Thanks for your netlabel

We got in touch with the folks behind the conceptual project Thanks for your your netlabel for a chat on what their project was about and the state of the netaudio scene. Mikel Nieto and Blanca Rego were kind enough to answer Filipe a few questions.
Can you tell us a little about yourselves? Who are you, where are you from and what do you do for a living?
Blanca: My name is Blanca. I am from Galicia. I usually work with video but I also do some audio stuff, not really music, only noise, because I can’t make music.
So are you an artist? How do you make a living?
Blanca: I don’t consider myself an “artist”, I don’t like some of the implications of that label. I don’t know if I want to be an “artist”. Besides, it’s really difficult to make a living doing these kind of things, so I have a job. I work as a translator. I didn’t study anything related to translation, but I translate things related to video, photography and sound.
What about you, Mikel?
Mikel: My name is Mikel, I am from the Basque Country. I work with sound, mainly with field recordings, soundscapes and that kind of stuff. I create different projects around those subjects. I’ve worked with Blanca in several projects, like this one, “Thanks for your netlabel”. I like her work because it’s very clear.
So what do you do for a living?
Mikel: We have an art centre here, called Arteleku and I work here on Hots Radio. I coordinate contents and curate, and things like that, working on the soundmap of the Basque Country, which is soinumapa. I also organize concerts to get by.
How did you first come across netaudio?
Mikel: I can’t remember exactly but I think that my first reference in netaudio was maybe addSensor or Plataforma LTW, which I think was the first netlabel here in Spain. I think they are my first references, addSensor is probably one of my biggest references.
Your project “Thanks for your netlabel” is not really a netlabel, is it? Can you tell us a little more about it?
Mikel: We made this project because we wanted to talk about netlabels, we spent one year publishing different posts about netlabels on mediateletipos. And we thought it would be interesting to just make a website with all the information we collected, so we began to make it and to try to put references to different important projects related to netlabels.
It feels like a history of the netlabel scene somehow…
Mikel: Yes, but it’s not like a true history of netlabels, just some references that we consider interesting. We didn’t intend to reflect Netlabels History. All the references that we included are just a proposal.
Fair enough, well, it’s still quite interesting.
Mikel: Thank you!
Can you tell me more about the sound and the artwork of the releases? Is it made using some sort of generative algorithm?
Blanca: I don’t know if you can call it generative really, because I didn’t do any coding or anything like that. If you have a raw file, it doesn’t matter if it’s audio or image, you can open it in an audio or image software, and save it as an image or as a sound. That’s all I did here.
I didn’t realize it was just the raw file of the seed! Did you do any selection, like trying different options and picking the best result?
Blanca: Not in this case, no. You have to make some decisions because the method is not completely automatic, but most of the time you don’t know what is happening, it’s just chance.
So you’re into noise aesthetics?
Blanca: I am interested in that kind of rendering and some glitch stuff, and I also like noise, yes, but not just this kind of digital noise.
There is large divide in the noise and glitch art, between the more conceptual kind of approach and artists who are trying to use those aesthetics for emotional works. How do you fit in this?
Blanca: Most of the time when I do these kind of things, converting one file into another, is just an experiment, so it’s much more a conceptual thing than anything else. In this case I didn’t choose anything, Mikel gave me a list and I just did it. But sometimes when I do it for myself I try it a lot of times and I choose what I like better.
What can you tell me about the netaudio scene in Spain?
Mikel: I don’t know exactly, maybe it’s the same in Portugal or Italy, but here in Spain seems that there isn’t a big stem of netlabels anymore, because there is Bandcamp and that kind of platforms, which are working better with the artists, because they want to sell their music, and that’s it. I don’t know if this means that netlabels are dead or not.
Bandcamp and Soundcloud are currently very big in acceptance, but don’t you think the curational work that the netlabels provide is still important?
Mikel: That’s a good question. I don’t know if it’s important or not, but for example one of our seeds for this project is bajarmusica.tk, which was a great netlabel and now it’s closed. They just published everything. If you wanted to publish some of your stuff, you just sent an email to them and they will publish everything. They didn’t care about it was interesting or not. For me this is a very interesting point of view on netlabels. David Nemeth also talks about this topic, how curation still works on netlabels, and that netlabels sometimes just publish everything, which results in some of their releases not being very good or worth hearing.
