Northeastern Records phonograph records and compact discs

Northeastern Records was founded in 1979 when William Frohlich, the director of the Northeastern University Publishing Group, agreed to assist Professor of Music Roland Nadeau in making two albums. Lynn Joiner, who worked part-time at the University Publishing Group, assisted in the creation of the second album, and later became the director of Northeastern Records. From the start, Joiner decided that Northeastern Records would focus on recordings that were ignored by larger companies. "We endeavored to concentrate on music that would fill in the gaps in the recorded literature," said Joiner. (Abrahams, 19) During the eight years that Northeastern Records was at NU, Northeastern Records created high quality, classical recordings that focused on women and composers in New England. Northeastern Records also used musicians and singers from the Boston area for production. Between 1979 and 1988, Northeastern Records produced over 30 different recordings. In 1988 NU discontinued funding Northeastern Records. Although the company had started producing recordings in compact disc format, it had not been able to break even and had accumulated a $500,000 operating loss. Instead of shutting down completely, a deal was signed that transferred ownership of the company to the director, Lynn Joiner. The company's offices remained at Northeastern for one more year and then were moved to Framingham, where it is still located as of May 2003.