General Recorded Tape

General Recorded Tape was an American manufacturer of reel to reel, 8-track and cassette tapes that existed between 1965 and 1979. The company grew to become the owner of several prominent U.S. record labels, including Chess Records and Janus Records.

General Recorded Tape was founded in 1965 by Alan J. Bayley (1933-2010), who was also its president. General Recorded Tape developed in the 1960s to become a major manufacturer of tape-format music for many record labels. As of 1968, the company had duplication rights for 67 record labels, while it was estimated that 90% of retail outlets carried GRT tape products. At the time, the company was focused on the educational and industrial markets for its tape products, despite servicing a large number of record labels.

General Recorded Tape later grew to acquire major labels in its own right, such as Chess Records and Janus Records, and also released music under its own label, GRT Records. Its acquisition of Chess Records occurred in 1969, when the company paid Leonard Chess and Phil Chess $6.5 million and 20,000 shares of General Recorded Tape stock for all of the shares of Chess Records. Also in 1969, the company established a Canadian subsidiary, GRT Records, which became a major label in Canada during the 1970s. The company in 1969 also established a joint venture with Pye Records, based in England, to form Janus Records in the United States. In 1972, General Recorded Tape purchased Pye Records' interest in Janus Records and by 1976 reorganized its record production business around Janus Records. At the time, Janus Records proved to be particularly profitable for General Recorded Tape, due to Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" achieving gold record status. Earlier, in 1974, General Recorded Tape had publicly denied rumours that it was in negotiations to merge with ABC Records. At the time, Bayley insisted that the product lines of General Recorded Tape had strengthened through licensing arrangements with , which was owned by EMI Records and former executives of Bell Records.

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