When the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Gramophone Company (including the subsidiary label Columbia Parlophone) in 1931, the new Anglo-American group was incorporated as Electric & Musical Industries Ltd.

Between the late 1950s and early 1970s, the company experienced great success in the field of popular music.
The bands and artists signed to EMI and its subsidiaries - including Parlophone, HMV, Columbia and Capitol Records - made EMI the best-known record company in the world at the time, with a repertoire of artists that included the world's greatest rock showmen, among them Queen, The Beatles, The Shadows, The Beach Boys, The Yardbirds, The Hollies, The Animals and Pink Floyd, along with solo artists such as Frank Sinatra, Cliff Richard, and Nat ‘King’ Cole.

The Electric and Musical Industries changed its name to EMI Ltd in 1971 and the subsidiary Gramophone Company became EMI Records Ltd in 1973.