Arion (record label)

Arion Music
Arion's logo depicting the lyre of its namesake, the ancient Greek poet Arion
Parent company	Ducale
Founded	1962 (1962)
Founder	Ariane Segal
Genre	Classical music, world
Country of origin	France
Location	Paris

Arion is a French record company and label founded in 1962 by Ariane Segal. The label takes its name from the ancient Greek poet and lyre-player, Arion. In the 1960s and 1970s Arion was seen as one of the most adventurous and innovative independent labels in France with an eclectic catalogue ranging from classical music to ethnic music to jazz. Its strengths were, and remain, rarely performed classical works and ethnic music.

In 1962 Ariane Segal, who had been working as a producer for the French division of Ricordi, left the firm with her entire team, including her sound engineer Claude Morel. She established a new independent label, Arion, serving as its president and managing director, while Morel served as the label's artistic director. By 1967 when Arion signed a US distribution deal with CBS, its recordings had already received prizes from the Académie Charles Cros and the Académie du disque français. While most single LPs produced in France during the 1960s and 70s were packaged in sleeves, Arion's records were presented in books with copious liner notes, most of which were written by Segal herself.

With the arrival of the compact disc, Arion, with its large catalogue of vinyl records, lacked the financial resources to convert to the new medium. Rather than selling the company to one of her rivals, Segal sold it to the Italian firm Ducale, who had distributed the Arion label in Italy and had begun buying stock in Arion in 1984. Ducale's owner, David Matalon, took over as president of Arion in 1985. His daughter Manuela Matalon Ostrolenk became the managing director, while Segal stayed on as head of A&R for the label's classical division. Shortly after Matalon's takeover, Arion announced plans for its first four releases on compact disc. These included Les flutes de terres Incas performed by the Andean music ensemble Los Calchakis () and Guillaume Bouzignac's Motets et scènes sacrées.