I think this topic is very interesting, there was a big boom and after that I think there were a lot of netlabels that were working a lot, publishing a lot of music. And the listeners couldn’t listen to everything, it was crazy. Now Bandcamp and that kind of platforms works better with the artist, without any curator work, directly. On Bandcamp you can publish your music and sell it. But some artists are not mainly interested in selling, they care more about the political position of some licensing, having it available in public domain.
For me it’s very interesting how the netlabels have maybe lost the power on how they publish everything, or how they publish music. Anyway, netlabels are not closing because of Bandcamp, it’s more like a hiatus. It’s an interesting moment. I think netlabels have to change, they need a change right now.
In the boom of the netlabel scene there was always this mention to how netlabels enabled a sort of democratization of the music industry. Providing easy access to the masses to listen to all kinds of indie artists and niche genres. That brought on a wave of releases, as you mentioned, more than anyone could listen to. And in that sense the way netlabels could distinguish themselves was through the curation work. Do you think that has changed?
Mikel: I think the question is for the curators themselves, if they make sense right now, in the netlabels. Because listeners do that work, they are also curators. When we want to find new music we just type in Google and that’s it. Or maybe a friend sends you an email and you listen to that and see if it’s interesting. Then we make that selection. So, do netlabels really need the curators work? Or do the listeners just want make their own selections?
Listeners tend to be attached to what they already know and won’t search out of the box. I think curators still make sense as a reference that people can follow for discovering new music of good quality.
Mikel: It could be.
An experimental approach in this field was this project where a webradio would play music anonymously, so people wouldn’t know what artist is playing, just focus on if they like it or not. And they would just trust if the webradio was good or not.
Mikel: Yeah, that is also very interesting. But then there is the question if we want to listen to music in that position. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good proposal, it works very well theoretically. But not in practical terms, because we want to listen to big artists. We want those names. We like the big artists. We love it.
Anyway, I think when we are listening to music we are already making the curators work, and we just want, for example, to find music that connects with our friends. The socialization of music is possible to function.
Blanca: But that is not something new…
Mikel: No, it’s not new, we were mentioning David Nemeth before and he also talk about this, how we served our music with vinyls 30 years ago, and in the 80s with the cds. We spent a lot of time listening to the same cds with our friends. Now it’s the same, we want to find new music with our friends. The question for me here is if the curator is needed for this or not, and then if it makes sense or not. Because I think the main point of the netlabels is to serve music (and for free, without money). And when you serve music online, it’s very different from serving music on k7 or cds. Online everyone can take your music and make another thing with it, you know? They listen and then they can make something new. And I think that’s very interesting, that’s the most important part of netlabels: listen, no money, take it if you like it and make another thing out of it.
So are platforms like Bandcamp the future for the music industry?
Mikel: Bandcamp is the present. The music industry is different from the netlabels. Netlabels are about sharing music. Music industry is about money. They build very comfortable and pretty websites to sell music. They build an industry around music.
Netlabels are just about sharing. This reminds me of a documentary I recently watched called “Downloaded”, it was about Napster, how they were fore-fronting what people wanted (to easily share music online) and how the music industry completely failed to make any agreement with them to evolve their business model to meet the technology.
Mikel: Yes, it’s just like Napster, we want to share, we don’t care about the money.
And my question is, aren’t we, with the netlabel movement, somewhat forcing the music industry to adapt itself? Making them come closer to what the listeners want in terms of technology? What’s the future for this clash of worlds?
Mikel: Hmmm, We must understand that the music industry is always following new things, new models, new systems, just to get money. They just serve Napster or the way Napster serves music to get money. It’s not related to netlabels or netaudio ideology at all.
So what is the future?
Mikel: In the future all the people will just make their own music and share it. We’ll spend a lot of time making music instead of listening to other’s music. I think this is our future: not to listen to music. For example, 1000 downloads mean 1000 listeners? People download music but they are not listening to it.
