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America's heartland is becoming a home for music from around the world.
The Milwaukee-based record label Narada Productions Inc. - an early home for the contemporary instrumental music known as "New Age" - continues to branch out into other musical genres to broaden its audience.
In the past year, the music production and distribution company added labels in world music and "roots rock," or Americana, to its expanding musical realm. The music company also takes advantage of the deep pockets and marketing power offered by its corporate parent, a subsidiary of the London-based EMI Group p.l.c.
With 17 years of experience in selling, marketing and distributing New Age, Celtic, Latin, jazz and blues artists, the firm is firmly established to make money on relatively low record sales, says president Wesley Van Linda.
"Big labels need big hits," he says, speaking of companies that sell the likes of Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and other pop and rock artists. For those labels, the few albums released each year that sell millions of copies pay for the marketing and production expense of the majority of the other artists signed to...