ABKCO RECORDS
ABKCO Records (ABKCO acronym of Allen & Betty Klein and COmpany) is a major independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. ABKCO Records is currently distributed by Universal Music Distribution, which also controls distribution of the Rolling Stones’ post-ABKCO catalog. (More from Wikipedia)
The Beatles’ somewhat anti-capitalist stance over this period is hardly driven by some sort of Marxist-Leninist tendencies as the band’s detractors might imagine, but it is rather a natural reaction to the scandalously brutal plundering of royalties from even top recording artists that had become routine among recording industry practitioners for decades. As one of the most egregious examples, one of the Rolling Stones’ managers, Allen B. Klein tricked the band into signing over the rights to all of the music that they had recorded (through 1971) with Decca Records. (The Stones were Decca’s lucrative consolation prize when they passed on signing the Beatles). Klein's label, ABKCO Records is frequently encountered on Stones records, including one of their rarest albums, Metamorphosis.
(January 2013)
