He was born to a Jewish family[1] in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and grew up in Plattsburgh, upstate New York, where his parents owned a chain of women's wear stores.
[5] After receiving funding from his parents, he decided to establish the record label as a serious venture, to promote non-commercial and experimental music which would not otherwise be heard.
Thereafter, he recorded such jazz musicians as Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Ornette Coleman, Paul Bley and Gato Barbieri.
[7] Peter Stampfel of the band Holy Modal Rounders and The Fugs claimed that Stollman told him that "the contract says that all rights belong to me.
So in 2001 he drafted ... [a] bogus document [and] managed to convince a number of foreign sub-publishers, record labels, and performing rights organizations that he was the legit administrator.
"[10] On the positive side, Stollman had artists sign a two-page contract for only one record, so that they could consider offers from larger labels if the album proved successful; and he gave them joint ownership with ESP, allowing for an equal partnership in contrast to the standard arrangement where a label has sole ownership of an album.
Stollman married, moved to live on a farm in the Catskill Mountains, worked as a lawyer, and closed ESP-Disk in 1974.