Karakos Productions & Publishing (Sonodisc)
Paris-based licensor of the Sonodisc catalogue of Congolese rumba and African/Caribbean music, with a disputed post-2005 ownership history.
- Founded
- 1970 (Sonodisc); Karakos branding post-2005
- Founders
- Sonodisc: Marcel Perse and Michel David (1970). Karakos Productions, Publishing: Jean Georgakarakos, known as Jean Karakos.
Karakos Productions & Publishing trades today as Sonodisc, or KP&P-Sonodisc, licensing a catalogue of Congolese rumba, Caribbean and other African and world music that it names on its own site as including Franco Luambo, Papa Wemba and Koffi Olomidé. The Sonodisc name originates with a Paris distributor founded in 1970 by Marcel Perse and Michel David, which expanded its African catalogue in 1981 by acquiring the bankrupt Fonior’s holdings.
The ownership history is genuinely unclear. A sourced Wikipedia account states the original Sonodisc merged with the Musisoft Next Group and, after insolvency in 2005, was acquired by the Adageo Group (Suave Music/Redbay); it does not mention Karakos. Separately, Jean Georgakarakos (“Jean Karakos,” who died in 2017) built Karakos Productions & Publishing, which today brands itself as holding the Sonodisc catalogue. No source checked on either side reconciles the two accounts, and no France company registry filing was accessible to this desk to establish which entity currently holds the rights.
What is firm: the catalogue itself, built from the 1970s onward around Congolese rumba and wider African and Caribbean repertoire, remains commercially significant regardless of which corporate entity now administers it.