Banner Records was a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 based record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 of the 20th century.

Banner Records was launched in January 1922 by the Plaza Music Company of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Banner was an extremely popular label in the 1920s, concentrating on popular music of the day. To this day, Banners are often found all over the country, indicating their popularity as Plaza's "flagship" label. The audio fidelity of the records when new was average to slightly below average for the time, but being a cheap label, they were often pressed from cheaper materials that did not well withstand repeated playing with the heavy phonograph

Phonograph

The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

 reproducers of the time, so Banner Records tended to display significant surface noise and audio distortion with moderate wear. Banner's recording studio

Recording studio

A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

 was in New York City; the recording director was Adrian Schubert, who also led the label's house band.

Early on, some Banner Records were reissues of recordings made by Emerson Records

Emerson Records

Emerson Records was a record label active in the United States between 1916 to 1928. Emerson Records produced between the 1910s and early 1920s offered generally above average audio fidelity for the era, pressed in high quality shellac. The fidelity of the later issues compares less...

 and Paramount Records

Paramount Records

Paramount Records was an American record label, best known for its recordings of African-American jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson.-Early years:...

 using masters leased from those labels.

In 1928 Banner merged with Pathé Records

Pathé Records

Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...

 and Cameo Records

Cameo Records

Cameo was a USA based budget record label, first flourishing in the 1920s, not connected with a later record label of the same name which was active in the 1950s and 1960s.The Cameo Record Company was based in Manhattan, New York...

 to form the American Record Corporation

American Record Corporation

ARC, the American Record Company, also referred to as American Record Corporation, or as ARC Records, was a United States based record company...

. ARC continued the popular Banner label through 1938

1938 in music

-Events:*January 16**Benny Goodman plays the first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall.**Béla Bartók's Sonata for two pianos and percussion is premiered in Basel....

.

In 1939 the Banner label was revived, primarily as an outlet for klezmer

Klezmer

Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...

 recordings; they continued to issue recordings on Banner into the long-playing vinyl record era.