Cristal Records was founded by Eric Debegue in 1996 and he defines the label as “militant” meaning he, and his team, want to break with the methods of the ‘majors’ and bring in more dynamism and more sheer hard work on behalf of the artists to bring about success.

Cristal Records first started as a jazz specialist and built up its expertise in the genre and its understanding of the artists, the music lovers and emerging trends. Today it is a part of the Cristal Group which encompasses a recording studio, retail expertise, a publishing company, with over 3000 tracks to its name, and a booking agency in France. To date Cristal Records has released over 350 albums by some of the leading artists in the field.

Since 2005 the company has been expanding to cover more genres including World music, hip hop, reggae, blues, country, electro, classical and French music with a speciality in the French accordion.