1990–1995: Beginnings, compilation albums, reissues Razor & Tie was founded by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld, who met while in law school at
NYU. Musicians as well as music fans, they played and wrote songs together while pursuing their degrees and continued to collaborate after they had begun working as lawyers. Following several years of practicing separately at large, corporate firms, Balsam and Chenfeld began to explore the idea of releasing records from the 70s. "We really didn't enjoy practicing law as much as we enjoyed music. So we began to think about ways we could maybe change our careers," Chenfeld said in 2010. In 1990, they founded Razor & Tie, naming the company after a song they had written while working as lawyers. In late 1990, working out of Chenfeld's apartment, Razor & Tie released their first record,
Those Fabulous 70s, a compilation of AM radio hits. It was sold through a late-night television spot presented by The '70s Preservation Society, a fictitious entity that Balsam and Chenfeld had created to market the album. Through the commercial—which featured a "leisure-suited fellow with a tie so wide you could land a helicopter on it"—the album sold in excess of 100,000 copies.
Those Fabulous 70s was followed by a successful series of genre-specific 70s records and 80s compilations, and in 1994 alone Razor & Tie sold more than 1 million albums.
Living in the 90s, released in 1995, was the label's bestselling album of the period; its success helped to establish Razor & Tie as the largest
direct response music company in the United States. Razor & Tie's early business model also focused on reissues. With less
overhead than larger record companies and an ability to focus on niche marketing, the company licensed titles from major labels which, at the time, would not have otherwise been released on CD. "It was great because we were allowed to get into a lot of music that we loved, and it was a business scale that worked very well for us. At the time, if we sold twenty thousand copies of something we could make that work, and sometimes, we'd sell one hundred or two hundred and we'd make that work," Chenfeld said. The first album Razor & Tie reissued was
The Up Escalator by Graham Parker and the Rumour. It was followed by a series of reissues with added bonus material and comprehensive career retrospectives from artists a wide range of artists including
Glen Campbell,
King Curtis,
Joe Meek and
Merle Haggard.
1995–2000: Retail label, Dar Williams, Monsters releases In 1995, with an office in Greenwich Village, Razor & Tie launched a new music division. They released new albums by established artists such as
Marshall Crenshaw,
Joan Baez, and
Graham Parker, which allowed Razor & Tie to focus on broadening audiences rather than developing new ones. (Parker had recorded for seven major labels. "The idea of having advertisements say Graham Parker's 'minor label debut' was appealing to me," he said.) Razor & Tie also had significant success with
Cledus T. Judd, the "
Weird Al Yankovic of Country Music". He released four albums on the label between 1995 and 1999, including
I Stoled This Record, which was certified gold, and
Did I Shave My Back for This? which hit the top 20 on the country music charts. In 1997, Razor & Tie released the 2-CD set
Monsters of Rock, a compilation of hits by 1980s
glam metal bands. Released in December through an "appropriately over the top, tongue-in-cheek" two-minute television spot, an abbreviated version was launched at retail the following June. Before the end of the year, it had sold 150,000 copies through direct channels and was certified gold through traditional sales.
Monsters of Rock was followed in 1998 by
Monster Ballads, an "aerosol-enhanced" compilation. With a December TV spot and a June retail debut, it was certified platinum in early 2000. Razor & Tie created Razor & Tie Media in 1997 to provide media buying for its own releases as well as releases from other record companies. In 1999, the label signed a distribution deal with
BMG, which was transferred to
Sony Music when BMG and Sony merged in 2003.
2000–2010: Kidz Bop, DVD and video releases, Razor & Tie Music Publishing In 2000, Balsam and Chenfeld created
Kidz Bop, a series of records of kids singing pop hits that are appropriate for children. The first compilation, a two-CD set, was released in October 2001. Sixteen of the 17 Kidz Bop albums that came out over the next 10 years debuted at No. 1 on the
Billboard Kids charts. In 2009, Balsam and Chenfeld decided to expand Kidz Bop by establishing Kidz Bop Kids, who perform the songs both on record and on The Kidz Bop tour. The franchise now includes a radio channel on
Sirius XM. Other successful Razor & Tie titles in the early 2000s included the DVD release of
Biggie & Tupac and ''Darrin's Dance Grooves'', a workout DVD by choreographer
Darrin Henson. Available only as a video and DVD, it charted at No. 1 in its category, and "seeped into the mainstream culture". It ultimately surpassed 1.5 million in sales. 2003's
Deja Entendu by
Brand New, signed through a joint venture with Triple Crown Records, was certified gold; one of
Rolling Stone's "Top 40 Emo Records of All Time", it "redefined the genre". By the end of the decade, Razor & Tie had begun phasing out the compilation albums and was primarily focused on new albums by established and developing artists. Through a label deal with Prosthetic, they signed
All That Remains, whose six Razor & Tie albums had cumulative sales of more than 1 million. In 2005, Razor & Tie began distributing the releases of Sh-K- Boom/Ghostlight Records, the Broadway cast recording label. Best-selling releases from Sh-K- Boom/Ghostlight have included the original cast recordings of
Book of Mormon,
Beautiful,
In The Heights,
Next To Normal, and
Legally Blonde. With hit records from
The Pretty Reckless,
All That Remains, and
Starset, Razor & Tie was the most successful independent rock label of the year, and the second strongest rock label overall in 2014. That same year, the company launched Washington Square Records. An alternative leaning label, Washington Square has since released records by artists including MOTHXR, Austin Plaine,
Soren Bryce, My Jerusalem, and The Low Anthem. Analog Spark, an audiophile imprint focused on the reissue of classic, critically acclaimed albums on 180-gram vinyl and SACD, was established in February 2015. Analog Spark's first releases included titles from
Glenn Gould and
Dave Brubeck as well as the original cast recordings of
My Fair Lady and
West Side Story. In 2015,
Billboard published its inaugural "Greatest of All Time" rankings, a comprehensive collection of the best-selling songs, albums and artists in music history. With 22 Top 10 debuts since 2001,
Kidz Bop was No. 4 on the "Most Billboard 200 Top 10 Albums" list, just behind
The Rolling Stones,
Barbra Streisand,
The Beatles and
Bob Dylan. Kidz Bop held the fourth-highest tally of any artist in history and the most Top 10 debuts of any artist since 2000. In April 2018, RT Industries, a new label created by Razor & Tie's founders, was launched, acquiring earlier the catalogs of several
Warner Music Group artists, including
Fat Joe and
Sheena Easton. Warner Music Group, now through
ADA division, markets them digitally. ==Razor & Tie roster==