Playbill has joined forces with Sony BMG to create record label Playbill Records, set to debut in June with the release of a self-titled album by Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell.
Plans for the label also include an editors’ choice series of compilations and reissues, drawn from the Sony BMG archives.
Playbill’s publishing arm already has a magazine circulation of nearly 4 million (including nearly all the programs for Broadway shows), and the org’s Web site, Playbill.com, reaches an estimated 550,000 people.
Prexy and publisher Philip S. Birsh hopes those assets will help market the company’s music venture. “It places us in a decent spot for reaching our core audience,” he said.
Mitchell (“Kiss Me, Kate”) takes on jazz, pop and Broadway standards on his new album. CD hits stores June 6.
