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Recording Firms
Have Boom Year

By RED ROBINSON
Vancouver Sun:  Dec, 6/57

   This year has proved to be the biggest yet for the record industry.
   Newsweek Magazine listed the total assets of the music companies.
   The biggest are RCA Victor, Columbia, Decca and Capitol.
   Newsweek said some of the small record companies have made great progress, too.
   It cited the case of Randy Wood, who invested $1,000 in a record company, called it Dot Records, found a group called the Hilltoppers, cut a record and made $6,000,000 in one year. Newsweek said there are more juke boxes, more disc jockeys, more radio stations, more record sales and more money handed out for recording fees than at any time in history.
   Next week the music trade magazines will publish their annual disc jockey music operators' poll. I will give you the results in this column.
   This is a survey taken each year by Cash Box, Billboard and Variety magazines.
   They vote for the top songs of the year, the top male and female vocalists, the top rhythm and blues songs, and artists, the top pop songs and artists, and all other branches of music.
   Here are some predictions: Top male newcomer--A tossup between Jimmie Rodgers and Johnny Mathis with Mathis probably taking the award for his four established million sellers.
   Top female newcomer -- Bonnie Guitar. Bonnie started a trend back towards female vocalists and she is also new to the music field for 1957. Most of the female vocalists took a back seat this year to singing groups and male vocalists. Time will tell.