FMR Records

Taylor is a drummer and percussionist who became increasingly interested in avant garde music.^[1] In the early 1970s he started Future Music, which was a record shop that expanded to seven branches.^[1] He founded the FMR (short for Future Music Records) label in 1987.^[1][2]

FMR's first release was by saxophonist Tim Garland.^[1] This set the pattern for the label's early years, concentrating on British jazz musicians.^[1] Taylor also purchased the right to issue CD versions of successful albums released by other British musicians, including Mike Osborne, Howard Riley, John Surman and John Taylor; sales of these provided FMR with a financial boost.^[1] "By 2007 there were 250 CDs, DVDs and books in the catalogue".^[1]

Over time, the founder felt that mainstream jazz lacked originality and that the label needed a narrower focus to succeed, so he concentrated more on releasing improvised music.^[1] He observed in 2017 that recordings by British musicians were in the minority of FMR's releases.^[1] The label has also had to adapt to the industry reality of falling CD sales: in 2017, "FMR and the artist split the costs and the output 50/50, with the artist being responsible for promotion while the record company has to recoup its investment through the website or via a diminishing band of distributors."^[1] Some items from the catalogue can be bought as downloads from subradar.no, following an agreement between FMR and the Norway-based website.^[3]

Some musicians have had a large number of albums released by FMR.^[1] These include Paul Dunmall (more than 70) and Frode Gjerstad (over 40).^[1]