Total Experience Records | |
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Parent company | Universal Music (1979–1983 catalog) BMG Rights Management (1984–1987 catalog)[1] |
Founded | 1975 as Total Experience Productions, label launched in 1981 |
Founder | Lonnie Simmons |
Status | Defunct |
Distributor(s) | PolyGram (1981–1984) RCA (1984–1987) |
Genre | R&B Funk |
Country of origin | United States |
Location | Beverly Hills, California |
Total Experience Records was a record label founded by Lonnie Simmons. Its two major acts were The Gap Band and Yarbrough & Peoples. It originally began in 1975 as a production company with the first release being a 45 with the Semper led group New Experience on Ariola Records. By the fall of 1978, the production company signed a label deal with Mercury Records, before Simmons decided to transform the production company into a label in 1981. From its inception in 1981 to late 1983, Total Experience was a subsidiary label of Mercury's parent company, PolyGram. In 1984, the label became independent, changing its distribution from PolyGram to RCA Records.