From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pony Canyon, Inc. (株式会社ポニーキャニオン, Kabushiki-gaisha Ponī Kyanion^?) is a large Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which publishes music, DVD and VHS videos, movies and video games. It is a subsidiairy of Japanese radio station Nippon Broadcasting System (LF). Pony Canyon and its parent company JOLF are both part of the Fujisankei Communications Group.

On October 1, 1966 Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. opened a new record label division in order to produce and market music from Japanese artists. The division formally changed its name in 1970 to Pony, Inc. in order to match the brand name it has been using since its inception. Meanwhile in 1970 another Japanese record label Canyon was founded.

In 1982, Pony ventured into interactive content by producing personal computer game software under the name Ponyca.

On October 21, 1987, Pony and Canyon merged their record operations to form Pony Canyon, Inc.

Pony Canyon is a major leader in the music industry in Japan, with its artists regularly at the top of the Japanese charts. Pony Canyon is also responsible for releasing videotaped concerts from its artists as well as many anime productions. In 1990, Pony Canyon opened a subsidiary in Singapore called Skin which was managed by Jimmy Wee and signed local English language performers such as Art Fazil, Chris Vadham, The Lizards' Convention, Humpback Oak and Radio Active. Skin ceased operations in 1997.

As a video game producer, Pony Canyon brought the Ultima series from Origin Systems and the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons series from Strategic Simulations to the Nintendo Family Computer. Pony Canyon's video game library was generally released in North America by FCI, the U.S sister of the Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyon never enjoyed as much success as a software producer as it did as a record label, and has long been criticised over the quality of many of its video games. Pony Canyon does not appear to be releasing any more video game titles as it has not released any video games since Virtual View: Nemoto Harumi for the PlayStation 2 in July 2003.

Pony Canyon is headquartered in Tokyo with offices in Malaysia, South Korea and Hong Kong. It employs approximately 360 people.

Pony Canyon also owns the recording label FLIGHT MASTER.

Below is a selected list of musical artists signed under the Pony Canyon label.

• aiko
• Aya Ueto
• D-51
• FLAME
• KREVA
• Lead
• Leaf Squad
• LM.C
• Mikuni Shimokawa
• ORIGINAL LOVE
• Sam Roberts
• Shizuka Kudo
• Tsukiko Amano
• w-inds.
• Yu Yamada
• ZEEBRA
• Ensemble Planeta
• The Wild Magnolias (one release)

• List of record labels

• Pony Canyon
• Pony Canyon International Distribution
• Pony Canyon at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia