Bill Ray Hearn

Billy Ray Hearn (April 26 1929 – April 15 2015) founded and chaired Capitol Christian Music Group, formerly EMI Christian Music Group, which is the world’s largest religious music label.

Hearn earned a degree in church music from Baylor University in 1954.

In 1972 he launched Myrrh Records at Word Inc., one of the first labels dedicated to contemporary Christian music and the label that released Amy Grant’s recordings. He established Sparrow Records in 1976, a label that signed artists such as Keith Green, John Michael Talbot and Margaret Becker.

EMI Music purchased Sparrow in 1992; the label’s roster then included Steven Curtis Chapman and BeBe & CeCe Winans.

Hearn was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and received the Gospel Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. He also founded and sponsored the biannual Hearn Symposium on Christian Music at Baylor University.

Billy Ray Hearn died on April 15 2015 from complications related to heart disease.