Media
Sonobeat Media Kit
Sonobeat logo (300 dpi transparent PNG). Drag and drop to desktop. © 2017-2019 Sonobeat Historical Archives. Editorial use only. If you require a different resolution or size of the Sonobeat logo, please email us or set the logo yourself using Calypso (this is a commercial font that must be licensed from Linotype. Set the font in Photoshop using Optical spacing. The official Sonobeat logo color is either Trumatch 5-b3 or 6-a or Focaltone 1076. In the alternative, you may set the logo in white or black to contrast with the background color, but no other color. Avoid drop shadows and busy backgrounds, which will make the font unreadable.
Company name: Sonobeat Recording Company
Active years: May 1967 until September 1976
Birthplace: Austin, Texas
Founders: Bill Josey Sr. (age 45 at time of company launch) and Bill Josey Jr. (age 20 at time of company launch)
Record label name: Sonobeat (rhymes with oh-no-beet)
Music publishing subsidiary: Sonosong Music Publishing Company
Original company structure: initially partnership between co-founders, then incorporated on March 14, 1969, in the State of Texas
Present structure: Sonobeat Historical Archives, a collective of co-founder Bill Josey Sr.'s heirs
First commercial release: A Picture of Me backed with Without You by Austin rock band Sweetarts (September 4, 1967) • Sonobeat stereo 45 RPM single Rs-101
Last commercial release: Toe-Tapping Tunes (Organ Solos) by Helmer Dahl (July 1976) • Sonobeat stereo album S7976
Total number of commercial releases (1967-1976): 24 singles and five albums (three albums on the Sonobeat label and two on national labels)
Total number of non-commercial demo releases (1967-1976): nine albums (three songwriter demo albums on vinyl, one songwriter demo album on audio cassette, two artist demo albums, two advance pressing albums)
Most commercial releases in a single year: 12 (11 singles and one album) in 1968
Fewest commercial releases in a year: 0 in each of 1972, 1973, and 1974
Studios:
1967-1968: no facilities; rented Austin-area night clubs during off-hours to use as makeshift recording studios
1968-1971: home-based studio on Western Hills Drive in northwest Austin, Texas
1971-1973: full-sized studio on the ground floor of the KVET radio station building, 705 North Lamar, Austin, Texas
1973-1976: large studio named "Blue Hole Sounds" (after a nearby natural swimming hole) in a retrofitted stone A.M.E. church on the outskirts of Liberty Hill, Texas (approximately 30 miles north of Austin)
Sonobeat milestones:
The 1960s
The 1970s +
Number of acts known to have recorded with Sonobeat: 72
Number of individuals (singers and musicians) known to have recorded with Sonobeat: 205
See Who's Who for all acts and individuals known to have recorded with Sonobeat
See the Sonobeat Songbook for all known recordings in the Sonobeat master tape archives
Digital reissues (2014-2019) of Sonobeat vinyl releases from the 1960s:
• 2014: Sweetarts' A Picture Of Me and Without You (restored and remastered)
• 2014: Lavender Hill Express' Visions, Trying To Live A Life, Watch Out!, Country Music's Here To Stay, Outside My Window, Silly Rhymes, and (previously unreleased) Trouble (restored and remastered)
• 2014: Lee Arlano Trio's There Will Never Be Another You and Meditation (restored and remastered)
• 2015: Lee Arlano Trio's album Jazz To The Third Power (restored and remastered)
• 2017: Sweetarts' A Picture of Me and Without You (50th anniversary reissue; restored and remasterered, including iTunes Digital Master)
• 2017: Lavender Hill Express' Visions and Trying To Live A Life (50th anniversary reissue; restored and remastered, including iTunes Digital Master)
• 2018: Lavender Hill Express' Watch Out! (50th anniversary reissue; restored and remastered, including iTunes Digital Master)
• 2019: Plymouth Rock's Memorandum (50th anniversary reissue; restored, remixed, and remasterered, including iTunes Digital Master)
• 2020: The Conqueroo's 1 To 3 and I've Got Time" (restored and remastered)
Sonobeat™ and the Sonobeat logo are trademarks of Sonobeat Historical Archives
Read Ricky Stein's history of Sonobeat and the '60s Austin music scene in Sonobeat Records: Pioneering the Austin Sound in the '60s (2014; The History Press)