Words Entertainment is a Christian-based entertainment company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by Curb Records. Word Entertainment represents Francesca Battistelli, for King & amp; Country, Switchfoot, Skillet, Sidewalk, Chris August, Big Daddy Weave, alongside many others, and are home to Word Distribution, 25 Live, Word Music Publishing and Word Label Group's Word Records and Fervent Records.
Video Word Entertainment
History
Word Records was founded in Waco, Texas, in 1951 by Jarrell McCracken, Major business of Baylor Henry SoRelle and radio and television executive Ted Snider. The label's name is based on a recording of the spoken 16-minute words written and narrated by McCracken, the first record released by the label, titled "The Game of Life". The 23-year-old KWTX sports announcer at Waco has read an article by Jimmy Allen, a former athlete who became a Baptist preacher, and based his recording on an article called "The Game of Life". The show is based on a full length game between the forces of Good and Evil with Jesus Christ and Satan coaching both teams.
The next recording focuses on recording other spoken words, but Word soon branched out into southern gospel music. Early employees for labels include Tom Norfleet, Kurt Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael.
The label struggled initially until Marvin Norcross became an equity partner. By 1954, Word had become a publishing house as well.
Some of the subsidiary labels started over the years: Canaan Records in the sixties, Myrrh Records (1972) and DaySpring Records in 1977, and Rejoice Records in the eighties. Two of these labels are no longer present in their original form. The Myrrh Label was resurrected in 2005 as a record label of praise and praise: Myrrh Worship.
Larry Norman's Solid Rock Records had a distribution deal with Word from 1975 to 1980. Artists at Solid Rock included Norman, Randy Stonehill, Daniel Amos, Tom Howard and Mark Heard.
Light Records was distributed in 1970 by Word Records before being sold to Ralph Carmichael in the 1980s.
Reunion Records signed a distribution and promotion contract in the 80s, the agreement went well until the 1990s. Today, Reunion Records is distributed through the Provident Music Group.
Star Song was distributed by Word Records but abandoned their distribution deal in the late 1980s to sign with Sparrow Records taken over by Chordant Distribution and later by EMI.
The distribution deal with other labels in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s enabled Word Records to increase, representing Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Rich Mullins, Russ and Tori Taff, Paul Smith, The Imperials, Petra, Sandi Patti, Kenny Marks, Wayne Watson, Carman, The Archers featuring Steve Archer, White Heart, Gaither Vocal Band, Bill Gaither Trio, Point of Grace, Love Song, Sweet Comfort Band, The Nelons, Happy Goodman Family featuring Rusty Goodman, Florida Boys, Guardians, and other artists.
In 1976, McCracken sold a portion of interest in his label to the American Broadcasting Company. 10 years later, ABC joined Capital Cities, Inc. and forcing McCracken out of the company.
In 1983, Chris Christian signed a distribution deal to move his label Home Sweet Home Records from Benson Records to Word Records, today still active and remains under the independent ownership of Chris Christian.
From 1984 to 1990, Word was distributed in the general market by A & amp; M Records and later by Epic Records until 2002.
In 1992, ABC Capital Cities sold Word to Thomas Nelson, Inc. worth $ 72 million, and Nelson made two major changes - developing the current W swirling logo for a book product that was inaugurated in 1995, and also moved its headquarters from Waco, Texas, to its headquarters in Nashville. Nelson divided the record label and book publishing in 1996 when the label was sold to Gaylord Entertainment. In agreement with Gaylord, Thomas Nelson continued to use the name "Editing Words" for his book trail until 2002, at that time becoming "Publishing Group W" and maintaining the W logos circling. The highly controversial advertising campaign introduced at the CBA convention in 2002 created litigation, resolved later.
After Colin Reed took over Gaylord Entertainment in 2001, hotelier made corporate changes to the company, including the long-serving exit of President Roland Lundy, and sold the Word Entertainment group to AOL Time Warner in 2002. In 2002, former Atlantic Records Division Manager Kristen, Barry Landis, briefly took the position of president of the label group division. Word passed the restructuring period, closed their Los Angeles music publishing office, absorbed Myrrh Records, Squint Entertainment, and Everland Entertainment into the Word Label Group, and reduced in-house staff. Curb Records also acquired shares in the company during this time. In 2004, the company sold again as part of Time Warner's division of music division, selling it to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman to form a newly independent Warner Music Group. Kanaan Records reopened in early 2007 with Dave Clark at the helm. Canaan Records finally closed.