Yes, lots of times we just download releases, listen to them once and never listen to them again, there is so much music out there, and everyone is a musician, music is so accessible, you yourself can just make the music you like and listen to your own music.
Mikel: It’s very important to think about this. If people don’t want to listen to others music then it’s ok, just listen to your own music. I don’t think this is a problem. Besides, I think some people just want the downloads, not the listeners, because maybe it’s easier to get more concerts with a big number of downloads.
Don’t you think social networks like Soundcloud fulfil that role?
Mikel: I have a Soundcloud account, but I never use it. Do you use Soundcloud for communication? Or to make more social interactions? How many listeners do you have in Soundcloud? Does it work for you?
I know what you mean, I have a Soundcloud account for the label and yes, I mostly just use it to get more followers and announce the releases. But it’s almost like a fake network, I don’t listen to 99% of their work. I doubt many people do.
Mikel: A fake network? It could be. Like MySpace, and MySpace is over now.
Actually…
Blanca: MySpace is not over, it’s making a slight comeback.
Yes, MySpace guys have revamped their site and are getting a little community back. It doesn’t have anywhere near the quantity of active users it used to have, but they are still alive. But yes, they went to shit a few years ago and it was all just fake networks spamming each other. Not much real interaction.
Mikel: Yes, that’s the point: if Soundcloud works or not for real interaction. I don’t think it does.
Before MySpace there was mp3.com, and after MySpace there was last.fm, and lot of other other similar websites. Artists built their fake networks of other artists to spam their releases and count the number of downloads. Not real interaction. Not sharing music with friends.
Mikel: Yes. Not real interaction. Not sharing music with friends.
Well, I think I’m out of questions. Thank you for time!
Mikel: Thanks Filipe for your interest in our project, and for this interview, it’s good to talk about netlabels. We like it and we need to find a different way to make what we love to make.
Blanca: Thank you, bye!

Nostress

Next up on our list of interviews: the curators of Nostress Netlabel based in Palermo, Italy.
la memoria del objeto
Who are the people behind Nostress? Where are you from? What do you do for a living?
Nostress is a Palermitan (Sicily) indie record label that I (Paolino Canzoneri) set up in 2011. We have several key collaborators; Francesco Calabria is the live events manager, while Lorenzo Lunardo and Gaetano D’alessandro, our web masters, enable the site to be compatible with diverse platforms. David Purpura, our main correspondent in London (UK), updates the label with news from the UK: the London scene and major events. I should also mention Luigi Cilento that I have known from the beginning and for the first two years of my musical journey. We all work in the IT world.
When did you first feel the need for creating a netlabel? Why a netlabel and not a regular music label?
Music has always been a passion for me. I started playing drums when I was a young kid. I also played in several groups. I am 47 and was privileged to witness the changes in music across the 70’s, 80’s etc. In particular the introduction of new electronic instruments in the music scene and the ‘birth’ of the digital era. In 2009 I joined a local [Palermo] indie experimental musical scene which was taking off but was restricted by their limited musical choices. After a while I resolved to create a different scene – a more personal one which would also follow local trends but which would mainly focus on global artists and would not be bound by geography. I decided to create an independent label which would not be dictated or affected by the multinational musical corporations. My aim is to produce and promote music, allowing the artists’ freedom of expression and total control of their product. Over the years I set up projects which were produced on several independent netlabels; this enabled me to understand the importance of promoting ‘independently’.
I believe that nowadays there are no major differences between ‘commercial labels’ and ‘netlabels’. The web is integrating these two terms. Nostress is defined as a ‘net-label’ on the web. But it is also a regular music label, as we will publish using vinyl, CD and tapes. We also have a “real” studio with multitracking and mastering.
Were there any other labels that influenced you early on or that you still use as references?
