Music of the World

Its catalog rapidly expanded to include artists from Africa, India, Asia, and Latin America, and in addition to opening accounts with major retailers across the US, the company began to export its recordings for overseas distribution.

The mid-1990s were peak years for the label, and were marked by the commercial success of several recordings, including the award-winning Vintage Beausoleil (Michael Doucet and Beausoleil); The Grammy-nominated Raga Aberi (with L. Shankar, Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram); and one of the label’s best selling recordings, Talking Spirits, featuring various Native American artists.

Bob Haddad worked closely with artists and distributors, and produced the great majority of the albums released on the labels.

Other remarkable recordings and artists include Glen Velez, the father of modern frame drumming (Handdance; Ramana - USA); Dumisani Maraire (Chaminuka; Shona Spirit [with Ephat Mujuru] - Zimbabwe); Hassan Hakmoun (The Fire Within - Morocco); Badal Roy (Yantra; One in the Pocket - Bangladesh/USA); Tarun Bhattacharya and Bikram Ghosh (Sargam; Kirvani - India); Jalal Zolfonun (Kord Bayat; Mystic Journey - Iran), and many others.

In 2000, shortly after the emergence of Napster and during a time of great difficulty for independent record labels, Music of the World was acquired by emusic.com, one of the earliest digital download websites.