Thrill Jockey Records is an American independent record label established in 1992 in New York City by former Atlantic Records A&R employee Bettina Richards. Richards started the label with $35,000 of personal and family capital, while working at a Hoboken, N.J.,...
[more]Thrill Jockey Records is an American independent record label established in 1992 in New York City by former Atlantic Records A&R employee Bettina Richards. Richards started the label with $35,000 of personal and family capital, while working at a Hoboken, N.J., record store, and ran it from her apartment in Manhattan.
In 1995, she moved the label to Chicago, Illinois, where "rent and taxes are considerably cheaper".
Thrill Jockey offers full-length streaming of every song on every release in its catalog. "I believe if people can listen to the albums, they tend to buy them," Richards said in a 2006 interview with Chicago Reader.
Artists who have recorded on the label include Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Trans Am, Mouse on Mars, ADULT., Nobukazu Takemura, Bobby Conn, Tom Verlaine, Freakwater, The Zincs, The National Trust, Eleventh Dream Day, Califone, Chicago Underground Duo, Howe Gelb/Giant Sand, Oval, Town & Country, Archer Prewitt, Sam Prekop, The Lonesome Organist, OOIOO, Pit er Pat, The Fiery Furnaces, and Boredoms, amongst others. Artists on the label have often collaborated with other artists on the label to form spin-off groups.
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