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Group,

Found two more boxes of Edison Diamond Disc records in my basement. I entered them into my spreadsheet, and the total count is now 419 Records. While I was entering the records, I noticed the progression in labeling on the records.

Early records had just the matrix song number and a generic band or male singer listed. Next, singers' names were added along with a record number on the edge. Next, record numbers with R & L. Then paper labels.
Some of the early ones around 1913, would have the same matrix but singers' name or generic.

Edison used continuous improvement, and you could see this process with the labels.

Marc

When the Diamond Discs first came out, Edison wanted to downplay the significance of individual artists. His thought was along the lines of "if the version is good, who cares who does it?" This also meant that artists had less leverage when negotiating fees.

I would strongly suggest you find and buy a copy of the "Collector's Guide to Edison Records" by Mike Sherman. It goes over things like label and matrix progression in great detail.

I also made a video on the progression of the labels. You can see it on Youtube here:

(Double-click the video above or click this link to go to the video on YouTube.)

52089

Thanks for the information.

Marc

52089 wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 2:49 pm When the Diamond Discs first came out, Edison wanted to downplay the significance of individual artists. His thought was along the lines of "if the version is good, who cares who does it?" This also meant that artists had less leverage when negotiating fees.

I would strongly suggest you find and buy a copy of the "Collector's Guide to Edison Records" by Mike Sherman. It goes over things like label and matrix progression in great detail.

I also made a video on the progression of the labels. You can see it on Youtube here:

(Double-click the video above or click this link to go to the video on YouTube.)

I'm probably about ⅔ done with dad's diamond discs, unless more show up unexpectedly. Once I have them all listed, I'll put them in catalog number order. My question is, did they redo some of the older records with new labels if they wanted to reissue them? Would they have the same catalog number or a new one?

My big surprise was finding out the ones that said Recreation were actually some of the oldest. When I first saw them I assumed it mean they were repros!