Record label, music producer and distributer, manufacturer of record players; subsidiary of RCA Corporation (until 1985) then Sony Music Entertainment; established 1929 when Radio Corporation of America (RCA) purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs, beocming RCA-Victor; introduced early version of 33 1/3 RPM in 1931; developed and released first 45 RPM records in 1949; number of failed inovations during the 1960s including Super-8; developed quadraphonic stereo in 1970; parent company RCA disolved in 1986 and RCA-Victor became part of Bertelsmann, renamed BMG Music; 2004 Sony and BMG merged their music holdings into a joint venture called Sony BMG, tasken over fully by Sony in 2008 as Sony Music Entertainment.