History Creator / PyeRecords

In response to the pending expiry, during the summer of 1980, Pye was meeting with executives at Creator/RCARecords, with the intent of fully merging the two labels and also of acquiring Michael Levy's Magnet Records in the event of the merger being successful. In the end, it was not to be; the merger was called off in August 1980; the next month, the label changed its name to PRT Records and the Pye International imprint, which was home to The Real Thing, was shuttered entirely. Around the same time, the name of its corporate parent changed from ATV to ACC.[[note]](which stood for Associated Communications Corporation}[[/note]] The new PRT Records formed or distributed a number of other labels in TheEighties, such as Fanfare,[[note]]a Hi-NRG label featuring hits from Sinitta[[/note]] R&B, [[note]]featuring the group Imagination[[/note]] Splash,[[note]]whose big acts were Jigsaw and the Richard Hewson Orchestra, which later became the RAH Band[[/note]] and Numa.[[note]]owned by Gary Numan[[/note]] It scored its last top-10 U.K. hit in 1988, when Petula Clark's "Downtown '88"[[note]]a remix of her 1964 hit "Downtown"[[/note]] made it to #10 on the Singles Chart.

* Music/LongJohnBaldry

Changes in its corporate ownership ultimately ended the life of the label as a whole. In 1982, PRT, as part of ACC, was subjected to a hostile boardroom coup by the Bell Group, run by Australian businessman Robert Holmes à Court, who promptly sold off ACC's stake in ITV's Midlands franchise Central to other partners, and would later sell ACC's publishing arm, ATV Music Publishing,[[note]]publishers of Music/TheBeatles' body of work[[/note]] to Music/MichaelJackson.[[note]]the King of Pop himself, who later had the publishing company merge with Sony to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing[[/note]] In 1988, the Bell Group was taken over by the Bond Corporation, which immediately ran into financial problems, and, as a result, sold off many of that group's assets, including the holdings of PRT Records.

* Music/{{Donovan}}[[note]]His Pye recordings were distributed by Creator/EpicRecords outside of Europe[[/note]]

* Music/PetulaClark[[note]]Her Pye recordings were distributed by Creator/WarnerBrosRecords[[/note]]

* Music/{{Donovan}}[[note]]His Pye recordings were distributed by Creator/EpicRecords[[/note]]

* Music/TheKinks[[note]]Their Pye recordings were distributed by Creator/RepriseRecords[[/note]]

* Franchise/TheMuppets[[note]]Their Pye recordings were distributed by Creator/AristaRecords[[/note]]

* Music/TheSearchers[[note]]Their Pye recordings were distributed by Kapp Records[[/note]]

Pye/PRT's non-classical catalogue was sold to Castle Communications, which was absorbed into Sanctuary Records, which was then sold to Creator/UniversalMusicGroup. In 2013, Universal sold Sanctuary off to BMG Rights Management, which now owns most of the Pye catalogue. The sale was the result of conditions UMG needed to meet in order to complete its buyout of Creator/{{EMI}}'s recorded music business. In March 2017, BMG made a deal with the Creator/WarnerMusicGroup to have its Alternative Distribution Alliance controle the Pye/PRT catalogue on BMG's behalf. Pye/PRT's classical catalogue was sold to EMI and became part of EMI Classics, which WMG acquired in 2013 and subsequently folded into Warner Classics.

* Music/PetulaClark

* Music/{{Donovan}}

* Music/TheKinks

* Franchise/TheMuppets
* Music/OliviaNewtonJohn
* Music/TheSearchers