On April 26, 1975, president and owner Terry Grant sold LPs for Meg Christian/Olivia Records at a concert in Lansing, Michigan. Subsequent to selling at this concert for retail, Terry began distributing music to four local stores. As startling to everyone else in Terry's life as it was to Terry, she did a one-eighty on her career plans and became a wholesale distributor of music, starting Goldenrod Music. But then again, maybe not so startling, given her life-long passion for music and not-to-be desire to be a musician.

Terry back in the day as Goldenrod's packer/shipper!

In the early days, Goldenrod was solely a women's music distributor for
Olivia Records. In a short time, Goldenrod expanded to carry other labels, whose artists included Margie Adam, Holly Near, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Alix Dobkin, Kay Gardner, and Malvina Reynolds. Goldenrod also expanded the geographic area we serviced, first to include all of Michigan, then Ohio, and the Midwest. Over the years, Goldenrod purchased Horizon Distribution (New England 1985), Paradigm (west coast) Ladyslipper Music's wholesale division.

Goldenrod was initially part of a group of 60 independent women's music distribution companies. There now exists one company who counts women's music as one of its primary focuses, and that's Goldenrod. Goldenrod was originally part of a grass roots cultural movement - namely lesbian feminist politics and community building. Over the years we have developed other niches including currently Native American, Celtic, Gay Dance Music, and selected New Age and Folk titles. As our mission statement emphasizes, we want our work to support non-dominant cultures and our catalog has expanded to reflect that commitment.

The music we sell often has a very big impact on the lives of our customers. We never know when we send out a CD if we are helping to change someone's life or just giving them some moments of pleasure. Not only do we as a company seek to promote change in the world by the choices of which music we will distribute, but also in the quality of the workplace we all build for each other. It is an important part of our work here at Goldenrod that we strive always to create an atmosphere for our staff, our customers, and our artists that mirrors the world in which we want to live.