Do record labels still exist?

[bermudagold]

however, they are extremely picky and actually only sign artists who already have a certain fan base and popularity. Very rarely that there unknown artists are taken under contract

Not necessarily true...A&R is just as mercurial as it has always been...a very recent example is Dua Lipa...she was introduced to a Warner Music A&R by a trusted "tastemaker" in his personal circle...she had nothing...he wanted to sign her before hearing any music at all because of her unique wardrobe, look, charisma, and "energy" when she first walked into the room he was in....

[bermudagold]

The cassettes is a weird one. With vinyl you get a package that works as a vehicle for artwork, but cassettes? I guess there's a novelty factor there for younger generations who grew up with digital media....? Seems like a stretch.

Cassettes like CDs still have artwork...just not as big a canvas...sure definitely novelty to it...I had a gen z co-worker bring a record player into the office with his coldplay and Hamilton soundtrack albums...he could barely contain his pride and excitement lol

@Hink: I always found it humorous how strong people's preferences were for blank tape brands and models...maxell, TDK, Memorex, BASF, Fuji,....lol

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

As a label partner myself.....we are in the business of increasing what you start. We do this because we have a good idea how to do that and contacts with clubs, distributors, publicists, merch suppliers, van leasing, sound production. Ad agencies and blah blah blah.

If you can generate a sizeable interest in what you do then we invest our time, money and resources to expand on what you started.

As a smaller label our reach is proportional. Big business is....well. Big business and treat their assets accordingly. People are people...some greedy some not. Some exploit some don't.

A contract should benefit all parties proportional to risk and investment.

Do you know about an Artist because they are great or.....are they great because you know about them?

[Passing Bye]

That’s the thing, everyone wants piece of your cake, even guys that can’t ensure you 50 plays on their social networks, they are in for the money and art is just medium.

So in beginning nobody wants to take a “risk” and you are left on your own to become something worth exploiting, if you manage to do that on your own, screw most of them, at that point only consider ones that can ensure you something worthy your piece of cake, rest had a chance and blew it, they don’t deserve you now!

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

It is loop so to speak and really depends on when you get on.

Here's the thing......if you the artist presents your material to 10 people and two ask if you have more you maybe on to something. But like most of us we present our material to 10 people and the response is ...2 out 10 say..."cool man" and walk away.

You need to create momentum as the artist the record company is the nitrous.

[melomood]

interesting that vinyl and even cassettes are making a comeback or at least finding a niche...and yeah you definitely need a solid merch plan to maximize that revenue stream today...as for going into the red playing live, it's hard to put a price on joy lol

The cassettes is a weird one. With vinyl you get a package that works as a vehicle for artwork, but cassettes? I guess there's a novelty factor there for younger generations who grew up with digital media....? Seems like a stretch.

I think they're on to the 90's mixtape you give yer girl trip with cassettes. Still weird,as the most fun cassettes were was using blanks to make your own mix

[Hink]

The cassettes is a weird one. With vinyl you get a package that works as a vehicle for artwork, but cassettes? I guess there's a novelty factor there for younger generations who grew up with digital media....? Seems like a stretch.

Cassettes like CDs still have artwork...just not as big a canvas...sure definitely novelty to it...I had a gen z co-worker bring a record player into the office with his coldplay and Hamilton soundtrack albums...he could barely contain his pride and excitement lol

@Hink: I always found it humorous how strong people's preferences were for blank tape brands and models...maxell, TDK, Memorex, BASF, Fuji,....lol

really? What an odd statement to make. There were very good reasons though, not only just fidelity...keep in mind many of us cut our teeth on 4 track cassette decks...trust me, if you used lengthy tapes that were cheap you were gonna regret it...first you wanted a 30 minute tape or a 60...no longer than 60 because the tape would be too thin for all the rewinding and stopping at points along the way.

The speed was different as well and playing all 4 tracks in one direction gave you less tape capacity.

