Which label launched the first 33 rpm vinyl records in 1948?

Columbia Records is an American major record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment through Sony Entertainment, both are subsidiaries of Sony Corporation of America, the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887 from an earlier enterprise named the American Graphophone Company, the successor to the Volta Graphophone Company.

From 1961 to 1990, Columbia's recordings were released outside the U.S. and Canada under the name CBS Records to avoid being confused with the Columbia Graphophone Company in the UK. Columbia is one of Sony Music's three flagship record labels with RCA and Epic.

In 1948 Columbia introduced the Long Playing "microgroove" LP record format (sometimes written "Lp" in early advertisements), which rotated at 33⅓ revolutions per minute, to be the standard for the gramophone record for half a century.