Over the last ten years, World Music Network has become one of the leading forces on the world music scene, and has received numerous accolades and praise from both the press and the public. Founded in 1994 by husband and wife team Phil Stanton and Colombian-born Sandra Alayón-Stanton, World Music Network produces hugely successful music compilations with the Rough Guides, fund raising albums with Oxfam and Amnesty International, and artist releases on Riverboat Records.

The label's founders, Phil and Sandra, had originally begun by looking at the issues associated with releasing music that was off the mainstream and which therefore suffered from a lack of media exposure and resulting distribution problems. At the time, in the early 1990s, access to world music was not as easy as it is today. This lead to Phil and Sandra wanting to inform interested people about world music, and the subsequent decision to launch a series of mid-price music compilations to introduce people to music from across the globe.

The Rough Guides
World Music Network has been releasing the Rough Guide music series in association with the Rough Guide travel book publishers for over ten years. They originally decided to collaborate together in 1994 when the first world music Rough Guide book and album were released. Both achieved instant success, with the Rough Guide book going onto become known as ‘the bible of world music’.

The no nonsense approach of the Rough Guides – favouring a style that is intelligent and cultural but not academic or flippant – was exactly how Phil and Sandra saw their own idea for music compilations. The Rough Guides marketing director Richard Trillo was very keen to have a Rough Guide To World Music compilation to accompany the book, and the successful partnership was launched.

Since then the Rough Guide albums have covered diverse destinations from Haiti to the Himalayas, and musical styles from arabesque to samba, and big successes have included Salsa, Paris Café Music, Cajun & Zydeco, Highlife, African Rap and Bellydance. The Rough Guide albums have consistently risen above the grain and continue to be vital and comprehensive sources of information for anyone looking into a specific country or area of music. This success is largely due to the company’s original and simple intentions that it maintains to this day – to provide people with the best possible introductions to the music of any given area of musical style from around the world, giving listeners a way into music that is new to them, while including clear information about the artists.

World Music Network Support
The directors of World Music Network see a clear connection between world music and social change, and have established good relationships with a number of development and human rights organisations. This has lead to the production of fund raising releases with Amnesty International (including Unwired: Latin America and Unwired: Europe) and Oxfam (including Oxfam: Arabia and Oxfam: Latin Dance).