Time-Life
Encyclopedia
Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales.

Time-Life was founded in 1961 as the book division of Time Inc. It took its name from Time Inc.'s
Time Inc.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...

 cornerstone magazines, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

 and Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

, but remained independent of both. During 1966, Time Life combined its book offerings with music collections (two to five records) and packaged them as a sturdy box set. Throughout the '70s and '80s, the selection of books, music and videos grew and was diversified into more genres. When record labels stopped producing vinyl albums in 1990, Time Life switched to CD only. In the mid-90s, Time–Life acquired Heartland Music, with the Heartland Music label now appearing as a brand.

At the end of 2003 Time Life was acquired by Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C. and ZelnickMedia Corporation to become part of Direct Holdings Worldwide L.L.C. Direct Holdings Americas Inc. operates as a leader in the sale of music and video products under the Time Life brand. Since 2003, Direct Holdings US Corp is the legal name of Time Life, and is no longer owned by its former parent Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...

 (formerly Time Inc.
Time Inc.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...

). In March 2007, Ripplewood led a group that took The Reader's Digest Association
The Reader's Digest Association
The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. is a global media and direct marketing company, best known for its flagship publication founded in 1922, Reader's Digest...

 private and has since put Time Life as a division of RDA. By 2003 onward, a disclaimer on the copyright stated that it is "not affiliated with Time Warner Inc. or Time Inc.
Time Inc.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...

", who owns the Time and Life magazines which this company name came from.

Book series

The Time Life company was founded by Time, Incorporated in 1961, as a book marketing division. It takes its name from Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

and Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

magazines, two of the most popular weeklies of the era. It was based in the Time Life building in Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...

.

Time Life gained fame as a seller of book series that would be mailed to households in monthly installments, operating as book sales club
Book sales club
A book sales club is a subscription-based method of selling and purchasing books. It is more often called simply a book club, a term that is also used to describe a book discussion club, which can cause confusion.-How book sales clubs work:...

s. Several of these book series garnered substantial critical acclaim unusual for a mass-market mail order house. For example, the series Library of Photography of the early-1970s featured very high-quality duo-tone printing for its black-and-white reproductions in its original edition, and was of course able to draw on Life Magazine's vast archive of journalistic and art photographs from virtually every major photographer; Foods Of The World
Foods of the World
Foods of the World was a popular series of 27 cookbooks published by Time-Life, beginning in 1968 and extending through the early 1970s, that provided a broad survey of many of the world's major cuisines...

featured contributions by M.F.K. Fisher, James Beard
James Beard
James Andrew Beard was an American chef and food writer. The central figure in the story of the establishment of a gourmet American food identity, Beard was an eccentric personality who brought French cooking to the American middle and upper classes in the 1950s...

, Julia Child
Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...

, Craig Claiborne
Craig Claiborne
Craig Claiborne was an American restaurant critic, food writer and former food editor of the New York Times. He was the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography...

 and many others; and The Good Cook series, edited by Richard Olney
Richard Olney (food writer)
Richard Olney was an American painter, cook, food writer, editor, and memoirist, best known for his books of French country cooking....

, featured contributions from Jeremiah Tower
Jeremiah Tower
Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters, and Jonathan Waxman, is generally credited with developing the culinary style known as California cuisine.-Biography:...

, Jane Grigson
Jane Grigson
Jane Grigson was a notable English cookery writer.-Life and writings:...

, Michel Lemonnier and many others. Other series of high regard covered nature and the sciences, as well as the history of world civilizations. The science books are interesting as ephemera of their time. The content of these series was more or less encyclopedic, providing the basics of the subjects in the way it might be done in a lecture aimed at the general public. There was also a series on contemporary life in various countries of the world. Some other series are much less highly regarded, especially the later output as the publisher moved away from soberly presented science and history towards sensationalism, pop-history, and DIY-themed books. The books, whatever their quality, are easy to find at low prices on the used-book market, due to their being published in the millions of copies. (Some of the items in this list may also be single books not in a series, but followed the same types of themes as the book series.)
  • The American Wilderness
  • The Art of Sewing
  • A Child's First Library Of Learning
    A Child's First Library Of Learning
    A Child's First Library of Learning is a series of books originally published by Gakken Co. Ltd.....