As stated above I was able to contact other netlabels and understood how the phenomenon was developing. Music is far beyond mere business – it is, in my view, pure expressive art. There are a huge number of artists out there who wish to promote their music without monetary reward. Sometimes artists create solely to serve the market. I feel that is far too humiliating, as it hampers creativity and freedom, and endorses a bias in music appreciation, which is far from the audience’s tastes. Netlabel music was established by young people who have little access to financial resources, who take a political stand in challenging the commercial view of music today. At its core the members of netlabels are distributing free music using a licence (Creative Commons) that enables them to download music free, Netlabels enables artists to use them as marketing device to promote their music to major labels who regularly scan netlabels in search of new talent. By doing so, netlabel is able to globally promote all artists, whether they are interested to play in indie style or promote their music in the mainstream market.
What kind of music do you focus on?
Since I was a kid I have been passionately interested in music. My father supported me in developing it further. He would buy me vinyl and would ask my eldest cousin what type of music I liked and which band was worth listening to. Just before one of my birthdays, my cousin told my father to buy me the LP with the picture of a cow on the front. I was nearly 14. Needless to say, this opened up the world of British Progressive Rock for me. I’ll leave you to guess what he bought me. Since then I developed a visceral taste in rock music and kept a close eye on its development over the last 30 years right through the development of electronic music. Nostress Netlabel promotes an experimental approach by musicians moving away from psychedelia; travelling through rock and progressive rock and reaching electronic or electro-acoustic music styles at the end of their journey.
What can you tell us about the netaudio scene in Italy? Are there many netlabels active?
Italy traditionally has imported its music, for example, we have always paid great attention to what is happening in Europe and America. We have never felt envious of non-Italian music, and we have never been overly patriotic toward just listening to ours. The netlabel phenomenon is constantly evolving. In my view it has become a global phenomenon as it not only represents a dimension of Indie music, but has ties with new-socio-political views that represent the thoughts of young people. The netlabel is a web-based forum where diverse musicians can touch base with people who have common views and want to share them. In Italy there are several netlabels which are popular with different artists who are searching for publications and promotion. Here is a map created by Ephedrina Netlaboratorio. (link)
Do you organize local events to promote your work?
To manage a netlabel means maximising the promotion of the artist by organising live concerts in pubs or community centres etc. Nostress Netlabel is capable of organizing such events ad hoc, with a quick turnaround. We can also act as ‘media-partners’ and link artists with other organizations and producers which are web-based. If you check the section events of the ‘site’, it displays all the events and ways to participate on the site. This is a kind of on-the-road section.
What’s your standard procedure for promoting a new release? How do you build up attention? What are your favorite platforms do you promote it on?
We tap into the social networks, in particular Facebook – we also have contacts on blog pages, music fanzines and webzines.
Can you tell us a little more about your latest release?
The latest release is from the Russian artist Andrey Kireyev, who has already published a couple of projects. We are currently participating in an expansion of the Russian musical Avant-garde in its experimental form; in particular bands like T.Bird, ASTMA, Coaxil, etc.
What are your plans for the future?
We are planning to to expand our musical releases by printing on CD glass masters and also vinyl and tapes. We already have a vinyl release out – we are very fond of vinyl! We also have a parallel project called NN LIVE where we attempt to involve as many bands as we can. We are planning to use this platform to run workshops on new musical technologies. Etterem from Milan attended the first meeting in March 2013 at the Garibaldi Theatre in Palermo. It was a beautiful experience.
Any particular release you are most proud of?
After publishing 43 LPs and 21 EPs and 2 compilations of unreleased material (the unreleased tracks are published each year on a netlabel), we are very proud. We are also very lucky in what we achieved so far. We have been focusing on the Palermitan scene and have captured the attention of Palermitan groups like Cinema Noir, Cum Moenia and Echonaif. We value these groups very highly.
We also have a spiritual and intimate side which is expressed by the duo Marco Manzella and Antonella Scalia. Aldo Ammirata and his work, Empirical Evidence, encapsulates experimental music. Aldo has had a timeless number of downloads. One of his live concerts in 2011 was published by Nostress. Moving North we have links with Plasmat, Hortus Conclusus and the experimental avant-garde scene, such as Efficient Refineries, Syrinx, Baumann.electronics, Triton, TÜNEL and Nick Z-gibarian and in Indonesia with Control-Z.
