Billy Ray Hearn

Billy Ray Hearn is currently the founder and chairman of EMI Christian Music Group, the world's largest religious music label.^[1]

In 1954, Billy Ray Hearn graduated from Baylor University with a degree in church music.

In 1972, Hearn started Myrrh Records, one of the first labels devoted to contemporary Christian music, at Word Inc., the label of Amy Grant. In 1976, he formed his own label, Sparrow Records, the label behind musicians Keith Green, John Michael Talbot, and Margaret Becker.^[2]

In 1992, Hearn sold Sparrow to EMI Music, the label of artists like Steven Curtis Chapman and BeBe & CeCe Winans.

Hearn is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and in 1999 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gospel Music Association. Hearn is also founder and sponsor of the biannual Hearn Symposium on Christian Music at Baylor University.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b McNeil, W. K. Encyclopedia of American gospel music. Routledge, 2005.
^ "Sparrow Finds Markets Beyond Gospel Entertainment", Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1989. "Hearn and one of his recording groups bought the company for about $250,000. In 1980, Hearn bought out his partners."

Christian Record Label - Sparrow Records

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Name	Hearn, Billy Ray
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