You wanted higher quality tape with better specs because many of us bounced tracks along the way which cut down on the recording quality each time as did every time you played it laying down a track.

I cant imagine anyone making the statement you just made....seriously, how would anyone whether they are just listening to music or recording their own like we did not care about the quality of the tape? You buy the ones that the record companies released things on it was as good as radioshack bargain tapes...not quality recordings and they wore out fast.

We also cleaned our heads often, never using those things from the stores that looked like cassettes, never using alcohol, but using swabs and doing it right (both in my studio and every tape deck I had, even my boombox because I didnt want a tape picking up dirt and leaving it my better machines.

For home listening I didnt want gurgles, I didnt want a bad capstan from alcohol eating my tapes, I feared magnets because they killed tapes...for the studio I didnt want to finish a song and have a wash in it or a gurgle from playing it too much and I damn sure didnt want to be about done and have a tape break...so yeah the brand and the quality matters a lot to me when it comes to my craft and passion.

[bermudagold]

@Hink:
yeah I wasn't referring to 4 track recorder tapes or SVHS tapes in 8-track recorders for studio work,...I was just talking about cassettes for taping vinyl or the radio...and I wasn't denigrating it,there were reasons and differences for sure...I just find it humorously quaint looking back at how people had favorite blank tapes...none of my circle were super anal about it though for casual consumption of music...chewed tapes, moisture and magnetic damage, splice repairing tapes and winding with pencils were just accepted parts of life ...I still have shoeboxes of cassettes...they are lovely lil slice of life time capsules,...as each one takes me back to a specific period where I remember exactly when, why, and for who I made the tape

[Hink]

well it was nice if they all looked the same in my ammo boxes too

[Passing Bye]

It is loop so to speak and really depends on when you get on.

…and who can get you in…

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

It is loop so to speak and really depends on when you get on.

…and who can get you in…

You....
Let the numbers you have generated speak for you. Think of it like You Tube not directly but as a model. The more subscribers and watch time hours your channel has the easier it is for youtube to sell advertising on your channel. Everything youtube does is designed to sell advertising.
Youtube expects to see a sustainable activity history of growth.

If you create a buzz in your local / regional area you will attract A&R people. The same for the internet......however record companies may be of less value and interest to someone who has the ability to record and market themselves professionally.
The big labels (who are being consolidated every year) still carry alot of weight on the most popular platforms. A&R people of big and small labels may be following artists for extended time (incognito) in order to truly asses potential.

The real action ( at least for us ) is with acts that can perform. Bottom line. They generate the excitement with their energy and that excitement builds fans. Fans make the whole industry possible. Fans are not likes or streams but people emotionally attached to the artist they like.

You can buy plays but you can't buy fans. You earn those.

[BONES]

the advantage of cassette pre-digital was being able to preserve vinyl. I tried to buy an even amount of albums (or a double), I preferred 90 minute Maxel udlxII...most albums were 30-45 minutes then so you could put one on each side of a tape.

My preference was for TDK SA-90s. Same as you - one album each side, often with room for a b-side or two. If it was something longer, I'd usually use a C-60 and put one side of the album on each side of the tape. C-120s were notorious for snapping because the tape was too thin. I spend the time it was being recorded painstakingly writing out the song list in my neatest handwriting and trying to copy the band logo as accurately as I could on the spine. I think I ended up with around 200 cassettes before CDs took over.

...he wanted to sign her before hearing any music at all because of her unique wardrobe, look, charisma, and "energy" when she first walked into the room he was in....

That might sound stupid to you but I get it completely. I remember the first time we played in Germany, in 2005, when the singer from Funker Vogt (who were selling 15,000+ albums per release at the time and making a half-decent living from their music) walked into our band room. It was a classic illustration of the power of charisma - everyone stopped talking and all eyes went straight to him, even though he was dressed normally and didn't so much as clear his throat to get attention. Everyone just knew when he was there, it was amazing. An hour earlier, when Steve Strange from Visage had walked into our room looking for vodka, no-one has paid him any attention until he started ranting.

