The Orchard Co-Founder Richard Gottehrer On His Long, Winding, Legendary Indie Music Business Career
Categoria: Musica
Of all of his accomplishments during his 65-plus years in the music industry, Gottehrer counts The Orchard as his proudest.
Por Billboard | 08/05/2026
Richard Gottehrer is rock’n’roll history. The industry icon, 86, wrote his first song on piano, “I’m On Fire,” in the 1950s after hearing Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls Of Fire” — Lewis later released it as a single in 1964. Gottehrer was there in the early days of the girls group sound, co-writing the Angels “My Boyfriend’s Back” in 1963. He was there when the Brill Building was setting the tone for what was becoming the most popular music in America, thanks to the many writers like Gottehrer who congregated and worked there. He was there at the start of the British Invasion, as a member of the Strangeloves, co-writing the song “I Want Candy,” which became an oft-covered rock’n’roll staple. He was there in 1966, co-founding the legendary Sire Records with Seymour Stein , staying for 10 years before moving on to his next endeavor. He was there at the advent of punk and at CBGBs in 1976, producing the first two Blondie albums, and helped take new wave to the top of the charts, producing the first GoGo’s album. In the ’80s and ’90s, he produced for as many as 40 artists. But beyond Gottehrer’s creative endeavors, he’s also an indie music industry icon. There is a long list of labels, publishing companies and production companies he has been involved with, either as a music creator or a music executive, across his long, storied career. And from the early 1960s through 2010, all of his creative work and entrepreneurial business endeavors happened in the independent sector. Even now, 14 years after Sony acquired a majority stake in the company he co-founded with Scott Cohen in 1997, The Orchard, he has remained indie: The Orchard is the largest distributor of independent music in the world. Of all of his accomplishments during his 65 plus years in the music industry, Gottehrer counts co-founding The Orchard as his proudest. Here, he discusses that legacy. Related Billboard’s 2026 Indie Power Players Revealed Backline Launches Mental Health Toolkit for Dance Music Community: 'Seeking Help Is Not Something to Be Ashamed Of' ‘Terrified,’ ‘Grateful,’ ‘Happy’: How RAYE Went Indie & Exploded How did you meet your Orchard co-founder Scott Cohen? I met him the same way I meet everyone. It’s about the music; someone said, “You got to see this artist and meet the manager, Scott Cohen,” and gave me the number. This was 1995 or so. So I called him up. I saw the artist, who was like a female lead of metal band called Scrb, and they were great. And I thought, “Why don’t we make some demos and see if I can get them placed at a record label?” And how did that lead to the Orchard? So I went down to see Scott; he was running a small office in the Flower District in Manhattan, and he had college interns working with him. As we worked on that artist, we started talking about what else we could do, and we formed a label called Sol3 Records in the East Village. We eventually moved down to a storefront with a basement on Orchar