I don’t understand how anyone is signed, how anyone gets coverage, or how anyone succeeds.

TikTok dominates label marketing conversations, but some digitally savvy acts are having more success seeding their music through Instagram memes – Rolling Stone

The most likely way to get signed/get coverage/succeed nowadays is to memetize your creation (better yet have someone else memetize it). Music business (just like any other business) largely moved away from actual people (aka A&R) being involved in the process and letting the algorithms decide (cough cough Spotify). Yes, there is a handful of great indie labels where people still make decisions, but we’re definitely not talking anyone the critical size/weight of 4AD here – think someone like Washington’s Verses Records or LA’s Doom Trip instead.

I more just want to express, and re-express ad infinity, my genuine and earnest lack of comprehension why some bands get signed by mega-indie labels and covered by all the same sites, while other acts like Slum of Legs or Nuha Ruby Ra or Chronophage or Ganser or Desperate Journalist or Big Joanie or any number of bands that, to my ears, work the same territory just as well, get barely any coverage or signings (at least in comparison)?

Keyword seem to be randomness – yes, a lot more of it these days and, again, I’m looking at the influence of algorithms/memes here. Counterpoint – “its not longer the 90s and you can have a career in music by working hard”.

Why, yes – no one is denying the importance of hard work, but hard work by itself can only get you so far. While its true that music business was always super competitive (as evident from Decline of Western Civilization, Part 2), by now the competitiveness also seem to go hand in hand with increased randomness as to who goes into the next round/gets a glowing Pitchfork/Needle Drop review and who remains underground for eternity (lauded as they might be). There’s only so much space at the top and the said space seem to be shrinking constantly thanks to increasing automation of modern business/world at large.

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Tape

Lets do a show of hands – how many of you have tape/cassette player at home?

First 6 responders might get a little gift from me pic.twitter.com/MPfJ4qDbXw

— Billy Joel / France is Bacon / Bryan Eno (@Iheartnoise) January 18, 2017

Reading: The Art of Cassettes: 5 More Tape Labels That Get It Right
Pros: portable/easy to carry around, low-risk investment compared to vinyl/CDs
Cons: seen as an archaic/outdated format by general public, poor fit as a merch item
 
Common assumption is that there’s one reason to put out new music on tape – and that is to cater to hipsters. The reality is that tapes represent the most low-risk investment of all physical formats. As gimmicky as it may seem, putting out 50 to a 100 tape copies of a record by a promising, but little known new artist beats investing few thousand dollars (and few months of waiting) into a vinyl version of the same (unless, of course, you have money burning a hole through your pocket).
Historical Note – in 2000s CDr started emerging as a common format for small/indie labels (see NY Times article on Smithsonian Folkways from 2003 as a proof). It wasn’t until the arrival of Burger Records in 2008 that tapes  started coming into the picture as a contender.

Vinyl

I'm curious – how do small labels put out vinyl these days?

Co-releases? Fundraisers?

— Billy Joel / France is Bacon / Bryan Eno (@Iheartnoise) April 9, 2019

Reading: Unspooling the Thread: Vinyl and Indie Labels
Pros: high sound quality / preferred choice of audiophiles, well suited as a merch item
Cons: price / production time
 
As stated above – this is thee format you should go for as a label/artist as long as you understand considerable risks associated with production of vinyl.  Namely – it is very expensive to produce and it might also take a couple of months before you’ll see any results as vinyl pressing plants are currently stretched to capacity.
Historical note – the reason why vinyl production became so undemocratic leads all the way back into the 90s. Back then CD was a dominating format and as a result vinyl plants were abandoned. Operating those is not easy, nor do they come affordable, and as of this writing the only option for producing vinyl at home is Phonocut (still in its Kickstarter phase as of late 2019).

CD

Lets talk about CDs, then

Do people still buy new music on CDs? Is it a worthwhile investment for a new label?

— Billy Joel / France is Bacon / Bryan Eno (@Iheartnoise) November 10, 2019

Pros: high sound quality, well suited as a merch item
Cons: expensive to produce
 
Rather mysteriously compact discs dropped out of favor with the buying public over the last 10 years or so (Target stopped carrying them, for one). Partially, the blame could be laid on streaming, but streaming also did not affect vinyl sales and the fact remains – few people seem to be open to the idea of buying new music on CD.
Historical note – first introduced by Phillips and Sony, CD dominated the sales for much of the 80s and 90s. With the rising popularity of mp3 format and p2p networks (as well as as a subsequent destruction of the old music business model) this is no longer the case, though some predict the reemergence of the format in the next decade.
 

