The CBS Records Triangle

Satan!

Hykker wrote: Likewise Columbia & Epic 45s had a "black sun" (for lack of a better description) on their 45s in the mid-ish 70s ('74-75 time frame). Anyone know what that was all about?

I always thought of it more as an oversized asterisk, but that's a good description.   When the list price of 45s rose from 98¢ to $1.29 in 1974, the CBS Records Group used the symbol to designate which releases carried the new $1.29 price. Older titles remained at 98¢ until 1976, when they, too, went to $1.29, and the black sun set.

CBS also used the black sun on promo 45s which, no doubt, alerted those dealers selling promo 45s that they needed to charge more. ;)

As for the triangle-in-a-circle, I thought it was a hazardous waste warning symbol. ;) Seriously, I thought it signified a stylus superimposed on a vinyl record... that is, until it began showing up on CBS CDs, too.    There was a recent thread on the mysterious triangle on the Steve Hoffman boards, but no one came up with a definitive answer.

I remember seeing it on cassette singles when I was a kid, as well (showing up on both sides of the cassette) -- even some free via mail sampler cassettes had the symbol on it....

I work in the industry and can tell you nobody there now knows, either, at least in the people that I routinely associate with.

The Hoffman crew has already debunked the DADC theory as inaccurate. It took them only about 10.5 seconds to reply!