Paying netlabels?

pheek · Post by **pheek** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:21 pm

adhesif wrote: i can agree with wot your fundamentaly saying with regards to keeping the music free of compromising markets and the free flow of ideas, but i dont think its unique to net labels.
dont misunderstand me, im into netlabels, aslong as i like the music,
but the ideas and the culture they claim to be spearheading is nothing new, its just a different format, the sharing of artistic ideas etc is nothing new! the internet is a powerful tool but its just one tool available within the toolbox!

Yeah well, i think before 2005 there was maybe 100 netlabels and last year, we saw appearing new ones each week. It won't be long before this trend will be nothing special at all. I mean, almost every artist can basically start its netlabel. So sooner or later, that term will be meaning less and less powerfull. I think the advantage of paying for something is, it gives us the power of prosposing something out of the ordinary.

That is the objective of the people I know who will go in that direction.

So far, the only music I pay for is on Beatport and in 2005, I bought about 5 CDs but many 12". I will buy music I know I will play and am proud of supporting artists who I appreciate. I love Beatport, I just wish I could buy directly from the labels though. But then, yeah, maybe then it's not a Netlabel anymore.. it's just an "online label" as someone suggested. Fine with me.

People don't need to buy records. It's old fashioned, not environment friendly and it makes no sense

The more I think about it, the more it's obvious I can't agree with that. I just had a meeting regarding a CD I want to put out and I have to say that creating an object, building it from nothing to a final product is a lot of fun.

People are not obliged to buy it but for IMO, I love to get something and feel all the hard work in it. It's art damn it! Is there room for that or not?

isa · Post by **isa** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:33 pm

adhesif wrote:the internet is a powerful tool but its just one tool available within the toolbox!

the internet is the future. it's the fastest, the best and cheapest tool so far

pheek · Post by **pheek** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:00 pm

isabella wrote:
adhesif wrote:the internet is a powerful tool but its just one tool available within the toolbox!
the internet is the future. it's the fastest, the best and cheapest tool so far

Yeah sure. So there's no option for art or conceptual projects for you?

This kinda sound like "being musician is not a real job", like my dad says.

entropy · Post by **entropy** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:37 pm

This kinda sound like "being musician is not a real job", like my dad says.

Greets from Croatia, everyone!

Yeah, that's the same thing my dad says, or like my mum, ''it'll get over you, it's just a phase...''

But as for the topic...
I think that netlabels should be and stay free, 'cause it is the main thing everyone knows them for... If someone would like to get payed for his music, and if he thinks his music is good enough for that, then he should try realising something on a real label, on 12"!
Or otherwise, if someone would like to have a label for who's music would people pay for, then he should make a real label, realising 12", and always the music (he thinks) is the best...

After all, 12" (at least for me) is like a sacred thing, it can't be compared to cd's or mp3s. I like it much more when i say a DJ using vinyl than cds or a laptop, or combining vinyl and laptop (FS) like Hawtin used to do. But as for me, i'll never be playing just on a laptop or just on cd's, there'll always be vinyl... because they're like a totem to me

But that's another story, sorry for the offtopic...

steevio · Post by **steevio** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:38 pm

pheek wrote:
isabella wrote:People don't need to buy records. It's old fashioned, not environment friendly and it makes no sense
The more I think about it, the more it's obvious I can't agree with that. I just had a meeting regarding a CD I want to put out and I have to say that creating an object, building it from nothing to a final product is a lot of fun.

People are not obliged to buy it but for IMO, I love to get something and feel all the hard work in it. It's art damn it! Is there room for that or not?

Again i would take the middle ground on this issue, i agree with pheek that alot of the satisfaction i get from running a record label comes from the process as a whole, the creation of an art object from an idea to a physical thing of beauty. Some but not all of that is lost in the digital realm, but the production of vinyl particularly is an unbelievably toxic and energy hungry process, and thats before you even start to think about moving heavy chunks of plastic around the world in dirty fuel burning trucks and planes. Maybe in some western countries, where environmental issues have been largely ignored by the government and are therefore not part of the collective conscious of that society, it wouldnt be seen as a problem, but the storm clouds are gathering, i dont think art should be given exemption
I love vinyl, it's an absolute pleasure to own and play, it's tactile and analogue, no digital sound ever comes close to it, I even like the smell of it, but as technology progresses it is inevitable that change will come.
It's up to us now to rethink our product and packaging and come up with something which satisfies all these different criteria

I think it is amazing that there is such a thing as a free netlabel, and i'm glad to be part of it, but there is room for physical art to, there is room for choice, and variety in form. Too often people think their way is the only way, their situation is universal, in several posts i've read that a few hundred bucks is nothing, try telling that to someone in the third world who could feed his family for a year on that. Our cast off computers are being reconditioned and sent to the developing third world, what then ?
To be honest, a few hundred bucks is a lot of money to me ! although i live in the affluent west, my government steals most of my money in various taxes to pay for upgrading it's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and financing wars, building unecessary roads etc. I can feed my family for a month on a 'few hundred bucks'
I see the internet as a liberating force, an instrument of peaceful revolution. Like many of you I feel that I dislike living in a world of greed, so giving for free is a powerful gesture, but we should also be looking at using the power of the web to create stable structures to support the creative amongst us, because otherwise we are given little respect.
I would agree with Rad, giving music for free massively increases coverage, and that in the end you dont loose out, but the rewards come much quicker if you live in a big city like London, where it is possible to use this networking directly by putting on events, not so where i live in Wales where our kind of music is completely obscure. I can imagine that my scenario is typical of a lot of musicians around the world. There isnt always a ready made infrastructure to tap into on your doorstep.
Why dont we all get our heads together and put on a big free netlabel event or festival ????

rad · Post by **rad** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:59 pm

adhesif wrote: the internet is a powerful tool but its just one tool available within the toolbox!

fully aggree. as much as I am enthusiastic about the netlabel concept, as much I believe in physical products, how great is it to carry home that beautiful vinyl, which i paid with my lunch money;)

so, "answering" pheek, I do think/aggree that there will allways be space for physical products, cos we all love touching & owning these things.

rad · Post by **rad** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:07 pm

steevio wrote: Why dont we all get our heads together and put on a big free netlabel event or festival ????

Is happening

I am currently working on a festival project for September this year in London. Aiming to promote the netlabel idea, its activists... but also build bridges to traditional music sector, showing mutual benefits.

We are working on an info page at the moment... should come out be the end of this month...

steevio · Post by **steevio** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:49 pm

rad wrote:
steevio wrote: Why dont we all get our heads together and put on a big free netlabel event or festival ????
Is happening I am currently working on a festival project for September this year in London. Aiming to promote the netlabel idea, its activists... but also build bridges to traditional music sector, showing mutual benefits.

We are working on an info page at the moment... should come out be the end of this month...

awesome !!