Balkanton

{{Short description|Bulgarian state-owned record company}} {{More citations needed|date=July 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox record label  | name = Balkanton | image_name = Balkanton BTA 2156.jpg | image_size = | image_bg = | parent = | founded = 1952 | founder = | status = | distributor = | genre = Various | country = [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] | location = [[Sofia]] | url = }}[[File:Balkanton BTA 2156-label.jpg|right|thumb|A Balkanton logo on a vinyl record]] '''Balkanton''' ({{langx|bg|Балкантон}}) was a [[Public ownership|state-owned]] record manufacturing company in [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] founded in 1952. Many of the produced records were, or still are available in the countries of the former [[Eastern Bloc]]. Balkanton's plant in [[Sofia]] was equipped for all aspects of record manufacturing from recording the masters and pressing the [[vinyl records]] to printing the cover. Multi-channel sound recording was introduced in 1972 with equipment purchased from [[England]]. In 1982, Balkanton received its own [[digital recording]] equipment. By the mid-1980s, annual LP production reached 9 million units.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.monitor.bg/article?id=62789 |title="Балкантон" си докарвал валута с продажба на оригинални гласове |access-date=2010-11-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721161745/http://www.monitor.bg/article?id=62789 |archive-date=2011-07-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The company mainly produced [[LP album|LPs]] and from 1980 it started to manufacture [[Compact Cassette|cassettes]]. Being the only record company in [[Bulgaria]] during four decades, Balkanton accumulated a vast library of performances of folk, classical, Bulgarian and foreign popular music, theater, poetry and more. After a couple of attempts to reorganize the company in the 1990s, it was finally [[privatized]] in 1999. Currently, Balkanton is reissuing some of its old recordings, mainly in the digital format, closing deals with digital distributors like [[Amazon.com]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Search: balkanton | website=Amazon.com|url=https://www.amazon.com/s?k=balkanton&i=digital-music&rh=n%3A163856011&ref=sr_shvl_1-all | access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref> [[Spotify]], [[7digital]] and more.

Balkanton is located at No.6 Haidushka Polyana Street, [[Sofia]], but is not known to have a company web presence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cool.culturalheritage.org/byform/mailing-lists/arsclist/2009/05/msg00034.html|title=Re: [ARSCLIST] Balkanton Records - Still In Existence?|website=cool.culturalheritage.org|accessdate=11 January 2024}}</ref> Second-hand Balkanton records are widely available at tourist-oriented market stalls in Sofia and other Bulgarian cities.

==References== {{Reflist}} *[http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/opera/OFB/misc/balkantn.htm Author Unknown. A Short History of Balkanton Records] Retrieved 18 August 2008

{{Eastern Bloc state-owned record labels}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Balkanton}} [[Category:Bulgarian record labels]] [[Category:People's Republic of Bulgaria]] [[Category:Record labels established in 1952]] [[Category:Bulgarian companies established in 1952]] [[Category:Mass media in Sofia]] [[Category:Manufacturing companies based in Sofia]] [[Category:State-owned record labels]]