There are loads of others – too many to mention here. We are a great family and would like to sincerely thank everyone involved in Nostress.

Subterranean Tide

Continuing our search for new netlabels to interview we ran into Subterranean Tide, a relatively recent netlabel, focusing on Drone / Ambient / Experimental sounds. we exchanged a few emails with the curator, Emily Ferrell, to get a little insight into how they operate.
Darwin Raymond – Unknown, or Unremembered
Can you tell us a little more about the people behind Subterranean Tide and what they do for a living?
Well, there really are no people, just one person: me I’m type 1 bipolar and I’m on disability so I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. So essentially I do nothing for a living, I have two full time jobs – taking care of my out-of-balance self and being a mom to my 13 year old son.
Why and when did you feel the need to start a netlabel? Why a netlabel and not a “regular” label?
I started the netlabel when my dear friend Darwin Raymond made the suggestion. Being home most of the time, I wanted to do something that might give my life more meaning. My husband Michael Duane Ferrell (aika Elian) brought this sound scene into my life and I wanted to give something back to the community of artists that I’ve come to love. I think regular labels take a lot more money. I needed something I could do for free – kind of like volunteer work. Netlabels are a great place for artists to start out and I’m obsessively in love with the creative commons culture.
Can you tell us a little more about your label’s relation to text and poetry? Do you find them complementary forms of art? Do you think there is a lack of labels that bridge both?
I find most art complimentary. Artists are constantly inspired by other art, we feed off each other, it’s that feeding energy that helps inspire one another. Poetry has always gone hand in hand with music, especially because of the use of voice as an instrument in song writing. It gives direction to the listener – a sort of narration of the music itself. It sets the stage. I don’t think there is a lack of labels that bridge both. Multi-media projects and collaborations are always around.
How does video differ from your label’s relation with text/poetry?
I think video leaves less to the imagination. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective or important.
Are there any labels that you could name as references or influences of yours?
Oh absolutely, Feedback Loop Label as well as the label owner, Leonardo Rosado were a huge influence. I hope I might be able to fill where Feedback may have left off – although, I can only hope Subterranean Tide will be as successful. There are other labels I’ve fallen in love with as well, I adore what Resting Bell has done and love the surrealism of suRRism-Phonoethics that Jaan Patterson has created.
What platforms do you use to promote your new releases?
As many platforms as I can find – but social networking seems to get the best response.
Do you have any contacts or plans for organizing local gigs and promotion events?
Oh gosh, this is something I haven’t thought about yet. Most of the musicians I’ve worked with are from all over the globe – so it might be difficult to localize. But it’s not something I’m against, just haven’t gotten there yet.
Can you tell us about your current latest release?
Bobby Jone’s “Planets With Two Suns Have Black Trees” just came out this week. An electro-acoustic ambient gem. I love this guy’s work and knew it would be an honor to have him on the label – I’m delighted he accepted.
That’s it, thanks for you time! Any last words?
Thanks for this and the opportunity to talk about Subterranean Tide, keep your ears open for more great music to come.

La Manufacture de Bruit

We recently talked with David Vallée of the French netlabel La Manufacture de Bruit to discover a little more on their modus operandi.
Who are the people behind La Manufacture de Bruit? What do they do for a living?
La Manufacture de Bruit was originally created by two persons, Stéphane F. from the French label “Cauldron Music” and myself, David Vallée, from another French label “La Cadera”. We have been working together since 1998, for several projects and collaborations. Cauldron was more oriented towards medieval, folk and neo classical music, La Cadera at the beginning was producing neo-classical and ambient industrial music. Cauldron Music has stopped its activities in the mid-2000’s, La Cadera in 2002, and a few years later, we decided to create a netlabel to release our most important productions for free. La Manufacture de Bruit was firstly created for this, for our old productions not to be forgotten. But quickly we decided to produce other projects as well. At the end of 2012, I decided to continue the netlabel alone.
La Manufacture de Bruit does not generate income, all our productions are free and the label only costs us money! Lucky for us, we have jobs to make a living!
