RPC

US label of Recorded Publications Company. Custom record label which flourished between the late 1940s and the early 1980s. RPC produced records from clients' tape recordings, utilizing RCA pressing plants before establishing one of their own. RPC also had their own recording studios and offered on-location recording services. Nearly all RPC releases had a disclaimer printed on the record labels: "Recorded from client's source material". The few releases that did not were the ones recorded by RPC engineers in their own studios. Roughly 40 different generic album covers were available with customizable text, or customers could supply their own camera-ready cover art (hence the many albums by different artists with the same cover art). RPC advertised their services primarily in music magazines for educators, and their eye-catching slogan was "Records From Your Tapes!" A 1970 RPC brochure states that pressings were available in as few as 25 copies. For fewer than 25 copies, customers could order direct-cut acetates which would bear a white, typewritten "RPL" label (Recorded Publications Laboratories). This label also bore the rubber-stamped statement "Recorded from client's source material". Most RPC releases are of school bands, choral groups, and church choirs, but there were also small handful of garage band, avant-garde, experimental, and psych releases that have become sought-after collector's items.