History of Point Blank Entertainment
Point Blank Entertainment was founded in 1991 in St. Louis Missouri and officially opened its doors to the public in 1996 after the company registered as a home based business in Martin Tennessee. Many songs, albums and video projects were recorded in that region for a certain time frame which was January 1996 to January 2000.
The business packed up and moved from Martin Tennessee to St. Louis Missouri in the winter of January 2000. The first official head quarters was located in an area called Penrose Park in north St. Louis. At that time the St. Louis Rams were in the playoffs and headed to the super bowl.
St.Louis on the Map
Keith Watkins, CEO/A&R, was fortunate to have numerous opportunities to be around a diverse collective of recording artists, musicians, songwriters, engineers and producers. Before you know it… the St. Louis Rams win super bowl XXXIV and IT’S ON! “The Greatest Show On Turf ” is born. St. Louis has its first super bowl victory and so the rap & hiphop markets needed to capitalize from the success of the city’s NFL championship victory. Next thing you know St. Louis is voted “Best Sports City“! Rams, Cardinals & Blues Nation. Hedd Nodd Studios was freshly built and massive recordings from various artists of several genres were recorded at this time and much of it was raw. The engineers were learning the new digital audio mix board and the owner of the label was struggling to make rent each month and keeping the lights on.
Unreleased published & unpublished songs
A time frame of 6 years had passed. It’s Red October in the year 2006 and the Cardinals are in the NLDS headed to the world series. By this time, the record label had amassed a volume of music from various recording artists, poets and bands that could be compared to a successful record label from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Dozens of songs were recorded, dozens of albums were arranged and mixed, dozens of mixtape tapes were dropped but many songs and albums were unreleased due to financial strain on the company to produce masters in a timely fashion. Many big time record labels had secured payola with dj’s, radio stations and huge venues who put on large scale elaborate concerts that small independent labels couldn’t compete against.
Independent record labels and entertainment companies are small businesses. These small businesses want to be successful and have every right to do so. There are tens of thousands of small businesses that are successful in many industries. But when it comes to the music and film industry everything goes out the window because of the greed by big corporations and big time record labels who control this specific industry. Small business owners in the music and film industry deserve to have a chance to operate their business just like any neighborhood grocer or mom and pop shop. As long as everything is registered, legal and operated ethically there is no reason why small businesses can’t have a fair share of the market.
In my opinion, the major record labels want to corner the market and make millions of dollars because if independent artists are liked on the same level of a major recording artist then that independent artist and record label will have the potential to earn millions of dollars as well and this scares the big major record labels so they over-saturate the market to overpower and discourage small labels. A realistic goal for a small record label like Point Blank Entertainment is not to make millions of dollars but to be successful and earn a decent living from the business. Point Blank Entertainment generally and whole-heartedly cares about the artists they sign and the artists they work with.
True small independent record labels and entertainment companies simply want to get their artist(s) more exposure to a wide diverse audience. If the listeners like our artist(s) music, support the artist and buy their music then the small company and the artist will both reap the same benefits that major record labels and their artists receive especially if the independent artist makes billboard.