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Over 6000 Customers in 44 Countries And Now A Radio Programme 
MSS Studios is a small father and son home-based business established in 1969 by Gerry King for the purpose of Music Engraving (MSS stands for Music Setting Service). Some of their engraved publications include 76 books for Yamaha, over 120 books for Music Sales Ltd., (including many Kenneth Baker organ and keyboard books), PVG books from Paul McCartney, Eddi Reader, Robert Plant, The Bee Gees, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Complete Beatles and many 'busker' books. They are still producing books including Cambridge University Opera Journal as well as various examination papers, although the mail-order side has all but taken over now with
his son Ian.
They started publishing their own series of books called "Key Expressions for Organ" in 1996 and later that year expanded into selling organ recordings under the name ORGAN1st (Organ-First) and now stock around 1300 organ recordings from electronic and theatre to Hammond jazz (probably the biggest selection in Europe). Their customer base is now around 6,500 customers in 47 countries.
In October 2005 they produced their own Organ1st
CD label following buying the stock of recordings from Grosvenor Records owned by John and Jean Taylor who decided that it was time to retire after nearly forty years in the recording business.
Back in 1999 their small catalogue was expanded into a quarterly magazine, with music, features and profiles from the organ world and was available to subscribers with free PDF downloads for Internet users. The publication of the magazine continued until 2007 when it was decided that it would be more cost effective to revert to a catalogue that would be free of charge to everyone in the UK. With the bulk of business done on the Internet, their website was developed in 2007 to include audio tracks of selected CD's, so that a customer could hear a sample before purchase. With the popularity of Internet podcasting, the latest venture is an Organ1st Radio programme from October 2007. It was a natural choice to have Alan Ashton to present the programme in view his previous contributions to the magazine - and, of course, with his broadcasting experience from the days when he was a free-lance presenter on BBC Radio Manchester. Direct Link: Organ1st Website Quick Link: Press Release - New Radio Programme 3.8.07 |