One Way Records | |
Parent: | Alliance Entertainment |
Founded: | 1971 |
Founder: | David Schlang |
Defunct: | 2000s |
Status: | Inactive |
Genre: | Various |
Country: | U.S. |
Location: | Albany, New York |
One Way Records was an independent record label based in Albany, New York that specialized in budget reissues of classic rock albums.[1] In the 1990s, it gained business pressing reissues of those records that had "fallen through the cracks" in the transition in the music industry from vinyl to compact discs.[2] Other labels that similarly filled this reissue niche were Collector's Pipeline, Rhino Records and Razor & Tie.[2]
It was part of a company that served as rack jobber and music distributor for budget titles and cutouts. The company was founded by David Schlang in 1971,[3] who was president until 1995 and again from 1999.[4]
In 1995 it was sold to Alliance Entertainment, for $18.5 million; at that point the company had annual revenues of just over $35 million, of which the label accounted for 15%.[5]
In 1994, Terry Wachsmuth, the Artist and Repertoire Director, predicted "Sooner or later it's going to peter out, but we expect to be doing this for another 5-10 years at least."[2] The label closed in the early 2000s.