Stax On Deck

So with the creation of SoundScan, record label execs saw an opportunity to put more than their foot in the door and take control of the creative process of music production. They knew what to market to consumers and what areas of the market to target so they felt that they knew the proper method of music creation. They took over every aspect of the production process in order to have artists create a vision that was not their own. The corporate finagling took the industry and turned it into something that it was not. And that was to remain the standard for years to come....

The sad thing is, like most other situations of this nature, this corporate takeover and reshaping tragedy that beset the music industry could have very well been avoided if the corporate suits had remembered their industry history. Musical woes stemming from corporate tug-of-war have plagued the music industry one time in the past. That is right, its story-time.

There once existed a quaint little record label called Stax Records. Stax was set up in Memphis, TN in 1957 by Jim Stewart and and his sister Estelle Axton under the name Satellite Records. In September 1961 the name was changed to Stax and the label was already producing R&B and blues hits from well known artists of the time such as Earth Wind and Fire and Sly & the Family Stone. They even had a partnership with Atlantic Records, another major label back in the day, where Atlantic would have first choice on releasing Stax recordings, which allow the people at Stax to focus completely on the music and its recording process.

As the years went by, Stax signed more and more popular artists which garnered them more and more success. All they released were hits. Their success peaked in 1967 right before tragedy was to strike. Atlantic Records was sold to Warner Bros. who called for a renegotiation of the Stax/Atlantic partnership. It was found that Jim Stewart had actually signed over ownership to all of Stax's master recordings from 1959-1967 and Warner Bros. refused to return ownership to Stewart. Because of this, Stewart did not renew his Atlantic partnership deal and decided to sell Stax Paramount Pictures in 1968.

Stax was now an independent label and needed to rebuild its catalog of recordings which it did. Despite regaining momentum though (they even put on a concert in 1972), their overall situation was unstable at best. In 1972, Stax's new president took complete financial control of the label and struck a distribution deal with CBS. A few executive decisions later though, some people at Stax lost their jobs and CBS's interest in Stax disappeared. The label was getting no profits despite high consumer demands for Stax recordings. In 1975, the president was arrested for bank fraud and Stax Records was forced into involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 19. And thus marked the end of a great contribution to the music industry so early in its timeline.

Source(s):

Callahan, M. (n.d.). Jim stewart and estelle axton's stax records. Retrieved from 
  http://www.history-of-rock.com/stax_records.htm

McDonald, H. (n.d.). Stax record profile. About.com, Retrieved from 
  http://musicians.about.com/od/indielabels/p/staxrecords.htm 

Mellencamp, J. (2009, March 22). On my mind: the state of the music business. The Huffington Post.
  Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-mellencamp/on-my-mind-the-state-of-t_b_177836.html

Montier, P. (n.d.). Stax story. Retrieved from http://staxrecords.free.fr/staxstory.htm

Stax records. In (2003). Wikipedia Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stax_Records