In March 2016, it was announced that Mike Curb acquired 100% of Word Entertainment (excluding the printed music division, which was eventually sold to The Lorenz Corporation) from Warner Music Group. Also in 2016, it was announced that Joseph Prielozny, former producer of Reach Records, would be responsible for a hip-hop trail called 4 Against 5. They announced the name of the trail when they signed Steven Malcolm to the list.
Maps Word Entertainment
List of artists
This is a list of artists, past and present, which have been recording for Word Records over the last few decades
Current
- Meredith Andrews 2006-now
- Chris August
- The Prophet of the Streets
- For King & amp; Country (band)
- Jason Castro 2010-now
- Love & amp; The result is
- Point of Grace 1993 - Now
- Dara Maclean
- Francesca Battistelli
- Switchfoot
- Needtobreathe
- Skillet (band)
- We as Human
- VERIDIA
- About Mile
- Big Daddy Weave
- Group 1 Crew
- Steven Malcolm
Former
- O'landa Draper and Associates 1990-1994 Word, 1996-2001 Warner Music Group
- Jaci Velasquez 1996-1998 Myrrh, 1999-2006 Word
- Anita Bryant
- Mark Schultz
- Charles Billingsley
- Downhere
- Chris Sligh
- Evie
- George Beverly Shea
- Rich Mullins Reunion Note
- The Imperials 1977-1984 Dayspring, 1985-1988 Myrrh
- Russ Taff 1983-1991 Myrrh
- 4Him
- Paul Smith 1986-1989 Dayspring
- Gaither Vocal Band 1980-1985 Dayspring
- The Archers 1975-1980 Light Records, 1990 Reunion Records
- Steve Archer 1983-1988 Home Sweet Home Record
- Congratulations Goodman Family 1964-1982 Canaan, 1990 Word Records
- Howard & amp; Vestal Goodman 1983-1984 Word
- Rusty Goodman 1977-1987 Canaan
- The Florida Boys Canaan
- Cathedral Canaan
- The Inspiration Quartet Canaan
- Lefevres Canaan
- The Kingsmen Canaan
- The Hemphills Canaan
- The Nelons Canaan
- The Lewis Family Canaan
- Wendy Bagwell and Sunliters Canaan
- The Hoppers Canaan
- Amy Grant 1977-2006
- Michael W Smith Reunion Note
- Patti Password
- Cynthia Clawson
- Sixpence Nothing More Rich
- Michael Omartian
- Petra 1974-1977 Myrrh, 1983-1986 StarSong (under Word) 1989-1994 Dayspring, 1995-2000 Word Archive
- Dakota Motor Co. 1994-1996 Myrrh
- Guardian 1990-1994 Pakaderm, 1995-1997 Myrrh
- Rusty Goodman
- Mike Warnke - 1975-1986 Myrrh, 1987-1992 Dayspring
- Mark Lowry
- Babbie Mason
- Bryan Duncan
- Greg X Volz
- Love Song
- Wayne Watson
- Billy Ray Cyrus (Word/Warner Bros./Curb) (2003-2004)
- David Phelps
- Build 429 (Active on INO Records)
- Stellar Kart (Active on INO Records)
- Randy Travis
- Salvador
- Bruce Carroll
- Wes King
- Clay Crosse
- Carolyn Sign up
- Ashley Cleveland
- Skypark
- In the Sky
- John Gimenez
- Rachael Lampa
- Shirley Caesar (Word/Rejoice/Myrrh) (1980-1991)
- Kenny's sign
- Thurlow Spurr and Spurrlows
- pureNRG 2006-2011 Fervent
- Bruce Greer
See also
- List of Christian record labels
References
External links
- Word Note Site
- Word Distribution
- [1]
- Historical Word Records with a list of artists, Billboard pop performance, photo gallery, more.
- The Role of the Word Records in The History of Christian Stand-up Comedy
- Chris Christian Entertainment - Home Sweet Home Records
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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