You seem to be very focused on dark ambient / neo classical / ethereal kind of sounds. Is this correct? Why the focus on this genre?
Yes, this is correct. As I wrote it before, our previous labels were already oriented towards these styles of music, even if we like other kind of sounds. Our first music projects were already in these styles (Fin de Siècle for my colleague and Semper Eadem for me), it was natural to follow this way, but not only because of this. We also had the idea not to create a simple netlabel, but instead something covering different arts, like photography, writing, music, videos and films, and we thought theses styles of music are very close to different kind of arts.
We also found back then that dark ambient, neoclassical or ambient industrial were not well-represented on other netlabels out there, and this kind of music is relatively unknown, especially neoclassical music, even if you can hear it in a huge number of films.
When did you feel the need to create a netlabel?
The idea came in 2008, at the 10th birthday of “Cauldron Music” and “La Cadera” first encounter. We decided to put all our best productions in the netlabel, and to go on with a new production “Post Mortem Photographs”, the first work Stéphane and I composed together. Our aim was not to sell music, but to offer it for free. So a netlabel was the best way to do this.
Why a netlabel and not a regular label?
We had already directed labels, and we had to stop our activities. You know, a label and a netlabel don’t work the same. A label needs to produce and sell enough releases to live, not a netlabel. After our experiences, and our new way to see music, a netlabel was the best manner to proceed: to share and promote interesting artists, in the spirit of our music being freely available for everyone who could be interested in it.
Can you name some of the labels that influence you?
I cannot speak for Stephane, who left “La Manufacture de Bruit”, but for me the label that most influenced me is 4AD (for their works in the 80’s), merging music, graphic art, videos, and creating collaboration between the musicians they produced, as we try to do with our “Les Bruits de la Manufacture” collection. Except for this specific case, I can say it is music, arts and artists I like who influenced me, more than labels.
Can you describe the steps that you typically take preparing a new release? Do you work closely with your artists? How do you handle promotion once the release is available?
I prefer having the artists come to us and present their works, more than looking for them. They propose their music or other arts (like video, photos) and I find out what they are doing. If I like their work, I try to understand who they are, their feelings, their thoughts, their vision about art and music. La Manufacture de Bruit is not a commercial label, I won’t produce discs like other label, except perhaps CD-r or why not tapes, so the band must have the same convictions as the label. We prefer doing music for free. If the artists are interested in working with La Manufacture de Bruit, they propose me an album, LP or EP, and we speak about the music, the order or the tracks. I do not direct the bands, we try to find the best way to produce their music, but most of the time, I don’t say anything, they are free to propose their art as they want. In fact, artists who are working with La Manufacture de Bruit know what they want, and come to our label with a well finished work.
Where we, the artists and myself that is, work together much more is graphic design. They explain what they want to express with their art, I try to be closer to their idea. Sometimes, artists propose their own photos, or graphic ideas, and I work with them to have the best compromise between their concepts and our graphic identity.
For promotion, we do some, mostly by Internet, sometimes by flyers we diffuse where we can. But bands are free to also do so.
Any release you are particularly proud of releasing?
I’m proud of releasing every production you can find at La Manufacture de Bruit, but the ones I’m particularly proud are “Fin de Siècle” and “Puppets Love Dreams”. “Puppets Love Dreams” for their wonderful compositional technique, their lyricism and emotion, “Fin de Siècle” because the album “Présences” is the first of this famous French project, this albums tells the beginning of the great Fin de Siècle’s story.
I would have been very proud of releasing an album from the French band Absinthe (Provisoire), but after problems of music rights, it was impossible to release it for free. It was a wonderful 3 hours album, between rock and industrial music, very original and interesting. But we couldn’t release it.
On your homepage you also have a section dedicated to videos from your releases. Do you feel the video is an important part of your releases? Do you feel it helps reach a wider audience, or is it just an extension of your work as a label?
