E M I Music Archives

General information

We have one of the world’s largest and most diverse music and technology archives.

We are a charitable Trust and our assets celebrate and tell the story of the famous EMI Group of companies – and their predecessors such as The Gramophone Company – and comprise a significant part of the early history of recorded sound.

EMI stands for Electric and Musical Industries and our collections cover many aspects of the early recorded music industry and the role that EMI played in it, dating from its tin-foil origins in 1877 up to 1946.

In addition to material relating to EMI’s musical heritage, we also preserve artefacts associated with EMI’s significant achievements in electrical engineering including television, radar, and medicine.

The assets and artefacts are stored in a purpose built archive in Hayes, Middlesex – a town which has long played a central role in the EMI story.

We loan the Trust’s artefacts where appropriate to museums, exhibitions and for appearances in films, television and other media in order to make them as widely accessible to the public as we can.

We also make our collections available to researchers and the public upon request.

The Trustees of the EMI Group Archive Trust would like to invite people interested in accessing the Trust’s assets to make contact with the Trust and, if possible, come and visit us.