Most of the subsequent technical developments took place in the USA. Gramophone records soon came to replace cylinders. The first US patent for magnetic tape was as early as 1927. Columbia Records introduced the long-playing (LP) disk in 1948. All the major recording companies in popular music had English-language origins. The oldest active record label is the US firm Columbia (from 1898); others are HMV (originally British), merged in 1931 with Columbia to form EMI. Other labels include Brunswick, established in the USA in 1916, and Decca, established in Britain in 1929