According to Peter Goldsmith's book about Moe Asch and Folkways Records, "Making People's Music," here is the sequence of events relative to Oak Publications, Sing Out! and Folkways Records:

After Peoples' Artists (which owned Sing Out!) disbanded on 1957, Irwin Silber convinced Moe Asch of Folkways to purchase a 45% interest in Sing Out!, with Silber owning 45% and Pete Seeger holding the remaining 10%. Oak was started in 1960 as a publishing channel for the series of "Reprints From Sing Out!" books, but it quickly expanded its list to include instrumental instruction books, collections of folk and folk-related songs, and Guy Carawan's important collection of songs from the Civil Rights movement (aka "Freedom Songs"). Through the early 1960s, the profits from Oak were enough to sustain the magazine.

In 1967, Asch and Silber dissolved their partnership and sold Oak Publications to Music Sales, Inc. Shortly after that, the editorial board of Sing Out! bought the magazine, which no longer had the revenue from Oak to support it. As a result, Sing Out! went through some difficult times in the late 1960s.