

Crowd-funded record label - brandonjrobins
http://ourlabel.com

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enemieslist
I run a small record label, one that I'd like to think acknowledges all the
realities of trying to make and sell music in the post-Napster age.

My problem with something like this is, I suppose, my problem with Talent
Shows, or "Vote For Your Favorite Artist!" contests on MTV, or American Idol:
the wisdom of the crowds when applied to aesthetics produces inane garbage.

The purpose of art is to expand the human experience. Good bands shock and
surprise you, give you new sensations in new ways. The best musicians produce
intensely personal expressions of their own emotional reality, to which people
with similar internal clockwork respond.

Bring everyone together to see which music they can agree on, and what they
will end up picking is the average of all their emotional experiences, the
music which relates only the most accessible and universal of concerns. Sorry,
but even impeccably-crafted boring music is still boring.

To bring this down to Earth a bit: the future of music is disintegration, not
centralization. It makes no sense for me to compete for eyeballs in a crowded
marketplace when I can set up my own download site overnight and start getting
in touch with blogs that directly address people who like the music I play.

Music will continue to niche down and atomize until there are taste-makers,
distribution channels, and a healthy community of artists for every possible
genre and sub-genre. My "conversion rate," so to speak, will be much higher on
sites like these than it would be in giant competitive marketplaces like the
one linked above.

~~~
brandonjrobins
OurLabel is not trying to be a online Talent Show, or even a "Vote for your
Favorite Artist" contest. Instead it is a platform for artists to crowd-source
the funding and promotion of their recording projects as well as a service
that artists can use to gain support in the production, marketing, publishing,
and distribution of their project. To put it in terms of things that already
exists, its MySpace + Kickstarter + various support services + CDBaby.

Its not about bringing people together to see music they can agree on. Its
about showcasing music of all types and letting people who are interested in,
and/or fans of that music support it from start/finish.

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wccrawford
Not interested in signup forms. They're boring. Post when you actually have
content.

~~~
sixtofour
This is as good a thread as any to say this:

I'm getting tired of these "launch to gauge interest or collect potential
users" pages.

I've seen a lot of discussion and encouragement of these things, here on HN
and related sites, within the last few months. It sounds like great advice and
a good practice. It may even work. I signed up for one or two when I first
started seeing them, in the context of "Oh, this is what those HN posts are
talking about."

I don't bother anymore.

When I land on one of these, it leaves me absolutely cold. I click on a link
because I'm interested, even excited in rare cases. These things throw cold
water on me. "Here's a cool thing! ... But we'll show it to you later. !"

But that's me. If they work, great, I suppose. Maybe I'm not part of the
desired demographic.

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ethank
Here's a question:

What is your product? What value are you adding to the mix between a fan and
an artist? How are you going to gauge success of that product? What metrics
will you use to define what "success" is?

Are you there to be A&R? Crowdsource A&R? Promotions? Marketing? Publicity?
Management?

What piece of the value chain do you want to lay claim to?

To echo a similar sentiment: labels, and actually more A&R (since they aren't
all in labels) exist to elevate things from the mediocrity of the commons by
virtue of the balance of taste and business. The best A&R guys right now?
Lawyers and managers.

~~~
aelani
Thanks, those are great questions.

OurLabel is a platform that brings fans into the music-making process from
discovery to funding to promotion. That covers a few different aspects of a
traditional label. You could say it is crowdsourcing A&R. It is also
crowdsourcing publicity by incentivizing fans to promote the releases via
their social media channels. OurLabel plans to share 25% of net income from
releases to fans who helped promote it (in the form of rewards such as music
downloads, merchandise, concert tickets, etc.).

OurLabel is also a free service to funded artists in that it helps in the
execution of the project by connecting the artists with the right resources
(whether it be production, marketing, legal, distribution, etc.). OurLabel
DOES NOT manage the artist. Also, it is important to note that this is done on
an as-needed basis. We give artists all the freedom they want as well as the
support they want.

To us, success is measured by getting new music, commissioned by fans, out to
the market. We certainly take an active role in marketing the releases and aim
to maximize their value, as it is in the collective interest of the artists,
fans, and us that the releases sell more copies, get more licensing deals,
etc.

------
folke
Check out <http://www.sonicangel.com/> which is very similar and started last
year. They are already quite successful.

~~~
brandonjrobins
True, SonicAngel is very similar, but there are some huge differences as well,
one of which is that every artist/band has an opportunity to produce an album
if they raise the funds to do so. With SonicAngel you have to essentially be
discovered/signed with SonicAngel to take advantage of the crowd-funding and
some other site features.

------
Tichy
I don't understand what it is needed for. What does a record label do these
days? Not counting the few people who still want to buy actual records.

~~~
aelani
The key here is the hybrid-model (think Kickstarter + traditional label).
Labels promote their artists. Very few artists succeed in do-it-yourself
models like Kickstarter. They may be able to raise the money needed to record
an album, but do they have the resources and expertise to market it on their
own?

Secondly, getting the fans involved in the whole process is interesting
(especially when they can derive rewards from their engagement). There are a
lot of big music fans out there that would love to have a say and a piece in
the action.

