During Richard Branson’s childhood, he struggled tremendously with school. Branson’s dyslexia caused him to nearly fail out of Scaircliffe School, at the age of 13. In an effort to help, Branson transferred to a new boarding school in Buckinghamshire, England: Stowe School. While attending Stowe School the headmaster told Branson he would “either end up in prison or a millionaire,” little did he know how accurate this statement would be. (Stone, 2014) In 1967, a 16-year-old Branson, whom was still struggling, dropped out of Stow School to start a culture magazine called Student. The magazine was promoted as a run by students, for students, youth magazine. The first issue was published on January 26, 1968, for which Branson had sold $8,000 …show more content…
EMI records had tipped off customs that the numbers for Virgin Records did not seem to be correct. So EMI records worked with Customs to mark every record sold to Virgin Records with a ultra-violet pen. Then, Customs placed an order for the same records through Virgin’s mail order service and receive the marked merchandise back, proving that the records were never really exported. (Weissmann, 2014) This illegal operation landed Branson in jail, plunged Virgin Records further into debt and served as one of the greatest business lessons Virgin Records ever …show more content…
Rather than sell discount records, Branson turned Virgin Records into a label. In 1973, Virgin Records signed Mike Oldfield, and released his single “Tubular Bells. The song became a huge hit in the UK and would later become the theme song for the Hollywood blockbuster The Exorcist. Using the success of Oldfield’s song, Virgin Records was able to sign other up and coming artist to the label. By 1977, Virgin Records artist included Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones, Culture Club, Peter Gabriel, UB40, and Paula Abdul. With this rooster of artists Virgin Records became the world’s largest independent record label.
In 1979, Virgin expanded by opening the first Virgin Records Megastore in London. The company also launched Virgin Films, which distributed “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle” and produced “The Space Movie” for NASA. (Citation) Virgin Books was launched that year. All of the ventures and expansions of the company were taken to help promote the artist on Virgin Records rooster. Virgin Films helped to promote the Sex Pistols and Virgin Books accompanied a Sid Vicious