| Rhino Entertainment Company | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | Warner Music Group |
| Founded | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) |
| Founder | Harold Bronson Richard Foos |
| Distributor(s) |
|
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | 777 S. Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Official website | www |
Rhino Entertainment Company (formerlyRhino Records Inc.) is an American specialtyrecord label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division forWarner Music Group. Its currentCEO is Mark Pinkus.[1]
Founded in 1978,[2] Rhino was originally anovelty andreissue label during the 1970s and 1980s. It released compilation albums ofpop,rock & roll, andrhythm & blues successes from the 1950s through the 1980s, as well as novelty-song LPs (compiled in-house or byDr. Demento) and retrospectives of famous comedy performers, includingRichard Pryor,Stan Freberg,Tom Lehrer, andSpike Jones.
Rhino started as a record shop onWestwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, in 1973, run by Richard Foos, and became a record distributor five years later[3] thanks to the effort of then-store manager Harold Bronson. Their early releases were mostly novelty records (such as their first single, in 1975,Wild Man Fischer's "Go to Rhino Records"). The difficulties involved in getting airplay and distribution for such material eventually caused Foos and Bronson to take the label in other directions. One of Rhino's early artists was The Twisters, whose Los Angeles popularity far exceeded their album sales.[citation needed] Rhino's mail-order catalogs and early LP labels featured the company's mascot character Rocky—a cartoongreaser rhinoceros wearing a black leather jacket, designed by bootleg cover artistWilliam Stout, and later cartoonistScott Shaw!.
Some of the label's earliest successes with re-issues were achieved by acquiring the rights to theWhite Whale Records catalog[citation needed] that includedthe Turtles. By the mid-1980s, most of Rhino's releases were re-issues of previously released recordings licensed from other companies. For superior sound quality,audio mastering of the original tapes (where possible) was done under the direction ofBill Inglot, and the label's creative packaging made Rhino one of the most respected re-issuerecord labels, receiving rave reviews from music collectors, fans, and historians;[citation needed] and later, Grammy nominations and awards.[citation needed] Rhino was quick to get into thecompact disc market, releasing dozens ofoldies CDs at the dawn of the CD age in 1984.[4] Their retrospective compact disc releases, such as those in theBillboard Top Hits series (Billboard Top Dance Hits), are oftenremastered to restore or improve upon the releases' original analog audio quality.
In the late 1980s, Rhino transitioned into a complete entertainment company specializing in home video (initiallyVHS, thenDVD andBlu-ray) reissues of television programs such asThe Monkees,The Lone Ranger,The Transformers,Mystery Science Theater 3000, andEd Sullivan's Rock 'n' Roll Classics collection, as well as compact disc releases of select artists and movie soundtracks.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, the company's head ofA&R, Gary Stewart, signed artists who recorded new music, includingCindy Lee Berryhill,Steve Wynn,Rank and File,Gene Clark andCarla Olson, The Textones, andNRBQ. These albums were released on the main Rhino label and on subsidiary labels such as RNA (Rhino New Artists) and Forward. However, the company's artists tended to generate more critical acclaim than public interest; for the most part, sales totals in the low five figures or less were routine for Rhino-produced albums,[citation needed] and the less costly, less risky re-issue business remained the company's primary revenue stream. One exception was the success of "At This Moment" byBilly Vera and the Beaters, a 1981 song that went to the top of the U.S.Billboard charts in late 1986 after being featured in an episode of the hitNBC TV seriesFamily Ties. In 1986, Rhino Records had signed a deal withNew World Pictures to set up a feature film company called Rhino Films. The first project planned by Rhino Films was to be a film about the rock bandBig Daddy, which was a Rhino group that was returned to the US after several years of absence.[5]
In 1985,[6] Rhino signed a six-year distribution agreement withCapitol Records. During 1989 Rhino and Capitol's parentEMI made a deal to jointly acquireRoulette Records; Rhino received the U.S. rights to Roulette's catalog, excluding jazz. When the distribution deal with Capitol ended in 1992, Rhino signed a new distribution deal withAtlantic Records, and in turnTime Warner bought a 50 percent stake in the record company. In 1993, Rhino's home video unit ended its deal with Uni and moved its deal toA*Vision Entertainment.[7] In 1998, Time Warner bought the other half of Rhino, making the company a wholly owned unit of Time Warner.[8] The Rhino Records retail store, which was part of the 50% sale in 1992 but which reverted to Foos after Time Warner bought out the remainder,[9] closed in 2005.[10][11][12]
It was through this merger that the label reissued material from such artists asthe Monkees,Eric Burdon,Fanny,Dannii Minogue,the Ramones, theGrateful Dead,Emerson, Lake & Palmer,the Beach Boys,Yes,the Doobie Brothers,the Cars,Chicago,Tom Paxton,Third Eye Blind,the Doors,War,Spirit of the West and, most recently,the Bee Gees; as well as soundtracks spanning the Turner-owned pre-1986MGM and pre-1950[13] Warner Bros. periods, in addition to WB's own post-1949 period.[a] Rhino's soundtrack releases includeGone with the Wind,The Wizard of Oz,Easter Parade,North by Northwest,Casablanca,King Kong,Doctor Zhivago,Superman, andFinian's Rainbow. The Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. film soundtrack libraries are currently managed by Warner Bros.' in-house label subsidiary,WaterTower Music.[14]
In 1999, Rhino started the 'Rhino Handmade' division of limited-edition releases available primarily from their website. All Handmade deluxe editions were limited to about 3,000 copies or fewer, and once sold out were not re-pressed. In 2003, co-founders and longtime executives Richard Foos and Harold Bronson left Rhino, reportedly due to frustration with the challenges of an increasingly competitive market. In fact, Time Warner's final vesting of its 100 percent ownership of the label, and its subsequent 'reorganization' of label staff, which did not stop at the former owners, were the major factors in their exits.[citation needed] Soon after, Foos inaugurated a new label,Shout! Factory, which began releasing dozens of CDs and videos mirroring the original early-1990s Rhino philosophy.
In 2004, Time Warner spun off its music divisions and today Rhino is part of the newly organizedWarner Music Group.
In addition to dealing with archive material, the label also manages the U.S. distribution or worldwide production of compilations for more recent Warner acts, including still-active artists such asEnya,New Order, andChicago.
In June 2006,Warner Strategic Marketing in the U.K. was dissolved and Rhino Records U.K. was formed.[15] The division has two main factions: TV-advertised compilations (for examplePure Garage Rewind Back to the Old School) and catalog material from the Warner vaults.Led Zeppelin's 2007 releaseMothership and thesoundtrack to the filmJuno are among the label's successes.
In 2013, WMG acquired certain EMI assets divested byUniversal Music Group includingParlophone and worldwide rights to Roulette Records. Those assets are now managed by Rhino.
Street Jams is a series of compilation albums issued by Rhino Entertainment between 1992 and 1994. The albums catalogue a number of influentialold school hip hop andelectro12" singles that were released in the early to mid-1980s.
While a few of the singles are early releases from Hip-Hop artists who would go on to greater success later on in the decade such asRun-DMC andSlick Rick, the majority of the tracks in the series are consideredone-hit wonders by acts who have fallen into relative obscurity but that had a profound impact upon the Hip-Hop/electro scene of the 1980s and influenced some of the more well known artists of that time.
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