The label was founded in 1994 by
TobyMac, Todd Collins and Joey Elwood.[1] The first album produced is
Out of Eden's Lovin' the Day.[2][3] The label was a part of
EMI Christian Music Group. However, they bought back EMI's minority share to become fully independent again as of March 31, 2008.[4]Toby McKeehan is currently the president of the company and as of 2009, the label is currently distributed by
Warner Bros. Records.
McKeehan got the name "Gotee" from the song "Socially Acceptable" on
dc Talk's album Free at Last. A member of the band
GRITS was doing the background vocals, and he was saying, "Let it go, T, let it go." ("T" refers to Toby). McKeehan happened to be growing a
goatee on his face at the time, and when Mark Heimermann pointed out the coincidence, he decided to name his new record company, "Gotee Records".
However, McKeehan does not publish his own albums under this title; instead he publishes his own records under the same label dc Talk was signed to,
ForeFront Records, an imprint of
Universal Music Group. He owns the name the
Gotee Bros.
In May 2015 Gotee was acquired by
Zealot Networks. Zealot's Nashville office is headed by former Gotee artist
John Reuben. As part of the acquisition Gotee is still operated independently.[5]