Dust-to-Digital


Dust-to-Digital is a record company that specializes in documenting the history of American popular music, including historical recordings of blues, gospel, and country music. Their method combines rare recordings with historic images, photographs, and detailed texts describing artists and their works. The company has won a Grammy Award and a Living Blues award.

History

In February 1999, after taking over an Atlanta college radio station and becoming frustrated at the unavailability of gospel music from before 1940, Lance Ledbetter formed his own label and set out on a search for rare recordings of gospel music. After five years of research, Ledbetter issued Goodbye, Babylon on his newly formed Dust-to-Digital label. The six-CD box set, contained gospel music from 1902 to 1960, and accompanied by a 200-page book and hand-packed with raw cotton in a wooden box, was well-reviewed. The company's success has been partly attributed to its distinctive packaging, presenting products in pine boxes, silk screen, and raw cotton.
The young record company followed up the set with Where Will You Be Christmas Day? Since 2004, Dust-to-Digital has issued more than 60 titles. A box set chronicling the origins of recorded music in Georgia was planned but never completed.

Releases