Polygram May Be Set to Buy A&M; Records

In a bid to boost its share of the increasingly consolidated record business, Polygram Records is expected to announce today that it will buy Hollywood-based A&M; Records.

Neither company would comment on the long-rumored deal before today’s news conference in New York. However, industry sources said Polygram, a unit of the Dutch conglomerate N. V. Philips, is expected to pay about $500 million for closely held A&M;, which was founded in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in trumpet player Alpert’s Fairfax district garage. The deal, however, is said not to include A&M;’s real estate or its Almo/Irving music publishing division.

An acquisition of A&M; would be Polygram’s second purchase of a large independent record company this year and would continue a trend of consolidation in the music business. The industry has been bolstered by the promise of greater profits from compact discs, which now account for 25% of recorded music sales, or more than $2 billion in annual revenue, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America in Washington.

Since the introduction of compact discs in 1983, at least six other prominent record companies have been completely or partially acquired by large media companies vying to expand their market share.

Several Takeovers

The West German publishing conglomerate Bertelsmann AG paid about $300 million in 1986 for the 75% of RCA Records that it did not already own. Consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. of Japan, in its first foray into the entertainment business, bought CBS Records for $2 billion in 1988.

MCA Records and the investment group Boston Ventures bought Motown Records for $61 million. Earlier this year, Thorn-EMI PLC, which already owned the Capitol Records label, bought 50% of rival Chrysalis Records.