He has been called "the true king of raw" by AllMusic, for his emphasis on live performance, vintage analog recording techniques, and gritty drum tones.
He founded Fog City Records in 1996, and began recording a string of widely acclaimed debut records which served as a springboard for the careers of Galactic, Stanton Moore, Garage A Trois, Papa Mali, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, MOFRO (JJ Grey & Mofro), Etienne de Rocher, and Tim Bluhm.
Prior to starting his own label, Prothero helped develop the look and sound of Bay Area label Ubiquity Recordings from its inception in 1989, forming and/or producing many of the groups that appeared on its wildly successful initial releases, writing liner notes and creating most of the graphic design for Ubiquity and its vintage re-release label Luv N Haight.
He continues to design all of the graphics for releases on his own Fog City Records imprint, as well as programming the Enhanced CD content that accompanies them.
In addition, Prothero teamed up with Turntable Media, working on Enhanced CDs for Dreamworks and Interactive TV projects for Disney.