Small Labels and the Side Hustle Pt. 3
It’s been a great few days reading over the responses from the various labels who’ve been so kind to share a quick thought on who they are and why they do what they do. It’s a great view at all the hard-working individuals putting their life into music. Today we’ve got Forged Artifacts, Emotional Response, Spare the Rock, My Little Empire and Dadstache.
Emotional Response run by Jen and Stew, Boyracer, etc.
How many releases?
90
How long have you been running?
5 years
Whats your day job?
I work at Whole Foods, on the Salad Bar.
How do you balance the two?
Not easily. I work early, 6am usually, so get up at 430am. And I get home around 3pm. By which time I struggle to find the energy to chase up label stuff, packing records and trying to get press etc
What unexpected challenges have you faced running a label?
Digital Vs. Physical. We sold 20 times as many records when we ran 555 Recordings, previously, 15 years ago. There just aren’t the outlets to sell physical product anymore. The people who bought records are aging out and there aren’t any new younger people interested in owning physical product. Our main distros are ordering less and less. Its interesting to me, seeing our label becoming a little better known, that we have actually seen a drop in sales at the same time.
Whats the most important thing you’d impart on folks wanting to start labels?
Don’t expect to make your money back anytime soon! If you love it, great! Go for it. But it will suck all your spare time and spare cash. 8)Whats your biggest success? As a label, not necessarily a release that got big. I think the connections with friends we have made and continue to make. That’s the important part of it all.
Anything else to share?
I hate to be all doom and gloom, but I think the world of physical product is coming to an end. As someone who has been releasing records since 1991, I have begun to ponder whether its worth even trying to continue making physical product. I think people would be surprised to learn how few records are actually sold in the world of indie these days.
Forged Artifacts owned and run by Matt Linden in Minneapolis, MN.
How many releases?As of typing this, we’re planned out to FA082.
How long have you been running?Summer of 2012.
Whats your day job?Business Analyst at a tech company in Minneapolis.
How do you balance the two?Typically, I’ll leave work and go right back to work in my home office. Some days will be off days, some days I’ll put in another 4-5 hours once I get home from my job. It all depends on my release calendar, mail order, etc. I’m fortunate enough to be able to quick tasks – mostly emailing – when I’m at my day job if something comes up. It can take up a lot of time having a passion project where other people are relying on you. It can be stressful, but you need to be fulfilled by your passion projects otherwise there’s no reason to do it. I’ve also gotten pretty creative about my mail order. For about 5 years running I’ve gone to USPS every Saturday morning, but now I’ll break that up and go during my lunch hour downtown.
What unexpected challenges have you faced running a label?It’s all about the money. You want to give all your artists the world, but running a small label has its limits. It’s all about knowing how to work within those limits and not oversell or outstretch yourself. Be able to take a step back and look at the big picture. Also, you’re going to screw up and make mistakes — that’s OK. Just learn from each one and reach out to your peers who have gone through them before. For the most part, these are gracious people who will give you some advice, when time allows. Understand that these small labels are maybe only one person at the helm, like Forged Artifacts.
Buy music, go to shows, tell bands you love them. A little encouragement and well wishes go a long way.
Spare the Rock Records by Bill Childs
How many releases?
Four (three of them physical releases, one digital-only). All of them have been benefit family-oriented compilations with primarily new material.
Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti, benefiting the Haitian Peoples Support Project
Science Fair, themed around and benefiting girls science education at Girls Inc.
Keep Hoping Machine Running (digital only): Woody Guthrie covers, benefiting the Woody Guthrie Foundation
Let All The Children Boogie, Bowie covers benefiting It Gets Betters LGBTQ youth services/support
The records have raised over $160,000 in total for the non-profits.
How long have you been running?
Since 2010.
Whats your day job?
Attorney
How do you balance the two?
I’ve partnered with Virtual Label to handle a lot of the day to day parts of the label, which has been super helpful. The releases are all compilations, so that has added a whole additional level of complication.
What unexpected challenges have you faced running a label?
I guess it isn’t super unexpected, but getting artists to get songs recorded by particular deadlines can be a real adventure. But I’ve been so thrilled with how enthusiastic people are at supporting vital efforts to improve the world.
Whats the most important thing you’d impart on folks wanting to start labels?
Make sure you have the personal capacity/infrastructure for dealing with the business side of it, which is not nearly as much fun as the art side of it. For me, partnering with Virtual Label has been just totally essential to that.
