CandyRat Records

CandyRat Records (also stylized as CANdYRAT) is an independent American record label and online music store located in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.[1] They primarily represent instrumental guitar artists, but include electronic music, alternative rock, singer-songwriter, and progressive rock, with musicians coming from many countries.[2][3]

Rob Poland founded the label in 2004, first signing fingerstyle guitar talent Don Ross,[4] followed by Andy McKee,[5][6] Antoine Dufour, and three other artists before officially opening in 2005.[7] CandyRat Records has been called the "biggest acoustical guitar label in the world",[8] and the two-handed tapping technique of playing the guitar to produce bass, rhythm, melody and harmony, which is practised by many of its artists, has become known as the CandyRat style.[9] The label gained fame after videos on its official YouTube page, 'rpoland', gained viral success.[10] Recording sessions are filmed and uploaded, contributing to the success of the albums.[11][12] As of November 2014, the most popular video on the channel, a live recording of Andy Mckee's "Drifting",[13] garnered over 50 million views.[14][15] Their YouTube channel has over a half-million subscribers and almost four-hundred million views.[16]

CandyRat Guitar Night Tour features CandyRat Records' guitar virtuosos traveling the U.S. and the world.[9][17][18][19][20] For 2017, Antoine Dufour and Ian Ethan Case toured.[21] CandyRat is also a festival partner for the Wilson Center Guitar Competition & Festival, with Rob Poland and the CandyRat headliners as some of the judges for the fingerstyle competition.[22][23]