Since the beginning, La Manufacture de Bruit was not solely focused on music, but on every kind of artistic expression, even if music makes up the main part of the label activities. Sure, I think video is very important for music, particularly in visual music like Fin de Siècle, Cattle Mutilation or Semper Eadem. For example, Semper Eadem was founded to compose music and sound ambiances for a short film. So, yes, for La Manufacture de Bruit, videos are intimate links to music. We did not do that to reach a wider audience, but to widen the music itself, to give visual life to the music, to create a complete musical and graphic identity.
We would like to extend our activities to all kind of graphic or moving arts, like photography, theatre, miscellaneous exhibitions. But there is no precise project. One day, perhaps.
Thanks for your time. Any last words?
Our aim is to diffuse music, to create collaborations between artists, so, if some of you want to collaborate, don’t hesitate to send me music, photos or videos. I do not produce CDs, perhaps CD-R if it is possible to sell a disc, but we mainly work for art, for music and for free.
Thank you for the interest in La Manufacture de Bruit.

Southern City's Lab

We exchanged a few emails with Southern City’s Lab, a more recent netlabel from Russia.
Can you tell us who the people in charge of the label are and what they do for a living?
I am Максим Парасюков, the only person responsible for the label, no assistants present. I work as a mechanic for a living, no musical achievements present though there were attempts to practise music, but all unsuccessfully.
When did you first feel the need to start a netlabel?
The thought suddenly occurred to me around a year ago. At first I wanted to start a music blog, but then I learned about the existence of netlabels. This option was more acceptable, as a lot of my friends and acquaintances are musicians.
Why a netlabel and not a commercial label?
To pay for an MP3 or flac, which can easily be copied and shared for free, seems somewhat ridiculous to me. Another matter are CDs or tape, they can serve as a pride subject for the collector. But I have no opportunity to publish them.
Can you name a few other labels that influenced your decision to start a label?
Clinical Archives
Your website states you focus on punk music. Is this correct? Why this genre?
We don’t just focus on punk. The quote “Southern City’s Lab, a Russian netlabel bringing in some incredible punk releases” was taken from a review written on FMA. I work with many genres. There are ambient/post-rock releases, synthpop, lounge and even works of violinists with an academic background. I love garage rock and hardcore punk, but feel like it would be boring to be engaged only with those genres.
Your website is mostly Russian, are your artists and target audience both mostly Russian?
Honestly, I do not know foreign languages at all. For the most part, our artists are from Russia, but also from Ukraine and Canada. Our target audience is generally from Europe and the US. Our fanbase in Russia is not that strong.
How close do you work with your artists?
I keep in touch
Are you in touch with with local promoters to organize concerts for your artists?
I have some contacts but haven’t organized any concerts.
Could you describe to us your standard process to release and promote a new release?
I upload releases to archive.org, FMA, bandcamp. I update the catalog on our website. I notify our listeners through social media. I’m also planning to do podcasts in the future.
What can you tell us of the Russian netaudio scene? Are there many netlabels active? Do you keep in touch with each other?
There are a lot of netlabels but this structure is badly developed. Very bad support among mass media and blogs.
Any particular release you are most proud of having released?
They are three:
Break The Bans – Okay! Okay!
Powerful garage rock in the spirit of Stooges and Rolling Stones. Their album really went around the world. They have a big future.
Kosta T – Informality
It is a unique album for the punk of a label. Its violin is remarkable.
Pk jazz collective & Pavkashavet Bantut – Ore Empyreum
I take special pride in this one. Joint project of artists of my label. Surrealistic verses of Pavkashavet Bantut read against the psychedelic jazz simply tear off from reality.
Thanks for your time, any last words for our readers?
What to wish to readers… I think it is critical to not give in on provocation and stick to your opinion. Thank you as well. All the best.

Sincro

I started on a quest to interview different netlabels from different countries. My objective is to bring some light on how they operate and relate to their local music scenes. Starting from the letter A, I searched for netlabels in Argentina and ran into Sincro. So I downloaded their latest release VVAA – Menesunda and mailed them a few questions. I can tell you the compilation is focused on microsound and experimental music, which was nice to discover since I love those kind of sounds.
Y:E:T – Lightsloft
Can you tell us a little more about yourself?
