Società Italiana di Fonotipia, commonly known as Fonotipia, was founded in 1904. At that time discs were pressed by the International Talking Machine GmbH in .
In 1911 Fonotopia was purchased by Carl Lindstrom GmbH. Carl Lindstrom also controlled the Beka, Favorite, Jumbo, Odeon, Homophone, Lyrophone & Pariophon labels. During WW1 Lindstrom’s Warsaw factory was closed by the Russians and the British Branch was closed by the British Board of Trade in August 1916. During the war the Transoceanic Trading company was set up in the Netherlands to look after Lindstrom’s overseas assets. At the outbreak of WW1, in 1914, two Lindstrom employees were stranded in New York. They formed the Okeh label in1918 then in 1919 reformed that company into the General Phonographic Corporation. By the mid-twenties they were pressing Beka. Odeon and Fonotipia records in the US using Lindstrom European masters. In 1926 General Phonograph sold the Okeh, Odeon & Fonotipia labels to Columbia Records. American Columbia had been owned by the British branch of Columbia since March 1925. Then in 1931 HMV and Columbia merged to form EMI.
