What is the difference between these two labels?
Ensign Records has ensign as an alias and the label for lots of releases but is listed as a holding type. Ensign is listed as an imprint but has few releases.
If they are to be left separate would all the releases under the holding need to be moved to the imprint and the alias removed from the holding.
Here is a clear image of one of their imprints.
One is an imprint of the other I think.
Imprint would be Ensign
Company would be Ensign Records Ltd. with Ensign Records as an alias.
I’m not familiar with the label (just looking at description over at Discogs). I think it would be probably fine to merge them (since we can use label credits and aliases now)
If it is decided that a merge is appropriate I personally will research each release and see if they are all actually under the same label naming scheme. But not sure if the correct label title would be “Ensign” or “Ensign Records Ltd.”
IANALE (I Am Not A Label Expert) but I would think all those releases should be under the imprint rather than the holding company, however the company would stay around for copyright relationships. (Apparently Ensign remained as a legal entity after Chrysalis acquired it, since the disc attributes copyright to Ensign Records Ltd. as a subsidiary of Chrysalis.)