Conclusion

So what kinds of options does an independent label/artist not tied to a major have as far as physical formats go at the end of 2019?
Tapes – best suited for releases that have a small audience.
Vinyl – best suited for mid to large sized releases/artists.
CDs – inconclusive.Currently out of favor with buying public, but that could change in the near future.
Another format worth considering is MiniDisc, something that our sister label Fish Prints in specializing in. Read a guide on transferring mp3s to MiniDisc that Petridisch wrote for Musics the Hangup blog.

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This September marks an important milestone – a year age Pitchfork published its exposé of tape labels that get their graphic design right. Here’s a sorely needed update of that article with our own picks of 5 more labels that got their design/art right.

Eggs in Aspic

In last year’s interview with Echoes and Dust Andrew Fenwick, head honcho of this young UK label, explained how his approach to design is radically different from others

There are some great labels out their that have a definite design aesthetic running through their catalog (Astral Spirits, A Giant Fern, Never Anything etc.) and I’m a big fan of that, but I actually tend to treat each release as a unique entity so the concept for the artwork is essentially a separate creative process for each. The artwork for Grotto was created by Belgium’s mighty Robin Van Oyen and we’re working with some other great graphic designers on the upcoming releases. The plan is to build a collective of like-minded contributors.

Its been nearly a year since the interview and the label clearly kept its word – it now boasts more than 10 releases from bands spanning the globe and the artwork is as unique as the music contained within. Some of the recent contributors/artists include Rhys Bloodjoy associate Rogue Bear and Graeme “Grassy” Hopper, musician and visual artist who worked with Field Music and Mogwai/Rock Action Records.

Many of the labels releases come with special inserts inside including pin badges, printouts of lyrics and candy of different flavors (licorice, Bubs Swedish raspberry, pink and white mice).

Dinzu Artefacts 

Joe McKay is one busy man – not only he’s a sound artist (recording under the nom de plume Monte Burrows), but also a visual one (his artwork graced releases by Arts & Crafts / Geweih Ritual Documents). Joe started Spring Break Tapes in 2011 and DA was born as an offshoot of that label in 2016.

Dinzu Artefacts motto is “Sound as an art form” and on his website Joe describes the process of tape artwork creation as “always a fun and challenging process trying to find the right imagery to fit the artist’s music”.
Art on DA releases is mostly done by Joe, although the label also employed help of contributing artists including Paulina Okninska (who also worked with Wounded Knife, Jasien and Bolt labels) Simon Christoph Krenn and Eirik Steinsrud.

Cabin Floor Esoterica

Established in 2009, this small Ohio label run by Jordan Spencer is still running strong as of 2017. CFE is known as much for its devotion to strange sounds, obscure artists and (occasionally extremely) limited edition tape runs as it is for its visual identity.
To wit – Melted Morton tape from 2011 features no case, while countless other tapes come with all inserts ranging from dry fern to feather tassels to rusted screws. There’s also a heavy emphasis on photography and abstract collages – a subtle reminder of Painted Door Press, Joe’s other venture dedicated to poetry and written stories.

Never Anything

As NA founder Jeff Lane (who also records under the name Tereshkova) explains in his interview with Tabs Out, the label and its visual aesthetic are inseparable:

“Clay Mahn did the artwork and decided on the template for the first batch. He’s the engineer of our aesthetic. We talked a lot about the look of the tapes, and from the beginning, we knew we wanted a strong, fairly minimal design that continued from batch to batch and also allowed for variation while still remaining within our established visual context.”

Where other labels employ photography or collage NA’s visual focus is pure minimalism and abstract patterns/shapes with design direction being influenced by a German label Wergo Records.

Already Dead Tapes and Records

With a whopping 264 releases since their inception in 2009, AD have honed a unique design standard simply by, in the words of label founder Josh Tabbia, “avoiding routine. I do this as much for the design aspect as the community and music, and I love coming up with new ways to house cassettes and interpret the format. If I design several ‘non-traditional’ packages in a row I get just as board with that as if I were doing j-cards all the time. Design wise, I want the label to embody diversity and variety from release to release.”
Some of the more interesting design choices have included stamped brown paper bags (for Anybody But The Cops’ “The Shape of Punk To-Go”) to a totally see-through tape and O-card printing (for Matthew Dotson’s Revolution/Circumvention”). The ‘standard’ AD design is also of note, with a unique spine indicator a la library cataloging, and non-uniform tape color and labeling work.

Honorable Mentions

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