Gallo

Gallo Music, trading as the Gallo Record Company, is South Africa’s oldest independent record label and a music publisher, based in Johannesburg. It traces back to 1926, when Eric Gallo opened the Brunswick Gramophone House, and to 1932, when he built the country’s first permanent recording studio and began recording South African artists directly rather than only distributing imported records. The current company took shape in 1990, when the original Gallo Africa merged with its longtime rival Gramophone Record Company (G.R.C.), which it had acquired in 1985.

Gallo left family ownership in 2001, when the Gallo Africa Group was bought by the listed media company Johnnic Communications. It changed hands again in 2020, when Lebashe Investment Group bought the label from Johnnic’s successor, Tiso Blackstar, for roughly R75 million ($4.3m), folding it into its newly formed Arena Holdings. In 2021, DJ and producer Black Coffee took a minority stake in Gallo Music Investments through his holding company FlightMode Digital, around the same time GMI acquired a 45% stake in the distributor Content Connect Africa.

Alongside its own catalogue, held through Gallo Music Publishers, the label distributes internationally through a deal with Virgin Music Group. It markets itself as custodian of the largest catalogue of African master recordings in the world, spanning maskandi, mbaqanga, jazz, gospel and pop, and reached its 100th anniversary in 2026.