    , a series of educational books by Time–Life
  • Classics of the Old West (not the same as "The Old West")
  • Collector's Library of the Civil War
  • Curious and Unusual Facts
  • The Emergence of Man
  • Enchanted World Series, a best-selling Time–Life series, 21 volumes
  • The Encyclopedia of Collectibles
  • The Epic of Flight
  • Family Library ("How Things Work in your Home", "The Time-Life Book of the Family Car", "The Time-Life Family Legal Guide", and "The Time-Life Book of Family Finance")
  • Foods of the World
  • The Good Cook
  • Great Ages of Man—history of each of the major civilization
    Civilization
    Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...

    s of human history
    History
    History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

  • The Great Cities
  • Home Repair and Improvement
  • Human Behavior
  • Library of Health
  • Library of Nations
  • The LIFE History of the United States
  • LIFE Library of Photography
  • LIFE Nature Library
    Life Nature Library
    The Life Nature Library was a popular series of hardbound books published by Time-Life between 1961 and 1965. Each of the 25 volumes explored a major topic of the natural world. They were intended for, and written at a level appropriate to, an educated lay readership.Each volume was written by a...

    , 25 volumes
  • LIFE Science Library
    Life Science Library
    The Life Science Library was a popular series of hardbound books published by Time-Life between 1963 and 1967. Each of the 26 volumes explored a major topic of the natural sciences. They were intended for, and written at a level appropriate to, an educated lay readership...

    , 26 volumes
  • LIFE World Library
  • Mysteries of the Unknown
    Mysteries of the unknown
    Mysteries of the Unknown is a series of books about the paranormal, published by Time-Life Books from 1987 through 1991. Each book focused on a different topic, such as ghosts, UFOs, psychic powers and dreams. The series was very successful for Time-Life Books...

    , a best-selling Time–Life series, 33 volumes
  • The New Face of War, A 9-volume survey of the major fields of modern warfare
  • The Old West
    The Old West
    The Old West is a series of books about the fundamental founding of the American Old West, published by Time-Life Books from 1973 through 1980. Each book focused on a different topic, such as cowboys, American indians, gamblers and gunfighters....

  • Planet Earth Series
  • The Seafarers Series
  • The Third Reich, 21 volumes
  • This Fabulous Century
  • Time Frame—A survey of history by time periods instead of by civilization
  • Time–Life Library of America
  • Time–Life Library of Art
  • The Time–Life Library of Boating
  • The Time–Life Library of Gardening
  • Time Life Library of Curious and Unusual Facts
  • Time Reading Program
    Time Reading Program
    The Time Reading Program , was a book sales club run by Time–Life, the publisher of Time magazine, from 1962 through 1966. Time was known for its magazines, and nonfiction book series' published under the Time-Life imprint, while the TRP books were reprints of an eclectic set of literature, both...

  • Understanding Computers
  • Voyage Through the Universe—series on Astronomy
    Astronomy
    Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

  • Wild, Wild World of Animals
    Wild, Wild World of Animals
    Wild, Wild World of Animals, is a syndicated American television show that features wildlife and nature documentaries. It was originally produced from 1973 until 1978, and was narrated by William Conrad...

     (based on the TV series)
  • The World's Wild Places
  • Wings of War, 26 Volumes
  • World War II, 39 volumes


Time Life no longer publishes books as its book division was closed in 2003. Time Inc./Time Warner, however, continues to publish similar material through Time Inc. Home Entertainment.

Music

Time-Life added music in 1962, selling box sets and collections through Time-Life Records. During the 1960s and 1970s, the collections released by Time-Life Records catered to a conversative adult audience, with genres including classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, swing and orchestral
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 music; and the music of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s and Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

. On occasion, Time-Life offered popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 (generally pre-1955 music, as opposed to pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 music airing on contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

 stations in the United States at the time) in box sets. Although there were television advertisements, Time-Life advertised most of these sets in magazines, specialty catalogs and direct mail.

In the early 1980s, Time-Life began branching out, offering a series of albums focusing on country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

. The first series was 1981's "Country Music," with volumes focusing on a particular artist and featuring eight or nine tracks per album. Twenty volumes were issued, with many of country's greatest artists of the time (Charley Pride
Charley Pride
Charley Frank Pride is an American country music singer. His smooth baritone voice was featured on thirty-nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His greatest success came in the early- to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis...

 was the first artist featured) getting their own album. But until the mid-1980s, Time-Life did not feature a rock music-intensive series for customers, preferring to cater to older adults with conservative music tastes.

