Though Ballard and his historical family were involved in musical printing there is little or no evidence to indicate whether Robert was a composer. The Le Roy & Ballard company of printing, however, published an amazing corpus of musical works including books of chansons, psalms, motets, and instrumental pieces for particular instruments. Successfully this firm spread the works of Lassus, Arcadelt, Certon, Janequin, Le Jeune and others throughout France and Europe.