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Reader's Digest Music and Warner Resound have announced a joint venture that will bring some of the publishing giant's music products into the $1 billion-a-year Christian bookstore marketplace. This is the first time Reader's Digest Music will be sold at retail in the U.S. and the first deal for Warner Resound with the global publisher. Terms were not disclosed.

"This is a major step in a new direction for us," said Jose Raul Perez, vice-president/global product development for Reader's Digest Music. "After 37 years of very successful direct marketing of our music products, this is the first time we are selling at retail where we see a business opportunity."

The first two titles offered under the joint venture will be "A Reader's Digest Christmas," a sampling of the popular RD Music holiday boxed set, and "Highlights From The Messiah," which features 12 of the most popular selections from Handel's masterwork. These two collections are drawn from the Reader's Digest Music extensive vault of proprietary repertoire, which Reader's Digest Music has been recording for over two decades and that now totals over 15,000 masters.

"We're delighted to be able to bring these projects to the Christian Bookseller's Association (CBA) marketplace," said Barry Landis, vice-president and general manager of Warner Resound, the Nashville label that will provide manufacturing, promotion and distribution for the venture. "Reader's Digest has for decades brought high-quality music of all types to a vast worldwide audience through direct marketing, and we're eager to take that music into yet another venue."

Perez emphasized that Reader's Digest Music was very deliberate in its choice of a partner for this breakthrough venture.

"We've had many companies interested in taking our product to the retail marketplace," he said, "but when Barry approached us with this idea, we thought it was a perfect fit. We have a brand name that stands for value that people trust. And we know that consumers in the CBA marketplace will respond."

"Warner Resound was the ideal partner in undertaking this challenge because it's a first-class operation with a new company's bold ideas and the track record and presence in the marketplace of an established company," added Reader's Digest Music A&R editor, John Alexander.

"A Reader's Digest Christmas" will be midline priced at $7.98 for cassettes and $11.98 for CDs and "Highlights From The Messiah" will be full list priced at $10.98 and $15.98. Each will include a special CD booklet outlining the stories behind the creation of the selections.

Barry Landis served as executive producer of the project. Reader's Digest Music A&R editor John Alexander and Warner Resound's Brenda Boswell produced the compilations, and the original boxed set of Handel's Messiah was produced by Reader's Digest Music senior music editor Gary Theroux.

The Reader's Digest Association publishes Reader's Digest, the world's best-selling and best-read magazine, with global circulation exceeding 27 million in 48 editions and 19 languages. Reader's Digest Music sells about 10 million boxed sets each year and has a vault of some 15,000 masters in all categories of music. Since 1959, RD Music has produced music collections from Bach to be-bop, from country to inspirational, including, for example, its three-CD collection "Christmas Through The Years" which sold 1.6 million sets.

Under Landis's leadership, Warner Resound has quickly become a presence in both the Christian and mainstream marketplaces. Last year, Resound made a dramatic debut by providing Warner Christian Distribution with its first million-dollar "street date," releasing the popular PBS video series "Adventures From the Book of Virtues." This year, releases to both the CBA and mainstream markets of "The Best of The Call," B.J. Thomas's "Christmas Is Coming Home," and the collection "The Way In A Manger," with 12 popular country artists, continue to build the company's reputation for linking the Christian and general markets.