Billy Ray Hearn (April 26, 1929 – April 15, 2015) was the founder and chairman of the Capitol Christian Music Group (formerly EMI Christian Music Group) the world's largest Christian music label.
[1] In 1954, Billy Ray Hearn graduated from Baylor University with a degree in church music.
In 1972, Hearn started Myrrh Records,[2] one of the first labels devoted to contemporary Christian music, at Word Inc., the label of Amy Grant.
[3] In 1992, Hearn sold Sparrow to EMI Music, the label of artists including Steven Curtis Chapman and BeBe & CeCe Winans.
Hearn was a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and in 1999 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gospel Music Association.