Editing SST Records (section)

===Decline in prominence===
Several artists left SST in the late 1980s. By 1987, just a year after signing with the label, Sonic Youth had grown disenchanted with it. Guitarist [[Thurston Moore]] said, "SST's accounting was a bit suspect to us", and the group's other guitarist [[Lee Ranaldo]] criticized the label's "stoner administrative quality".<ref>Azerrad, p. 268</ref> The band was also dissatisfied with Ginn's newer signings. Unhappy that income from their records was ultimately helping to fund "lame-ass records", Sonic Youth acrimoniously left the label and signed with [[Enigma Records]] in 1988.<ref name=a269>Azerrad, p. 269</ref> Dinosaur Jr left SST for [[Blanco y Negro Records]] in 1990. Frontman [[J Mascis]] said, "I like Greg Ginn and stuff, but they wouldn't pay you."<ref>Azerrad, p. 374</ref>

In 1987 SST released over 80 titles, a "ridiculous amount even by major label standards", according to Azerrad.<ref name=a269 /> SST's prestige declined and by 1990 [[Seattle]]-based indie label [[Sub Pop]] had upstaged SST. SST's reputation was damaged severely when sound collage group [[Negativland]] fought a long legal battle with SST in the wake of its [[Sampling (music)|sampling]] lawsuit over their notorious "cover" of [[U2]]'s hit "[[I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For]]", on the 1991 ''[[U2 (EP)|U2]]'' single. The case was settled when Ginn and SST agreed to fully release most of Negativland's masters (mainly their ''Over The Edge'' series of cassettes) in exchange for completing work on a live album that had been planned long before their legal battles began, as well as keeping Negativland's three SST releases on the label for a short period (the copyright in those has since reverted to Negativland). This entire battle was later the basis for Negativland's 1995 book/CD, ''[[Fair Use: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2]]''. (One bit of detournement took the bumper sticker "SST: Corporate Rock Still Sucks" and made it into "Corporate SST Still Sucks Rock".)

SST went into near-hibernation in the mid-90s, deleting much of its jazz output, and releasing little new material apart from Ginn's projects (including [[Confront James]], [[Mojack]]), but still keeping the catalogs of Black Flag, the Minutemen, [[Firehose (band)|Firehose]], Hüsker Dü, the Descendents, and Bad Brains in print. Several artists formerly on the label, including [[Sonic Youth]] and the [[Meat Puppets]], sued SST to reclaim their [[master recording]]s, claiming unpaid royalties.<ref>Azerrad, p. 496</ref>  The label had ceased releasing any material by the end of the 1990s.  Ginn blamed this on the bankruptcy of the label's distributor, DNA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.markprindle.com/ginn-i.htm|title=Greg Ginn 2003|website=markprindle.com|last=Prindle|first=Mark|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref>  The label eventually resumed releasing new material in the mid-2000s.  However, these new releases have been restricted to Ginn-related projects like Gone, Hor, Jambang, and Greg Ginn and the Taylor Texas Corrugators.

In 2002, Ginn signed a new distribution deal with [[Koch Records]] and announced a series of new releases from his various projects.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.citizinemag.com/music/music-0306_gregginn1.htm|website=citizinemag.com|title=Interview with Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn|last=Prindle|first=Mark|date=June 7, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414190140/http://www.citizinemag.com/music/music-0306_gregginn1.htm |access-date=December 6, 2022|archive-date=April 14, 2012 }}</ref> In 2006, independent digital music distributor [[The Orchard (music label)|The Orchard]] announced that 94 titles from SST's back catalog would become available on digital services like [[eMusic]] and the [[iTunes Music Store]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.altpress.com/index.php/news/entry/archive_329|title=SST Records to make back catalog available for download|work=Alternative Press|date=January 11, 2006|access-date=June 26, 2016}}</ref>