Label Guide: MFP (Music For Pleasure)

Music for Pleasure (MFP) was a budget label, set up by British EMI in 1965. Most of MFP's output were reissues of existing EMI recordings, including records by major artists such as The Beach Boys, Blondie, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Animals and The Beatles. But MFP also issued original material like studio recordings of successful West End musicals.

MFP's home market was the United Kingdom, but MFP albums were also released in many international markets, including Germany, France, Australia and South Africa. Classics for Pleasure (CFP) was a sister label dedicated to classical music.

Music for Pleasure stood in direct competition with PolyGram's Pickwick Records and other budget reissue label in the 1970s and 1980s that were run by the majors. The output of MFP albums was enormous and included very many compilations of original material, but also samplers like "Hot Hits" that contained anonymous (soundalike) cover versions of current chart hits.

The MFP brand was kept alive by EMI throughout its history, and in 1995 Music For Pleasure became a sub label of the newly launched EMI Gold business. Fame was a sub-label of MFP in the 1980s, which reissued albums from Queen, Paul McCartney, Marillion, and other successful EMI artists.