Third Man Records

History

Jack White founded Third Man Records in Detroit, Michigan, in 2001. White originally purchased the building to store his gear, and some plans to reissue the early White Stripes 45s. Third Man, which releases albums and singles primarily on vinyl record, established its first physical location in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 11, 2009. The Nashville location serves as a record store, label offices and live venue. It includes The Blue Room (a live performance venue and screening room for The Light and Sound Machine, a monthly film series co-hosted by The Belcourt Theater), a photo studio and darkroom, a storage facility for master recording tapes, and the label warehouse. The Blue Room is the only venue in the world to record live shows direct-to-acetate, producing a vinyl master in real time. To commemorate the opening of Third Man Records in Nashville, White debuted his new project, The Dead Weather, performing a short set for the 150 invited guests. The label's motto is "Your Turntable's Not Dead."

The label's name incorporates several elements of personal significance to White. His fondness for the number three is well documented. It refers to Carol Reed's The Third Man starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. His old upholstering company was named Third Man Upholstery. White also refers to himself as a woman's "third man" in the song "Ball and Biscuit" on The White Stripes' album Elephant.

All six studio albums of The White Stripes appear with the Third Man logo. Both albums of The Raconteurs (Broken Boy Soldiers and Consolers of the Lonely) also carry the label's logo. For The Raconteurs' tour of the United Kingdom in October 2006, 1,000 live albums were pressed and sold for each show, all of which display a Third Man logo. The Dead Weather, Jack White, The Black Belles, Karen Elson, and the Greenhornes are also core acts on the Third Man roster. Other artists who have released LP's on Third Man Records include Kelley Stoltz, Seasick Steve, and Pokey LaFarge. The label released and pressed a 7-inch vinyl of Conan O'Brien's 2010 comedy album "And They Call Me Mad?", which featured an interview of O'Brien by Jack White on its reverse.

The Third Man Records Vault is a "rarity-excavating" quarterly subscription service that began in September 2009 as a way to release special and otherwise unreleased content. Platinum members of the Vault receive a package containing limited-edition vinyl records and merchandise every three months. Generally each cycle's offerings include a 12” record, a 7” record (both on colored vinyl) and a “bonus item."

Nashville location

The label's headquarters is located in a less prosperous neighborhood, and is surrounded by a methadone clinic, a halfway house, and the city's main homeless shelter. White's presence, however, has raised the area's provenance, motivating the city and business owners to rezone the area with more creative ventures, including a members' club. White opposes the idea, calling the environment "a solid neighborhood [where] everyone looks out for each other." The location is organized around five dedicated sections: the record store, a "novelties lounge," the label’s offices and distribution center, its recording studios, and its photo studio.

The Novelties Lounge, located within the record store, debuted on November 23, 2012. The space contains a collection of vintage novelty machines. "Among the attractions in the new wing is a Scopitone machine—a video jukebox using 16mm film that had its greatest prominence in the 1960s. Third Man has loaded their Scopitone with 36 videos from the label catalog, and bill it as 'the world's ONLY Scopitone machine fully loaded with modern music.' Other highlights include a "Wax-O-Matic" machine," which makes bright red wax molds of White's Airline guitar, and a full-color photo booth.” On April 20, 2013, in celebration of Jack White’s role as Record Store Day Ambassador, The Third Man Recording Booth, "a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine that can record up to two minutes audio and press it onto 6-inch phonograph discs” was introduced as an addition to the Novelties Lounge. This voice-o-graph was used in the creating of Apple's 2014 holiday ad as shown in the behind the scene video.

Detroit location

In 2015, White partnered with Shinola—a lifestyle brand most known as a watch manufacturer—to open a retail location in Detroit. Third Man opened its first branch location at the Shinola building in Detroit's Cass Corridor by Record Store Day's Black Friday event on November 27, 2015.

Rolling Record Store

On March 9, 2011, Third Man Records announced its newest creation, the Third Man Rolling Record Store. The store, a yellow step van outfitted with a sound system and Third Man Records inventory, was built by C Cook Enterprises in Erlanger, Kentucky. It made its first appearance in Austin, Texas, at SXSW 2011. Third Man has since brought the mobile store to concerts, festivals, and other events with anywhere from weeks to only a few hours notice.

Discography

Third Man releases some music on compact disc and via electronic release on iTunes, but vinyl records are its primary format.

In addition to pressing titles on regular black vinyl, most releases have an exclusive and/or limited sister pressing on colored or multicolored vinyl. Beginning with TMR-003, a limited edition handmade batch of 100 tri-colored 7" vinyl, in equal parts black, yellow, and white, were produced for exclusive distribution at Third Man's Nashville location. Beginning with TMR-009, an additional 50 tri-colored vinyl have been pressed for random distribution in Third Man mail orders. Certain single releases have been sold on tri-colored vinyl available at record stores in the artist's hometown instead of at the Nashville store. An additional 50 are still randomly distributed in mail orders.

Recordings from live shows in the Blue Room (recorded either directly to analog reel-to-reel tape or direct-to-acetate) are made available in black and blue vinyl in varying quantities. These split-color records are available only to show attendees, and each LP is sealed with a concert-specific label on which the purchaser’s name is written.

Third Man is known for pushing the boundaries with vinyl record production, and with the help of United Record Pressing (their main partner in manufacturing records), their innovations include the following unique record pressings: Glow In The Dark Record, Triple-Decker Record (a 7” within a 12”), Texas-Sized Record (8” and 13” records), Metallized Record, Liquid-Filled Record, Scented Record, Rose Petal-Filled Record, Playable Etching Record, 3 RPM Record, Lightning Bolt Record, Bolt-A-Trope Record, and the Flex-Ray Record (a flexi disc made from an x-ray).