History

This business started in 1977 as Ringger Ranch Recording by Gary Ringger and Dennis Virkler. They built a very small recording studio in the basement of the house that Gary and Marla Ringger lived in, 2 miles south of Secor, IL. 12 projects were recorded in this very small studio with a 6' 2" ceiling. When the upstairs of the house was vacated in 1981, we rented the entire building and the studio was moved to the main floor of the house, and extensive remodeling was done to create a control room and 2 recording rooms. This studio was used to create 64 recording projects over the next 12 years. In 1993, Gary and Dennis closed the Ringger Ranch Recording business.

In 1994, Dennis remodeled the basement in his house, and included the ability to record in two of the basement rooms. This was the beginning of Rejoice Recording. This studio was used to create over 100 recording projects over the next 18 years.

In 2002, Dennis started designing a new building that included a much larger, dedicated recording studio. Construction of the building started in 2003, and completed the following year. Interior construction of the 2816 square foot recording studio began in 2004 and finished in 2011, upon which the recording equipment was moved from the house basement to the new studio. Since then, over 100 recording projects have been completed.

After our first 14 recordings, in 1983, we began to realize that a more structured way to distribute the recordings was needed. At this time, each group that recorded would try to sell and distribute their recordings on their own, as best they could. We decided to create a dedicated distribution business to distribute and sell the recordings that were made at the studio. we started with four distribution channels; (1) distributing to retailers / bookstores / record stores with a retailer discount (essentially as a wholesaler), (2) distributing through people we knew at various church congregations (distributors) on a consignment basis with a commission based on the amount they

sold, (3) distributing through volunteers (people who were willing to distribute on a volunteer basis), and (4) mail order from our house through postal mail and an 800 number (this was long before email and the Internet). In the early 2000's, we added an email address, and in 2007, we put up our first website, which was our fifth distribution channel. We no longer distribute through volunteers and have only a handful of distributors. in 2022, we had over $90,000 in sales (before discounts), 73% of our distribution was through retailers, 11% was through the website, 10% was through mail order, and the remaining 6% was through distributors.

We didn't know it at the time, but our Rejoice Records record label (standard music business terminology) started in 1978. That was the year we paid a graphic artist to develop the initial Rejoice Records logo. This logo was used an most of the projects recorded at Ringger Ranch Recording, and later Rejoice Recording. The second step into the record label business also started near the beginning, when we would perform the Product Management function of the record label. This included getting artwork developed and printed, contracting with record companies to press records and duplication companies to duplicate cassettes. The third step started in conjunction with the Rejoice Distribution business, when we would distribute Master Use royalties at the end of each year to the groups whose products we were distributing. Our first step into the Marketing function of a record label was the creation of a flyer that had a list of all of our products for sale that we would send out with every order and upon request. These four record labels started within our first 5 years of business.

In the 1990's, we attempted to pay copyright royalties to music publishers. This was all done by postal mail. It was very difficult to determine who to write to, and most of the time, we never heard back from the music publisher. Then in the mid 2000's, we started using email to correspond with music

publishers, which worked much better than postal mail. Around 2014, Copyright Administrators started creating websites that would allow us to pay music copyright royalties with a credit card. Also around this time, companies were emerging that would take care of all of your music publishing copyright needs. Today, we offer music publishing copyright management as a service to our clients.

Through the years, we would "sponsor" or pay all the costs of various projects, mostly initiated by ourselves. Examples include the original Zion's Harp recordings, Rejoice, Old Time Gospel, Rejoicing at Christmas, He's Ever Interceding, among others. In 2001, we started our first major series project, a series of recordings of all of the songs in the Zion's Harp hymnal. We are now working on our second series, recordings of all of the songs in the Hymns of Christmas hymnal. This is a record label function of creating projects on our own (without groups coming to us) called Portfolio Management. In addition, we offer free demo sessions for prospective groups as part of a Artist Development function. Lastly, we have spent the last 4 years consolidating all of our information into an integrated database, part of the Information Management function of a record label. In 2021, we formally organized all of these record label functions into a company called Rejoice Records.

In 2002, as CD sales were starting to pick up, we started Rejoice Duplication with the purchase of our first clunky robotic CD Duplicator. In 2010, we upgraded to a better duplicator which included printing directly on the disc. Around that time we located a local printer that could print very high quality booklets and tray liners for our duplication

projects. That same year, we acquired a shrink-wrap machine so that we could shrink wrap the duplicated and assembled CD's. We typically duplicate around 2000 CD's a year in low quantity runs. We also contract with a firm to do higher volume duplication, typically 1000 at a time.

As we recorder each Zion's Harp CD, we would research the songs, authors, and composers to create a 24-page booklet included with each CD. As the years went along, we noticed that more and more information about these songs was becoming more available through the internet, and a few other people were also doing research on the Zion's Harp, unknown to us at the time. By the time we finished the last CD, it became obvious that some of our information in our early CD booklets was

inaccurate, and that much more information was available. We thought about creating a coffee table book about the History of the Zion's Harp hymnal that would not be constrained by the limited size of CD booklets. We visited with a few people who had expressed some interest in helping us and decided to write the book. In order to get the book printed, we formed a publishing company called Rejoice Publishing. At this point, this is the only book we have published.

As time progressed and we got older, we started thinking about how to continue these businesses into the future and into the next generation. We decided to combine all of the above businesses into one entity, a non-profit organization run by a Board of Directors. In 2021, we created this entity that

would operate more as a music ministry and not as a for profit business. We then formed a Board of Directors and started operations. We have applied for a 501 (c) 3 non-profit designation. We are now in the process of getting more people involved in this ministry.

Around 2018, we started noticing that new cars were coming out without the availability of a CD player. We started getting questions from people of what they should do to listen to music in their vehicle. We were also aware that the younger generation was increasing using mp3 players to listen to streaming music from companies such as Spotify and Pandora. We decided to get some of our music onto these commercial streaming platforms. In 2019, we loaded all of the Zion's Harp recordings onto Spotify, Apple iTunes, Amazon, and other commercial music streaming sites. At this point we have about 1000 followers of this music. We also learned that including copyrighted music was very expensive, and that the royalties from this service were very small.

We investigated what it would take to create our own streaming app (this is called Independent Streaming). AC Central is an example of an independent streaming app. We first looked at trying to add music to AC Central, but there were some significant problems in doing this, and not very many advantages. Through God's direction, we were able to locate a developer who had already created some apps for both Apple and Android smartphones. We then started development of our own independent streaming app that we call Rejoicify. It is currently undergoing Beta testing and we hope to have public release some time in 2023. In the spirit of being a non-profit music ministry, we plan to offer this service at no charge and will accept donations to cover operational costs.