Pop music enters the picture

Time-Life's first successful foray into rock music came in 1986, with a series called "Rock'n'Roll Era." Each volume in that series -- like similar series that followed -- focused on a particular year (in this case, 1955 through 1964 -- the early, pre-Beatles years of rock music), a stylistic trend or particular artist influential in rock music. Each volume had 22 tracks, and was said to contain the original hit recording by the original artist (although this wasn't always true on early pressings of the early albums in the series). The songs themselves represented the most important and popular songs from the period or subject featured.

The "Rock'n'Roll Era" series was a big success, and by the time the final volume was issued in the early 1990s, more than 40 different volumes (including two Christmas albums) had been released. This paved the way for more country and pop music-intensive series, including "Country USA
Country USA (Time-Life Music)
Country USA was a 23-volume series issued by Time-Life Music during the late 1980s and early 1990s, spotlighting country music of the 1950s through early 1970s....

," "Classic Rock
Classic Rock (Time-Life Music)
Classic Rock was a 31-volume series issued by Time-Life during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unlike what the name may imply, the series spotlighted popular music played on Top 40 radio stations of the mid- to late-1960s....

," "Sounds of the Seventies," "Your Hit Parade" (a series featuring popular music of the 1940s through early 1960s) and "Super Hits
AM Gold (Time-Life Music)
Super Hits -- later retitled AM Gold -- was a 35-volume series issued by Time-Life during the 1990s, spotlighting popular music -- primarily, soft rock and non-disco Top 40 music—played on Top 40 radio stations during the 1960s and 1970s....

." Like the earlier series, each volume issued had its own paperback booklet containing liner notes and information about the songs, with the addition of placement on various Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine charts.

Like the earlier box sets featuring other musical styles and genres, the country and pop music series were advertised in magazines, catalogs and direct mail. By this time, some of these collections were advertised on television: either commercials or 30-minute infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...

s. The television advertisements used slogans (e.g., "Relive your high school days ..."), clips of songs included in each volume (along with a scrolling list of other titles), a commercial spokesman (usually a performer or legendary disc jockey relevant to a given series, such as Rick Dees
Rick Dees
Rigdon Osmond "Rick" Dees III is an American comedic performer, entertainer, and radio personality, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the novelty song "Disco Duck." He is a People's Choice Award recipient, a Grammy-nominated...

 for a 1970s-intensive collection and Ralph Emery
Ralph Emery
Walter Ralph Emery is a country music disc jockey and television host from Nashville, Tennessee. He gained national fame hosting the syndicated television music series, Pop! Goes the Country, from 1974 to 1980 and the nightly Nashville Network television program, Nashville Now, from 1983 to 1993...

 for a country music series) and testimonials from customers attesting to the quality and value of the albums, to pitch a given series series. Key selling points of these collections are that each track was digitally transferred to the desired format using the original master recordings, as opposed to being "re-records" (usually, new or latter-day stereo recordings of songs when licensing or the original master of a desired song was unavailable); and that the most popular and requested songs by customers could be found in a single collection (as opposed to a customer having to purchase many albums to obtain just a few desired tracks).

Customers were given a choice of which format they wanted their box set: either vinyl albums, 8-track or cassette tape, or compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

; today's box sets are offered only as compact discs.

While most of Time-Life's box sets and releases were critically hailed, there were also some minor faults pointed out by critics. For instance, several early pressings of the early volumes in the "Rock'n'Roll Era" series contained stereo re-recordings of the original hits (something that would be corrected on later pressings, either with the correct original recording or a replacement track). Sometimes, the most popular songs of a given time period were omitted; frequently, this was due to licensing issues (such as was the case with The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

).

Through at least the early 2000s, the different series Time-Life had offered were available on a subscription basis, either by calling a 1-800 number
Toll-free telephone number
A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, 800, 0800 or 1-800 number is a special telephone number which is free to the calling party, and instead the telephone carrier charges the called party the cost of the call...

 or sending a completed postcard-sized card and payment to Time-Life. Purportedly, the customer would get a specific volume (as advertised on TV or in a magazine) first, before receiving a new volume roughly every other month (on the format of their choice); customers and had the option of keeping just the volumes they wanted. In time, each volume was also offered for individual sale.

List of series

The following list shows many of the collections the company has released, but is by no means exhaustive.
  • 60's Gold (discontinued)
  • 70's, The (©1994, Time-Life/Warner; Europe)
  • 70's, The - Back In The Groove (©1994, Time-Life/Warner; Europe)
  • 70's Music Explosion
  • 80's Music Explosion
  • AM Gold
    AM Gold (Time-Life Music)
    Super Hits -- later retitled AM Gold -- was a 35-volume series issued by Time-Life during the 1990s, spotlighting popular music -- primarily, soft rock and non-disco Top 40 music—played on Top 40 radio stations during the 1960s and 1970s....

     (discontinued; was first issued as "Super Hits")
  • Billboard #1 Hits of the 70's
  • Body and Soul
  • Classic Bluegrass (discontinued)
  • Classic Country
  • Classic Love Songs of the 60's
  • Classic Rock
    Classic Rock (Time-Life Music)
    Classic Rock was a 31-volume series issued by Time-Life during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unlike what the name may imply, the series spotlighted popular music played on Top 40 radio stations of the mid- to late-1960s....

     (discontinued)
  • Classic Rhythm and Blues
  • Classic Soft Rock
  • Classic Soul Ballads
    Classic Soul Ballads
    Classic Soul Ballads is a 16-volume soul CD-set, released by Time–Life Records in 2005, featuring 264 songs from the 1960s through the 1990s...

  • Classic Love Songs of Rock N' Roll (discontinued)
  • Contemporary Country
    Contemporary Country (Time-Life Music)
    Contemporary Country was a 22-volume series issued by Time-Life during the early 1990s, spotlighting country music of the 1970s through early 1990s....

  • Country Music Explosion
  • Country USA
    Country USA (Time-Life Music)
    Country USA was a 23-volume series issued by Time-Life Music during the late 1980s and early 1990s, spotlighting country music of the 1950s through early 1970s....

     (discontinued)
  • Country's Got Heart
  • Disco Fever
  • Easy 80's
  • Fabulous Fifties, The
  • Flower Power
  • Folk Years (discontinued)
  • Giants of Jazz (discontinued)
  • Great American Songbook
  • Golden Age of Country
  • Golden Age of Pop
  • Hard & Heavy
  • It All Started with Doo Wop
  • Lifetime of Country Romance
  • Lifetime of Romance (discontinued)
  • Legends: The Ultimate Rock (discontinued)
  • Living the Blues
  • Magic of Love
  • Malt Shop Memories
  • Midnight Soul
  • The Motown Collection
  • Opry Video Classics
  • Oldies But Goodies
  • Pop Memories of the 60's
  • Prom Night
  • Rock N' Roll Era (discontinued)
  • Pure Rhythm and Blues
  • Rock N' Roll: Legendary Years (discontinued)
  • Romancing the 70's
  • Classic Soul Ballads
    Classic Soul Ballads
    Classic Soul Ballads is a 16-volume soul CD-set, released by Time–Life Records in 2005, featuring 264 songs from the 1960s through the 1990s...

  • Singers & Songwriters
  • Songs 4 Ever (discontinued)
  • Soul Story
  • Sounds of the Seventies (discontinued)
  • Sounds of the Eighties (discontinued)
  • Sounds of the Nineties (discontinued)
  • Superstars of Country
  • Superstars of the 80's
  • Sweet Soul of the 70's
  • The Teen Years
  • The Rock Collection (discontinued)
  • To The Moon, a 6-record set: a documentary with accompanying book about the early space program, the space race, the missions to the moon and the first moon landing, published soon after Apollo 11
    Apollo 11
    In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...

     completed its mission to the moon. (discontinued)
  • Ultimate Seventies (discontinued)
  • Ultimate Love Songs
  • Ultimate Rock Ballads
  • Uptown Saturday Night
  • Your Hit Parade (discontinued)

Controversy

In recent years, the company has been subject to bad press due to questionable billing practices. Some customers claim that they have been tricked into purchasing multiple CDs from Time Life. Buyers, wishing to purchase single CDs, do not fully understand that they are entering into "Continuity Programs," despite the promotional advertisements stating they will be introduced into a series of CDs shipped "every few weeks," automatically billing the credit card. Critics contend that the company's disclosure about automatic follow-up orders is intentionally and deceptively placed in areas where it is unlikely to be read. Time Life does, however, back every product with a 30 day money-back guarantee and the customer's account will be refunded upon receipt of the returned item. As a benefit, customers can call customer service to cancel at any time, whereas services such as BMG Music Service and Columbia House
Columbia House
The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by the Columbia Records division of CBS, Inc. as an umbrella for its mail-order music clubs, the primary incarnation of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. It had a significant market presence in the 1980s and early...

(which have since merged) require the customer to buy a certain number of CDs before they can cancel.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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