Word Entertainment

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Word Entertainment
Parent companyCurb Records
Founded1951 (1951)
FounderJarrell McCracken
Distributor(s)Word Distribution, Warner Music Group
GenreGospel, Christian
Country of originU.S.
LocationNashville, Tennessee
Official websitewordentertainment.com

Word Entertainment is a Christian faith-based entertainment company based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Curb Records. Word Entertainment represents Francesca Battistelli, for King & Country, Switchfoot, Skillet, Sidewalk Prophets, Chris August, Big Daddy Weave, in addition to many others, and is home to Word Distribution, 25 Live, Word Music Publishing and Word Label Group's Word Records and Fervent Records.

History

Word Records was founded in

Christ and Satan
coaching the two teams.

Subsequent records focused on other spoken word recordings, but Word soon branched out into southern gospel music. Early employees for the label included Tom Norfleet, Kurt Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael.[2]

The label struggled initially until Marvin Norcross became an equity partner. By 1954, Word had become a publishing house as well.[2]

Several subsidiary labels were started over the years:

Myrrh Worship.[3]

Larry Norman's Solid Rock Records had a distribution deal with Word from 1975 to 1980. Artists on Solid Rock included Norman, Randy Stonehill, Daniel Amos, Tom Howard and Mark Heard.

Light Records was distributed in the 1970s by Word Records before being sold to Ralph Carmichael in the 1980s.

Provident Music Group
.

Star Song was distributed by Word Records but left their distribution deal in the late 1980s to sign with Sparrow Records which was taken over by Chordant Distribution and then by EMI
.

Distribution deals with other labels in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s allowed Word Records to rise, representing

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, Guardian
and other artists.

In the 1976, McCracken sold part interest in his label to the

Capital Cities, Inc. and forced McCracken out of the company.[2]

In 1983, Chris Christian signed a distribution deal to move his label Home Sweet Home Records from Benson Records to Word Records, today it is still active and remains under the independent ownership of Chris Christian.

From 1984 to 1990, Word was distributed in the general market by A&M Records and then by Epic Records until 2002.

In 1992, Capital Cities ABC sold Word to

Gaylord Entertainment.[5][6][7]
In an agreement with Gaylord, Thomas Nelson continued to use the "Word Publishing" name for its book imprint until 2002, at which time it became "W Publishing Group" and retained the swirling W logo. A highly controversial ad campaign introduced at the CBA convention in 2002 created litigation, settled later.

After Colin Reed took over Gaylord Entertainment in 2001,[citation needed] the hotelier made corporate changes at the company, including the ousting of longstanding president Roland Lundy, and sold off the Word Entertainment group to then-AOL Time Warner in 2002.[8] In 2002, former Atlantic Records Christian division manager Barry Landis briefly took the position of president of the label group division. Word went through a period of restructuring, closing their Los Angeles music publishing office, absorbing Myrrh Records, Squint Entertainment, and Everland Entertainment into the Word Label Group, and reducing in-house staff.[9] Curb Records also gained a stake in the company during this time. In 2004, the company was sold again as part of Time Warner divestiture of its music division, selling it to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman to form a newly independent Warner Music Group. Canaan Records was re-opened in early 2007 with Dave Clark at the helm. Canaan Records was eventually shuttered.

In March 2016, it was announced that Mike Curb acquired 100 percent of Word Entertainment (excluding the print music division, which was eventually sold to The Lorenz Corporation) from Warner Music Group.[10] WMG has continued to distribute Word's output for the general market. Also in 2016, it was announced that Joseph Prielozny, the former Reach Records producer, would be in charge of the hip-hop imprint which is to be called 4 Against 5. They announced the name of the imprint when they signed Steven Malcolm to their roster.

Notable artists

Current

Former

See also

References

  1. ^ The Vernon Daily Record, Tue, December 4, 1951, Page 3
  2. ^ a b c d e Mount, Daniel J. (2005). A City on a Hilltop? The History of Contemporary Christian Music. p. 50. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  3. ^
    Billboard Magazine
    . Vol. 117, no. 17. p. 8.
  4. ISSN 1524-7848
    .
  5. ^ Milliot, Jim (December 2, 1996). "With Word sale, Nelson to focus on core business". Vol. 243, no. 49. Publishers Weekly. p. 12.
  6. ^ "GAYLORD ENTERTAINMENT COMPLETES PURCHASE OF WORD RECORDS AND MUSIC FROM THOMAS NELSON". Business Wire. January 7, 1997. p. 1071302.
  7. Billboard Magazine
    . Vol. 108, no. 49. p. 6.
  8. Billboard Magazine
    . Vol. 113, no. 49. p. 8.
  9. Billboard Magazine
    . Vol. 114, no. 10. p. 6.
  10. ^ Rau, Nate (March 2, 2016). "Curb Records acquires Word Entertainment". The Tennessean. Retrieved August 1, 2016.

External links

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