s, it found itself in direct competition with K-tel and other compilation labels. Some Arcade albums reached Number 1 but have never had an official UK release on CD...These are 20 Fantastic Hits, The Best Of Roy Orbison & Jim Reeves 40 Golden Greats. In the 1980s, the original company was sold to Dutch entrepreneur Herman Heinsbroek, who expanded it into a worldwide multi-media company.
Elvis' 40 Greatest is a compilation album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley. It was released in 1974 and was the UK's biggest-selling album over the Christmas period of that year, but along with all albums on K-tel, Ronco and Arcade, it was ineligible for the UK Albums Chart until 1975 because it was felt that heavy TV advertising and low pricing distorted the charts. It finally reached number one on the UK Albums Chart in 1977, and became the 10th best-selling album of the 1970s in the UK.
"Easy Livin'" is a song by the British rock band Uriah Heep, released as the second single from their 1972 album Demons and Wizards. The band also shot a basic music video for the song in 1972. It was the band's first hit in the United States and the only top 40 hit there, peaking at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1972. The song's greatest success came in the Netherlands, where it reached No. 5, as well as reaching the Top 20 charts in Norway, Denmark, Finland and Germany. The song also peaked at No. 25 in Canada. In 1988, the band released a live version of the song, with new vocalist Bernie Shaw, as a UK single from the album Live in Moscow.
X5 Music Group is a record label based in Stockholm, Sweden with a branch in Manhattan, New York. Founded in 2003, it is a digital-only label that primarily licenses pre-existing music for compilation albums. X5 originally focused on classical music, and in 2011 its custom album The Greatest Video Game Music, featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra, debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200. Since 2009 the company has had 24 albums on the chart; all 24 were custom digital releases produced by the label.
An independent record label is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).
Bryan Turner is a Canadian/American entertainment executive and entrepreneur. He is perhaps best known for being the founder of Priority Records in 1985, which was “the country’s largest independent label in the mid-90s” according to the New York Times. Turner served as CEO and sold a portion of the business to EMI in 1996 and the remainder in 1998.
The albums discography of English singer Cliff Richard consists of 49 studio albums, seven soundtrack albums, 11 live albums, three cast recording albums, 17 mainstream compilation albums, one remix album, 12 box sets, eight gospel compilation albums and 47 EPs. It also includes numerous budget/mid-price compilation albums, repackaged albums, and foreign compilation albums.
{{cite book}}
: |last=
has generic name (help){{cite book}}
: |last=
has generic name (help)