The story
The company that is today Croatia Records was founded in 1947 in Zagreb, the capital of the then-People's Republic of Croatia under the name Jugoton, a publicly owned company which was the largest record label and chain record store in the former SFR Yugoslavia. During several decades of its successful existence, Jugoton signed many eminent ex-Yugoslav artists such as: Indexi, Bijelo Dugme, Električni Orgazam, Haustor, Idoli and Leb i Sol, and also numerous important foreign stars for the domestic market including: Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2, David Bowie, Queen, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode etc. The company also owned a chain of record shops across Yugoslavia. Many Yugoslav entries in the Eurovision Song Contest were signed with Jugoton including the 1989 winners Riva.
Croatian independence
After the transition from socialist state to parliamentary democracy in 1989, the question of Croatia's self-determination from Yugoslavia was raised. In 1991, shortly before the declaration of Croatian independence and the breakup of Yugoslavia, the company's name Jugoton, a portmanteau word of Jugoslavija (Yugoslavia) and tone, was changed to Croatia Records. The company was inherited by the now-independent Republic of Croatia and since the previous economic system was abandoned, it was privatized. Since the year of 2000, Croatia Records has been managed by professionals from the music industry who joined a partnership company called AUTOR d.o.o. In 2001, the musician Miroslav Škoro became the leader of Croatia Records, until his resignation in 2006.
From Wikipedia’s article on Croatia Records, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4