Dust-to-Digital: The record label preserving America’s musical history
By Jobina Fortson-Evans
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ATLANTA (WUPA) — Lance and April Ledbetter are husband and wife and the team behind the Dust-to-Digital record label.
“It all started not far from where we are now, over at Georgia State University,” Lance said. “I was working at the college radio station.”
In 1999, Lance took over a radio show that played music from the 1920s and 30s.
“I could not find gospel music, and so I had a lot of listeners calling in, and they were requesting it,” Lance continued.
Like a true eager college student, Lance tracked down music collectors and put those songs on the air.
“As I was listening to these tapes in my apartment, I started to think these people can only hear it if they are in this broadcast area,” Lance went on. “I started to think, ‘How do you put this music where it’s out in a record store?’ because back then you had to go to a record store. It wasn’t Spotify. It wasn’t Youtube.”
At the time, Lance was dating his now wife, April, and the duo learned it all, licensing, manufacturing, and distribution. After 4 and a half years, the couple released their first project, “Goodbye Babylon.”
“The final product was a six-CD box set with a 200-page book that told you everything, or at least everything we thought you needed to know, to get you started on this journey into gospel music,” Lance said.
“A music writer out in L.A. published a notice in Billboard saying there’s this label in Atlanta that needs distribution and here’s the phone number,” April said. “It was our home phone number that they printed in Billboard magazine!”
The music industry took notice. “Goodbye Babylon” was a hit. They sold out.
“To get the Grammy nomination was just validation that this is worthwhile,” April said.
“So many artists in the collection, both in the CDs and in the book, were never recognized in their lifetime,” Lance said. “So in a way, I felt like this is their moment as well.”
“Goodbye Babylon” didn’t take home the gold hardware, but the Ledbetters went on to win Grammys for future projects.
“I wanted to create an access point so people could see how magical and moving this music was and create a path for them to find it,” Lance replied.
The couple restores music of all styles and genres from all over the country. In 2012, they started a non-profit dedicated to that work.
“It’s a real-time process, so it’s pretty labor-intensive in that regard,” April said.
Their latest project is a partnership with the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dust-to-Digital is producing an online archive of thousands of rare recordings that will be freely accessible to the public, continuing their effort to literally stop music from becoming…dust.
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