Label Guide: Saga

Saga Records was a UK budget label, founded in September 1960 with the concept of making music more affordable in the United Kingdom. At that time, LP albums were very expensive with an average retail price of £3 or higher enforced by the major record distributors. By pressing its records in France, Saga could sell the records for as low as £1.25, which disrupted the entire industry and led to majors Pye and Decca starting their own budget labels, Golden Guinea and Ace Of Clubs.

A mostly classical music label at first, Saga expanded its popular music catalogue in the 1960s, and records were released under several subsidiary labels as Eros, FID, or OPP. Early in the decade, Saga moved production back to the UK, when EMI took over manufacturing. EMI pressings were of much higher quality than the French Pathe albums that were initially used.