Melodiya/Angel

US label: from late 1960s to end of the 1970s, Melodiya/Angel (in the USA) and Melodiya/His Master's Voice (in the UK) issued Мелодия (Melodiya) classical and folk recordings after an exclusive contract with EMI, the owner of both Angel Records and His Master's Voice.
[b]This is to be used as a label[/b].
On the release, please also put: - Record company: Angel Records /&/ Recorded by: (= Melodiya in Cyrillic), and generally Manufactured By

Melodiya/Angel was created in 1967: "Capitol Records has now entered into a recording agreement with Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga (MK), official State recording agency of the Soviet Union. Under this agreement, Capitol will issue the finest recordings from MK's "Melodiya" label in a new series, to be known as "Melodiya/Angel". Mastered, pressed and packaged in the United States through the widely acclaimed facilities of Angel Records, these new recordings will, for the first time in history, constitute a systematic documentation of contemporary Soviet musical life." (Alan W. Livingston, President Capitol Records, Inc. - 1967). Melodiya/Angel were further marketed and referred to as a label, ie. in the Billboard magazine.

When the EMI and Melodiya licensing agreement expired in the later 1970s, CBS/Columbia obtained the issuing rights. Many of the same Soviet era recordings later appeared in the USA on the Columbia/Melodiya label. [September 1974 Buying Guide from Billboard lists both Columbia/Melodiya and Melodiya/Angel products]