Label Guide: Volt

Volt Records was a sister label to Stax Records, established in 1961. In that era, many radio stations, anxious to avoid even the hint of payola, often refused to play more than one or two new songs from any single record label at one time, so as to not appear to be offering favoritism to any particular label. To circumvent this, Stax, like many other record companies, created a number of subsidiary labels.

Volt was the label home to Otis Redding, with seven of the first nine album releases being Otis Redding albums. Volt releases were initially issued by Atlantic through their Atco Records subsidiary.

Stax/Volt Records was forced into bankruptcy in December 1975 and its brand name and master recordings were sold to Fantasy in 1977.