About Cooking Vinyl

Established in 1986 by Martin Goldschmidt and Pete Lawrence, the Cooking Vinyl Group has developed a reputation as an internationally successful, artist-focused independent music company.

Home to an eclectic mix of acclaimed artists, the company’s record division roster currently includes: The Darkness, Kiefer Sutherland, The Proclaimers, The Psychedelic Furs, Nina Nesbitt, Billy Bragg, Passenger, Swim Deep, The Waterboys, Suzanne Vega, Alison Moyet, and The Fratellis, amongst many others.

Cooking Vinyl has consistently been at the forefront of the digital revolution and evolution. It was the first European label to do a deal with the MP3 download site eMusic and the first to enter negotiations with the peer-to-peer file-sharing company Kazaa. Later on, Cooking Vinyl set up its own online distribution company, Uploader, which was then sold to the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA).

Cooking Vinyl then set up the independent distribution company Essential Music which was bought by Sony Red in 2016 and soon after became The Orchard UK.

The Cooking Vinyl Group includes Cooking Vinyl Publishing, Motus Music, and The Music Royalty Co. Cooking Vinyl has an international network of partner companies that offer a global route to market for artists.