After many years of creative crafting of records and artists' careers,
Todd Collins is the creative visionary behind Beatmart.
After four years of business in the urban Christian music market, Todd
is directing Beatmart to expand into other multi-media
facets of entertainment. Yes, the company was built on spreading the gospel
through urban music, but Todd is now steering it into other forms of the
entertainment genres in order to complement the music and further spread
the word of Christ through hip hop culture to youth and the young at heart.
After graduating college with a BA in Telecommunications from Barry University in Miami, Florida, Todd moved to Nashville in August of 1989 to pursue a career in Christian music. Shortly thereafter, he met Toby McKeehan of dctalk and began a long standing friendship and musical partnership that still exists to this day. In October of '89, Toby and Todd began working on dctalk's second album entitled "Nu Thang." This was the beginning of a working relationship that would span for more than a decade and into Toby's highly successful solo career.
In 1991 after the completion of dctalk's third album entitled "Free At Last", Toby, Todd, and Toby's cousin Joey Elwood started a production company called Gotee Productions. This would later be known as Gotee Records which was officially started in 1994. Toby, Joey, and Todd set out on a quest to deliver Christian music to the masses that they themselves enjoyed. They felt that there was a huge void of relevant music that spoke Christ to the youth culture. They felt that if they made and released music that they themselves enjoyed, then others would gravitate toward and consume this music and message as well. That's exactly what they did.
Toby was obviously consumed with the responsibilities that dctalk would bring, and Joey took on the role of president and administrator of day to day responsibilities within Gotee. That left the creative aspect in which Todd headed up. He took on the role of Head of Creative and A&R for Gotee. With many records sold, many production and executive production credits, 3 gold records (Jennifer Knapp, Sonic Flood, & Reliant K), and multiple Dove Awards, Gotee had a long thriving and successful run under the leadership of the "Gotee Brothers" (Toby, Joey, & Todd).
In 2001, Gotee Records was purchased in part by EMI/CMG. With a new corporate equity partner now in the mix, Todd felt led to "cash out" as a partner in Gotee and branch out toward pursuing other opportunities. He took 2 years off and independently produced projects that he was particularly drawn to rather than "having" to do. After the 2 years, Todd felt that God was stirring his heart to start another label. This time an urban based label. Something near and dear to Todd's creative heart. So in 2003, Todd (along with his brother & partner Troy) opened the doors of Beatmart Recordings, an urban Christian entertainment company geared to target the youth that are drawn to hip hop culture.
Todd has been producing records for 18 years within the Christian market
and has worked with such artists as dctalk, Tobymac, Anointed, Out
of Eden, Grits, KJ-52, Audio Adrenaline, Sonic Flood, Jennifer Knapp, John
Reuben, Tammy Trent, Carmen, and many others. He has 2 platinum records
(dctalk), 5 gold records (dctalk, Audio Adrenaline, Jennifer
Knapp, Sonic Flood), and 4 Dove Awards (Erace, Out of Eden, KJ-52).
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