Kinney Music GmbH

Please note: This is a German record company, not a label.

ed 20 April 1971, Kinney Music GmbH, part of Kinney Record Group International, licensed releases from Warner Bros. Records, Reprise Records, Elektra and Atlantic in until the end of 1972. Releases from this period always have a Kinney Music GmbH credit on the label rim as well as on the back cover or bear (as with early Atlantic or Elektra releases) at least a Kinney specific five-digit catalog number on the labels.
Kinney never had its own distribution, which was done uncredited by Teldec-Press GmbH became the standard pressing plant and also pressed Atlantic/Elektra records.

There are some label variations known which could help distinguish genuine 1971 or 1972 Kinney releases:
- in the beginning, all Kinney releases came without a label prefix (ATL, ELK, REP, WB). All known 1972 releases come with a prefix.
- early in 1971, most Atlantic releases show a cat# with a decimal mark pointer (xx.xxx) instead of a printer's thin space (xx xxx) on the label (typical for Metronome Records GmbH pressings from that era).
- a bold K in the white bar, left to the spindle holes appears sometimes on 1972 Atlantic pressings.

Before April 1971, releases from Warner Bros. Records and Reprise Records were licensed by Metronome Records GmbH.

Kinney's successor WEA Musik GmbH started distributing records in January 1973. These WEA pressings can be easily identified by their "Distributed by WEA Music GmbH" label rim text.
Please note: Many WEA reissues of records originally released in before WEA started its own distribution show a 1972 date, but were pressed in 1973 or later.

Mixed releases with a overstock cover still mentioning Kinney Musik GmbH on the sleeve, but with a later WEA distributed record inside appear on releases in early 1973. In rare cases the Kinney credit was "forgotten" and shows also on later reissues. In contrast, only very few Kinney era pressings in later WEA sleeves are known.

A transitional label variation with a Kinney Music GmbH rim text and a bold "WEA" printed next to the spindle hole exists. It could not be dated exactly yet, although many of these releases show a 1973 copyright date.

See also Kinney Music Of Canada, Ltd..

Corporate chronology:
ed: 20 April 1971 as 'Kinney Music Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung' in Munich (company number HRB 43332)
Managing Director: Siegfried E. Loch from 19 May 1971
Relocated: 8 December 1971 to Hamburg (company number HRB 14429)
Name change: 10 November 1972 to 'WEA Musik Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung'