At Last, a Label Goes Digital

For years Dan Storper would get an occasional phone call from an executive at iTunes or the Amazon MP3 store, asking the same question every time: “Have you changed your mind yet?”

The calls were about Mr. Storper’s record label, Putumayo World Music, which has developed a multimillion-dollar franchise around the idea of making the sounds of distant corners of the planet accessible to everyday Western shoppers. World music releases often end up as a particularly low-selling species of esoterica, but Putumayo’s colorfully decorated, novice-level compilations, like “Acoustic Brazil” and “French Café,” have sold 27 million copies around the world. More...