Surprises & Shakeups This Summer
By Lisa Collins, senior music editor, GospelMusicChannel.com
It was only a matter of time before Vicki Mack-Lataillade, a pioneering force on the urban gospel scene, made gospel headlines. After all, Mack-Lataillade’s newsworthy career dates back to the launch of Gospo Centric Records in the early ’90s and the discovery of such acts as Kirk Franklin, God’s Property, Trin-i-tee 5:7 and Byron Cage.
Now, Mack-Lataillade and her husband Claude have formed a partnership with Central South Distribution, Inc., the number-one independent, faith-based record distributor in the world for the past decade, and Ruff Town Entertainment Group, an entity founded by GRAMMY-nominated songwriter/producer/recording artist Rene Moore. The multi-million-dollar stock purchase marks the first time in history that three African-Americans will have a principal stake in a major contemporary music distribution company. The deal, which has been in the making for some time, is effective immediately.
“This is really a dream-come-true opportunity,” says Mack-Lataillade. “We weren’t able to truly control or influence our distribution model with our previous record labels. Our relationship with Central South gives us a chance to be more than just aggregators of content. We’ll be able to fully exploit and utilize our creativity and marketing savvy, and offer artists a full range of services, from coaching and helping them realize and fulfill their musical vision, to formulating effective business/marketing strategies for their product.”
“We also intend,” adds Claude, “to take an aggressive posture in expanding and developing our digital strategy, and our roles as creators, providers, and distributors of digital content.”
For some, the deal is just the latest head-scratcher in an industry that seems to be full of surprises these days. With Malaco signing BeBe and CeCe, Kim Burrell releasing her latest on Shanachie Records – which also recently snagged new releases from Vicki Yohe and Ted Winn (formerly of Ted & Sheri) – and Kerry Douglas revving up his Houston-based label, World Wide Gospel, with the help of James Fortune.
