A Note from Dust-to-Digital co-founder Lance Ledbetter:
As a teenager growing up in rural north Georgia, I was enthralled by independent music and the record labels who released it. This was in an era that predated the Internet so the only way I was able to learn more about these companies was to sign up for their mailing lists or call and speak to them on the phone.
What excites me about starting a Dust-to-Digital Substack is that now we will have the platform that I had always wanted as a listener when connecting with the companies that shared the music I love. The reality is there are individuals, not algorithms, that curate the output for independent music companies, and now April and I will be able to communicate more freely and share the music we love more directly. — Dust-to-Digital founder Lance Ledbetter
A Note from Dust-to-Digital co-founder April Ledbetter:
I’m April Ledbetter — I’ve been working with Lance at Dust-to-Digital since before we even had the name Dust-to-Digital. Our first release, Goodbye, Babylon, was a massive box set that took almost 5 years to create. When it was ready for release we were the ones who hand assembled and shipped each and every one of them. We moved into our home and Dust-to-Digital HQ 17 years ago and still work here together in Atlanta, Georgia.
Along the way I’ve figured out a lot of things so we could keep going and be able to continue sharing music and stories that may otherwise be overlooked and forgotten. I always thought it would be fun to share more of the stories, people, and processes behind our projects.
I’m excited to join Substack — it’s a great way to share and connect in a way we never have before. Please subscribe and join us on this new adventure.
About the Record Label, Social Media Channels, and Non-Profit Organization
The inspiration for Dust-to-Digital was to highlight music that we felt was incredibly powerful and moving but was hard for most people to access.
We created Dust-to-Digital to share music that deepens the understanding of human expression — first as a record label, second as a non-profit organization, and third as an online curator and presenter.
As a record company, our productions have been recognized for excellence and have received multiple Grammy Awards. With this format, we will invite you to share in our library of stories and resources accumulated over the past 20 years of producing a wide variety of musical projects.
Our non-profit organization, Music Memory, has preserved several of the premiere record collections of 45rpm and 78rpm records in North America. With Substack, we will share music and stories from the digital archive of those collections so we can all hear music from this on-going preservation project.
The Dust-to-Digital social media pages have become an access point and hub of musical expression. Our posts memorialize past musical greats and highlight modern day artists that might be over looked otherwise. Reaching an audience of more than 2 million followers, these accounts offer both education and entertainment. Our Substack will allow for deeper dives in the form of bonus clips, links to films and articles, plus the opportunity for increased discussion among our community.
Now is the time for us to connect on this platform to share deeper dives into our label library and social media posts while also opening a channel of communication with you to share with us and one another.
