Label Guide: Bellaphon

Bellaphon Records is a German record label, founded in November 1963 by Branko (Branislav) Zivanovic, and headquartered in Frankfurt/Main. Zivanovic, whose wife Jutta owned a record store in Frankfurt, expanded this business into music publishing and distribution, and Bellaphon scored big when it obtained the distribution rights for Fantasy Records and its bestselling Creedence Clearwater Revival albums.

Bellaphon was supplying the many U.S. Army stores in Germany and was soon distributing several other international labels, including Penny Farthing, Barclay and Milestone. With this financial backing Bellaphon started its groundbreaking subsidiary Bacillus Records, one of the main forces in Progressive Rock and Krautrock in Germany and beyond.

Bellaphon is still active today as one of the largest independent record labels with a very diverse roster of artists across all musical genres. Label and logo design have not been changed in 50 years and Bellaphon's trademark remains the carefully chosen tone of purple (bella + phon) that dominates the label's appearance since the 1960s.