Uriah Records link added 5/29/09.
INTRODUCTION
This directory centralizes available information for
many Christian record labels and companies. Both currently active labels and
those which are history are included.
Discographies on the web for older labels are
incomplete at best. Where available, links are provided to the best
source: BSN (Both Sides Now) Publications.
It should be noted that many Christian recordings
were also released in the 50s, 60s and 70s by mainstream labels such as
RCA, Capitol and Columbia. These labels are
not included in this section. Neither are custom artist labels.
THE BUSINESS TODAY
With the commercial success of Christian music in
the 80s and 90s as it moved more and more into contemporary pop music
styles, secular recording companies became interested in ownership. And
the major Christian record companies saw good reason to sell and
pitched their product as the ‘next big music thing.’
It seemed to be a win-win situation: The
Christian labels would get large financial pockets for production and
publicity and most important, mainstream distribution to stores like BestBuy, Target, Kmart and Walmart. In return, the
mainstream record companies would reap the bottom line.
Today the ‘Christian big 3’ are owned
by 3 of the ‘big 4’ mainstream record companies: Word Entertainment is 80%
owned by Warner Music Group, EMI Christian Music Group (Sparrow, etc.) by EMI Group plc, and the Provident Music Group (Brentwood, Reunion) by Sony
Music Entertainment.
Also, there are now more independent (indies)
Christian labels then ever, many of whom use the distribution
capabilities of the major Christian labels.
With the acquisition of Columbia House by BMG in 2005, Columbia House’s Power & Glory and BMG’s Sound & Spirit Christian music clubs are now the Christian music division
of BMG Music Service.
• Christian/Gospel digital album sales were up over 66% in 2007, while digital tracks were up over 36%
• Over 53 million units of Christian/Gospel CDs, cassettes, digital albums, and digital tracks were sold in 2007.
• Christian/Gospel album sales represented 6.6% of all album sales in 2007, a total higher than Latin (6.4%), Soundtracks (4.9%), Classical (3.3%), Jazz (2.8%), and New Age (0.6%).
This page created October 24, 2008.