Whats your biggest success? As a label, not necessarily a release that got big.
I’ve been so glad to release increasingly weird records for kids and families, and to get some of my musical heroes involved: Babe the Blue OX, Ted Leo, Pete Seeger, Mates of State, Jon Langford & Sally Timms, and so on in doing so. And the fact that they’ve resulted in real money for amazing non-profits has just been a thrill.
Anything else to share?
Find out more about them under the Label tab atsparetherock.com!
How many releases?
Were up to 36 releases according to our catalogue system! These span from LP/EP physical releases on CD and vinyl (tapes – were coming for you) as well as multitude of digital singles.
How long have you been running?
Adam and I started the label back in November 2014. We both worked at the same company and he was the only person I could persuade to be my plus one to all the obscure gigs I was covering in inconvenient bits of East London (I used to write for The 405, London in Stereo, Goldflakepaint etc). While sitting through yet another brilliant support band with about three people in the room we decided wed see what we could do to support this scene and My Little Empire was born.
Whats your day job?
We work loosely in media/advertising. We used to both be in London, but I recently moved down to Bristol for a more chilled lifestyle and closer proximity to a copious supply of mature cheddar. We both had aspirations of working for a major label, but couldn’t really afford the whole unpaid internship thing, but I’m proud that we’ve managed to find our own creative space with what were doing.
How do you balance the two?
I’m not going to lie, its a struggle sometimes when things are really busy around release dates. We’ve both also recently got married and generally have a bit more adult responsibility, but we still make plenty of time for the label as its something we both love to do. Practically, we try to space out releases so its manageable and split the day-to-day label jobs so its not too overwhelming for either of us.
What unexpected challenges have you faced running a label?
I think the hardest challenge as a label has been dealing with the relentless rejection of blogs and sites. I totally get it, having written for various blogs in the past and have nothing but respect for what they do, but it can be pretty demoralizing emailing hundreds of people and only getting a handful of responses back. I wouldnt say Ive come up with a good way of dealing with it sadly, but in reality Ive just got more used to it.
Whats the most important thing youd impart on folks wanting to start labels?
Id suggest meeting with other independent labels when youre starting out. When we started I was worried independent labels would feel like theyre in competition with each other, but that was simply not the case – its such a nice community. We got some invaluable help and advice from labels like Audio Antihero, Yucatan and Holy Roar when we were starting out, asking for nothing in return. Id totally recommend other people try the same and learn from the brilliant, talented and passionate people running independent labels.
Whats your biggest success? As a label, not necessarily a release that got big.
I think I’m probably most proud of Everything Before by Pip Hall. Its the first full length record we’ve put out as a label and is essentially a collection of her incredible singles weve put out with her over the past couple of years. It was the sound of a teenage artist finding her voice and the all the pitfalls along the way. Hearing them all those tracks in one place made me so proud and reinforced what an unbelievably talent she is. Its been really encouraging that we got support from blogs we love like DIY and Clash as well as radio play on the likes of 6Music, Radio 1 and Radio X. Obviously the most important thing is to put something out into the world which you are genuinely passionate about and think is important, but its always nice to see how much it means to other industry people who champion brilliant music.
Anything else to share?
If our words or those of the other labels here have inspired you to start a label then let us know; wed be happy to share whatever weve learnt along the way.
Also, listen to James by Pip Hall – that track (in true Garden State style) will change your life.
How many releases ?
40+
5 and a half years
Whats your day job?
My day job is as a Software Engineer doing full stack web development. I work on websites – from what the user sees to how the software that interacts with a site’s database works and everything in between.
For the most part I keep label stuff to lunch breaks and after work and weekends, or wherever I can squeeze time in to get work done. I’ve been lucky enough that usually I don’t have to work too much overtime, but it can be stressful running back and forth between the two. I try to keep set times for things like packing and shipping orders so that I can always schedule things around that and work, but sometimes you have to answer emails from your desk or solve a last minute problem with art proofs or premieres. It seems like there’s always a back and forth where the label bleeds into my regular job and vice versa, so it’s definitely always feels like it’s a work in progress keeping things balanced.
What unexpected challenges have you faced running a label?
Whats the most important thing youd impart on folks wanting to start labels?
Whats your biggest success? As a label, not necessarily a release that got big.
For all the headaches that come with running a label, basically having two full time jobs, all the rejection you face, there’s really nothing I’d rather do more.