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Candlelite Music, Inc.

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A firm that specialized in by mail direct order marketing of compilation albums mainly from 1950's rock artists which operated from ca 1973-1982. The offers were seen in TV offers/ads and warned possible buyers that these "were not available in stores." It was started by [a1753636], who has also started earlier [l377351], a label that used to re-release singles that didn't perform well the first time around (according to his profile on Discogs). By 1979, they had the largest amount of buyers/members of any mail order record service. In March of 1982, the company was acquired by [l138108]. By the time of the acquisition, they were operating in a 40,000 sq foot space in Northvale, NJ. The facility also house its subsidiary, Preferred Sounds Inc., a tape duplicator company. It appears they still operated under the same name for a time as a subsidiary of K-Tel with Wesley Wood as President with marketing autonomy. During this time, they decreased their TV ads and heavily used direct mail marketing and promotion as a cost cutting measure since the amount of units sold was less than before even though they were still profitable due to increased sale prices. On October 5, 1984, K-Tel filed for Chapter IX bankruptcy and blamed their diversification into real estate and gas a & oil where they lost millions. However, it was also noted that their Candlelite subsidiary lost over 15 million for the year. The model was doomed, but Candlelite was listed among the companies in the reorganization. People associated with the company: [a1753636] - President (1973-1975, 1980) and a known authority on doo-wop Wesley Wood - Co-president/Principal/Owner (1977-1982) Nick Hice - some association in the post K-Tel years (1983)

By Kyle Larson