Brown Box Music founder Brad Hartman started piano lessons at 6. While he found the piano to be an interesting instrument, he really didn’t get the musical bug until age 12 when he acquired his first acoustic guitar, purchased with green stamps.

"That’s when I found my calling," he says. "I became passionate about music. I bought Beatles sheet music and played constantly, teaching myself." He recalls going on vacation with his family to New Mexico and staying in the cabin to practice guitar while his family explored the mountains without him.

He was 14 when he got his first electric guitar and amplifier. "That gave me the ability to play in bands, which I began doing immediately. I remember playing in friends’ garages until the police came to shut us down." Open mic nights at venues like Dallas’ Burning Bush coffeehouse followed, as well as talent shows and paid gigs at parties. Finally, it was off to college at Texas Tech in Lubbock to pursue an Electrical Engineering degree.

"I didn’t study much, spending most of my time in bands that played frat and sorority parties. Finally, I gave up the pretense of college, so I dropped out and joined a rock band. I realized then that music was my true calling, so the early 70s saw me off in pursuit of a career in music ."

He longed to make a record, but couldn’t. In those days, no one went in to the recording studio unless they had a recording contract – there were no home studios back then. Even then, there were no guarantees your record would be released and manufactured. His dream of a recording technology that would allow any band or artist to cut a record took decades to come to fruition.

To make a long story short, Brad’s pursuit of a career in music finally came to an end. He moved to Austin, Texas, completed his degree in Electrical Engineering, and slipped into the corporate world of semiconductors. He had stopped making a living as a musician, but continued playing the guitar and pursused his passion of music.

Finally, after 25 years, his career came full circle. In the early 90’s, he founded a company that produced audio training programs for high-tech companies. He found himself surrounded by the same equipment and expertise that he dreamed of years ago, which is now within reach and making dreams come true for today’s musicians.

"I can identify with musicians’ desire to have a CD of their own, something they can sell at gigs, send to record companies and give to friends – that’s what I wanted all those years ago. But today, even with all of the amazing low-cost recording gear, many musicians still can’t afford to mass-produce CDs. At Brown Box Music, we finally make this affordable by drastically reducing the cost of artwork and packaging. For me, this is a return to the dreams I had when I was in my 20s. I constantly see people who remind me of myself walking through the door wanting to reproduce their CD."

Brown Box Music enables bands and performers to get their music out to an eager public, to those people who want to take some of the music home with them after seeing a live performance.

Brown Box Music is about music. The final product is a brown box with music inside - a jewel case with the artist’s name and the name of the album, a CD inside and and a song list on the back. That’s it. Otherwise, they all look alike, differentiated only by the music inside. 

And that’s what it’s all about anyway –  right?