In the late 1880s Thomas Edison perfected his phonograph, and set up the Edison phonograph works in Orange, New Jersey, and at the same time Edward Easton began the Columbia phonograph company. With the same technology now being used by two competing companies, Edison famously called Easton and his company “pirates.”
Though Columbia was the original band of phonograph pirates, another company took this idea and ran with it. This company was that of Zon-O-Phone, or The Universal Talking Machine Company (UTMC). Zon-O-Phone was the most remarkable record company to arise at the end of the 19th century, beginning as a blatant piracy scheme, and becoming the first company to prioritize musicality over technology. With this unusual outlook, it led to some very dysfunctional leadership. All the other record companies looked upon Zon-O-Phone with disdain, and were at times afraid. Although the company was independent only from 1900 to 1904, the scandals that brought them down are surprisingly numerous. Fred Hager may have just been their music director, but he was really what kept the fabric of the company together, and was in a way their professional and charismatic mascot.
In 1899, Zon-O-Phone started solely as a seller of a new type of gramophone,