[Hink]

the advantage of cassette pre-digital was being able to preserve vinyl. I tried to buy an even amount of albums (or a double), I preferred 90 minute Maxel udlxII...most albums were 30-45 minutes then so you could put one on each side of a tape.

My preference was for TDK SA-90s. Same as you - one album each side, often with room for a b-side or two. If it was something longer, I'd usually use a C-60 and put one side of the album on each side of the tape. C-120s were notorious for snapping because the tape was too thin. I spend the time it was being recorded painstakingly writing out the song list in my neatest handwriting and trying to copy the band logo as accurately as I could on the spine. I think I ended up with around 200 cassettes before CDs took over.

oh, tdk guy...I got yah ...no where near as cool looking as maxell and no offense but even though this guy has hair



c'mon, if you weren't on boat that would be you

ftr no one could ever read my tape cases, I have the worst handwriting. I had the wooden small arms ammo boxes with the ropes on the ends for my tapes. I still have about 60 tapes in my studio that a friend recorded of Russian Opera I wanted to put digital....someday. I really dont miss tapes, but I am still ANALabout magnets...seriously, ocd.



I was checking out "Head on" last night

[Passing Bye]

You can buy plays but you can't buy fans. You earn those.

You can buy pretty much everything to get there tho and I stand by what I said, connections are important, they can remove so much boundaries and open so many doors without waiting in long lines behind them.

If you know right people, they can create buzz around you and open so many doors that weren’t even visible, if you have money, you can buy all of it and they can create something worth worshiping.

So it’s about finding promising investment in ones that can’t invest in themselves, like in any other business, which is perfectly fine.

Someone not interested in making money and product of themself, but interested in just putting his music out there, can do so, give his music for free and let people enjoy it and use it, there are non profit netlabels and projects just for that, that are generating enough positive buzz and attention, worth exploring.

But if someone thought that making great music is all that it takes, it’s not, there’s more factors and sometimes they are more prevailing than music itself, it’s plenty of hard work, that just get easier or harder depending on how much money you can invest and connections you have.

So labels exist, labels are still needed to open as many doors and possibilities, even smaller ones, there’s plenty of everything, be wise and don’t give up!

[chagzuki]

Not necessarily true...A&R is just as mercurial as it has always been...a very recent example is Dua Lipa...she was introduced to a Warner Music A&R by a trusted "tastemaker" in his personal circle...she had nothing...he wanted to sign her before hearing any music at all because of her unique wardrobe, look, charisma, and "energy" when she first walked into the room he was in....

Interesting thread.
Charisma in a industry where the idea of character has been entirely erased, basically means being a suitable blank canvas upon which some execs can create an empty simulation of 'edginess', 'rawness', plus of course looking somewhat sexually desirable, and having a face that doesn't look weird when singing.
In the old days of cassettes etc., small labels were part of an attempt to create a cultural antidote that all that stuff, and it coincided with a yet-to-be-explored sonic terrain. I hadn't even heard of EDM until I stumbled back into making music quite recently, but it seems to me to represent a moment when all that sonic exploration has been distilled and then applied to ringtone-like musical structures, and the results seem to meld with e.g. YouTube 'fitness industry' channels... it's almost like the ultimate background music that could be pasted anywhere, but mostly on channels featuring men on steroids walking around Dubai or the Gold Coast, making 'content' of a lifestyle which is funded by making the content of the lifestyle.
Similarly, K-Pop is quite sophisticated in terms of sound design and production, and has clearly digested all the innovations that came from electronic music, and applied them in the most cynical and calculated way. I can be both horrified by the uncanny lack of human feeling/sentiment and also impressed with the way the songs are constructed at the same time.

So I wonder if small labels now represent mostly a sort of nostalgia, styles that can still provide some sort of social glue but which aren't really part of any sort of innovation any more? Maybe I'm being too pessimistic? Is it all just nostalgia for more earnest times?