Hyperion Records

Hyperion Records is a British classical music record label. Established in 1980, the label was independent until February 2023, when it was acquired by the Universal Music Group. Under Universal, Hyperion is one of the three main classical record labels, alongside Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.

History

Ted Perry founded Hyperion in 1980, with assistance from his then-wife Doreen and business partner Bill Harper,[1] naming the company after Hyperion, one of the Titans of Greek mythology. Early LP releases include rarely recorded 20th-century British music by composers such as Robin Milford, Alan Bush and Michael Berkeley. The company's fortunes greatly improved following the release of a critically acclaimed and popular disc of music by Hildegard of Bingen, A Feather on the Breath of God (1985), directed by the medievalist Christopher Page and his group Gothic Voices, and the album 'Sacred Vocal Music of Monteverdi'.[1]

Sawkins lawsuit

In 2004, Hyperion became embroiled in a legal dispute with Lionel Sawkins, a music editor whose editions of works by Michel-Richard de Lalande had been used in Hyperion's recording of the composer's music. Sawkins sued the company for royalties accruing from his musical copyright in these editions.

Hyperion maintained that the editions were not original compositions and therefore were not subject to copyright, and further that Sawkins did receive payment in the form of a hire fee from the performers for their rental. The case came to court in May 2004, and the judgment went largely in Sawkins's favour. Hyperion appealed in March 2005, and the court upheld the original judgment.

While the damages Sawkins sought were thought to be small, the legal costs of the case were estimated to result in a liability to the company of hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling, making its future uncertain at the time.[2] By 2006, Hyperion had received financial support from musicians, consumers, and composers to enable its survival.[3] Many musicologists criticized this precedent-setting case, including Peter Phillips, the director of the Tallis Scholars and himself a music editor, who said:

Following the death of Sawkins in September 2025,[5] Hyperion has restored this recording to download and CDR availability.

"All the music I perform has to be edited, or we couldn't read it. But copyright should be there to reward creativity, not scholarship or diligence. How much an editor did or did not write should never be asked and judged during a million-pound lawsuit involving a small and innovative recording company."[4]

Acquisition by Universal Music Group

Entries at Companies House show that, on 14 February 2023, ownership of Hyperion moved to Universal Music Operations Limited, the British subsidiary of Universal Music Group (UMG), which later officially announced the acquisition on 15 March 2023,[6] making Hyperion a sister label of Deutsche Grammophon and Decca. In 2023, Universal announced plans for the first-ever streaming availability of Hyperion recordings in the history of the Hyperion brand.[7] With the absorption of Hyperion into Universal Music, Simon Perry remains as managing director of Hyperion.[6]

parent	Universal Music Group
founded	1980
founder	George Edward Perry
genre	Classical music
country	United Kingdom
location	United Kingdom
url	hyperion-records.co.uk

History

Sawkins lawsuit

Acquisition by Universal Music Group

Recognition

See also

External links

References