Caroline
Caroline Records is a renowned music label that has had an interesting history. Originally established as a European offshoot of Virgin in the 1970s, it was later revived in the 1980s as a distributor and pseudo-indie label under Virgin/EMI. In 2013, Universal Music brought back the brand through Capitol Music Group. Caroline Records serves as a label for various releases bearing the *Caroline* or *Caroline Records* brands, as well as fulfilling distributor and other company roles.
The catalog number formats used by Caroline have varied over time, with prefixes like *CAROL* and *CAR*. It is important to use these numbers exactly as they appear on the release to avoid any confusion. In recent years, Caroline also adopted the standard EMI numbering system alongside their CAROL-prefix numbers.
Similar to Island Records, Caroline has been inconsistent about incorporating the word "Records" into their logos and contact information throughout their history. However, on Discogs it is considered correct to always refer to them as *Caroline Records*, even if "Records" is not present. The oldest logo of Caroline was reintroduced for several new releases in the mid-2010s. While it may be more appropriate to omit "Records" from their name now, there are too many releases associated with this label to make such edits at this point.
