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| Troy Sneed |
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Billboard magazine's year-end issue has named Grammy-nominated recording artist Troy Sneed the second hottest producer of 2007 with five charting titles as producer.
Among those hits were the Top Ten smashes of Sneed's own "Hallelujah", "Alvin Darling's "Nobody But the Lord", Youth for Christ's "The Struggle is Over" and Bishop Bruce Parham's"Call Jesus." The Wilmington-Chester Mass Choir's comeback recording "God is in Control (It's Not Over)" was a Top Twenty hit.
The label's current singles "Work it Out" by the Bonafide Praisers, L. Spenser Smith's "Surgery" and Pastor Rudolph McKissick's "Magnify" are steadily moving up the charts now.
After almost two decades in the music industry, Sneed and his wife, Emily, are beginning to harvest the fruits of their labor. The erstwhile Savoy/Malaco recording artist began Emtro Gospel (a mix of his and his wife's first names) in 2003. Emily took on a second job and Sneed worked around the clock to get the label established by personally calling manufacturers, retail stores, distributors, etc.
"The first couple of projects didn't get a lot of attention or radio play," says Sneed from the lobby of Nashville's Opryland Hotel. "But, we turned the corner with Rudolph McKissick and Alvin Darling and began to make some noise."
McKissick's "The Right Place" and Darling's "All Night" gave Emtro their first Top gospel hits. Then, "The Struggle is Over" went all the way to #1 on Billboard's Hot Gospel Songs chart and stayed there for twelve consecutive weeks in late 2006. And there's more music coming from Emtro Gospel and its sister label, T Records. They have new projects dropping on Coco McMillan, the Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir and others in 2008.
Sneed isn't resting on his laurels. Emtro is actively working towards increasing their presence in the gospel market with a series of innovative marketing techniques that will unfold over the coming months. One unique technique is how he sells his other label mates products at his in-store appearances.
"I don't care what the song is," Sneed laughs. "I sing the hit songs from all of my artists when I do my appearances and then tell the people which CD the song is on. When I do that, I not only sell my CDs, but I'm also selling the CDs of my other artists and it's a great thing all around."
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