Quartet, tenors José Mojica and Giovanni Martinelli, and baritone Mario Basiola. Despite these efforts and constant experimentation at the Edison plant and their New York studio (including moving from 79 Fifth Avenue to more modern premises at 261 Fifth Avenue in early 1929), record sales and morale continued to drop – in fact, one Edison executive later asserted that Edison discs had lost money from the beginning – and although Edison Diamond Discs were available from dealers until the company left the record business in late October 1929, the last vertically-cut direct masters were recorded in the early summer of that year. In 1928 the Edison company began plans for making "Needle Cut" records; by which they meant standard lateral cut discs like the "78s" marketed by almost every other company of the time. Although several hundred lateral cut masters and stampers had been made by January 1929, the first "Needle Cut" discs were not released until August, and new titles were issued at a rate of only a few at a time each week for ten weeks before the company ceased record sales, thus only about 100 titles ever commercially appeared. The audio fidelity was often comparable to the best of other record companies of the time, but they sold poorly not only because Edison's market share had declined to the point where it was no longer one of the leading companies and Edison had few distributors compared to leaders like Victor, Columbia, and Brunswick, but also because their brief existence did not allow them to establish any kind of market presence. After Edison Records closed down in October 1929, many of the employees were transferred to manufacturing radios. Edison's remaining wax masters and thousands of metal master molds, including unissued experimental recordings dating to several years before Diamond Discs were commercially introduced (many in a never-released 12-inch format), were purchased by Henry Ford, and became part of the collection of the Henry Ford Museum. They were recently deaccessioned by the museum and sent to the Edison Historic Site (National Park Service) in New Jersey. Some of the Edison catalogue is in the public domain and available for download at the Library of Congress website. See also Edison Disc Record List of record labels References External links Very Early Edison Cylinder Recordings on the National Recording Registry with descriptions, audio and transcripts Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the