In 2003, Reference was acquired by Dorian Records, a like-minded label in Troy, New York. At the time, the two labels said that Reference's staff, including legendary engineer Keith Johnson, would continue to produce recordings, while Dorian's newly created On-Demand Media Services distributed them.

Dorian declared bankruptcy earlier this year and began selling its assets; at one point, Koch Records agree to buy Reference. The founders of Reference, however, maintained that the sale of the company to Dorian was never completed. On August 4, according to the web site Musical America, a New York Supreme Court judge dissolved the partnership between Dorian and Reference and returned Reference's assets to its original owners, Marcia Marin and J. Tamblyn Henderson.

"We are now reorganizing the company and restocking inventory at our headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area," the statement on the Reference web site says. "An ambitious program is planned for this fall, to reintroduce RR's celebrated classical and jazz catalog to the marketplace."