We are Darío Pinto (Asolaar) and Miguel Onofri (Mezzo), we are both experimental electronic music producers and we run Sincro Netlabel. We operate from Mendoza, Argentina, a city with a population of less than a million, in the middle of a very arid area, 1000km to the west of Buenos Aires and quite isolated from the rest of the world. We don’t make a living out of music.
When and why did you feel the need to form the Sincro netlabel?
Sincro was born as a local venue in 2001. First we worked as a platform, organizing local events and trying to bring artists from other places to our town. In august 2006 we became a netlabel, with the launching of our first compilation “Artificios”. We intended to release our own music in the first place, and some other artists from Argentina that we liked. Then the project grew and became attractive to other artists, and we started to receive demos from foreign countries.
Can you tell us a little more about the Argentinian netaudio scene? How many active labels are there and how do they relate to the commercial side of the Argentinian music scene?
We can only mention the netlabel and platform “Sudamerica Electronica”, from the city of Córdoba, run by our dear friend, colleague and ally Jorge Castro (Fisternni). There used to be about a dozen netlabels, but during the last couple of years most of them have become inactive (like Natural Media) or have disappeared (like Audio:808). We are talking about our kind of music, we are not really aware of the situation in other music styles. We don’t really have contact with any other national netlabels. Netlabels don’t relate with the commercial side of the Argentinian music scene at all.
I noticed from your site that you don’t have that many artists and only release almost once a year. Is this intentional or just happens to be how you operate?
What we do is not entirely an accident, it is mostly a conscious choice. We release very little material and in brief format. Only our last compilation “Menesunda” is a full length release, because we celebrated our 10th release and 5 years working as a netlabel. We pay attention to sound, mastering, artwork, concept, etc, and we curate the material quite a lot. With only a few exceptions, we are not interested in netlabels that release a lot of stuff.
The only non-Argentinian artist on your roster seems to be the Ukranian .at/on (he has some great music by the way). How did you get in touch?
We have slowly been gathering artists that we like, basically from Argentina and South America, and then going global. We currently have 18 artists in our roster, from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Ukraine and Japan. We contacted .at/on by e-mail a couple of years ago, then we invited him to participate on the last compilation. We like the Ukrainian experimental scene a lot, so we also included the collaboration Y:E:T (Ukraine/Japan).
Because Sincro is a small label, I assume you try to support your artists more. Is this accurate? Do you also organize local promo-events or do you work with people who do? What kind of promotion for you releases do you do?
Organizing local events is an important part of our activities. Many of our artists have performed in our shows, and we have had visits from the rest of the world as well. In April 2009 we brought the German artists Alva Noto + Byetone to our city, and we shared the stage with them.
These events have good coverage from local media. We promote our releases quite a lot, through websites, blogs and online radios.
Thanks for your time and keep up the cool work! Any last words of advice for other people running netlabels, netaudio artists or people looking to discover new music?
For people running netlabels:
Be careful with your material. Promote every single release. Be a real curator.
For netaudio artists:
Look for the more suitable netlabels for your work. Do some good research before sending any demos. Try to perform live.
For people looking to discover new music:
Don’t be overwhelmed by the huge amount of music out there. Investigate a little and you will get to the good stuff.
Greetings from the deep south.

Pause

We got in touch with Rich Vreeland, also known as Disasterpeace, for a few questions. Together with Eirik Suhrke (aka Phlogiston) he curates Pause netlabel, focusing their releases on the 8-bit / chiptune genre.
??? – Why
Thanks for agreeing to answer my questions. First off, can you tell us a little more about the guys who run Pause? I believe both of you are chip musicians, working freelance on videogame soundtracks when you started Pause, is this correct?
Yes. We were mostly writing music for fun, I think we had both started to work on a few small games by then, but it was nothing major at that point.
Why did you feel the need to create a netlabel?
We wanted to create a place where we could host our music, and the music of our friends as well. We had a friend who ran a netlabel before us, but it shut down, and there weren’t too many alternatives back in 2007.
Were there other netlabels that influenced you early on? Can you do some name dropping for us?
We were both involved with Megatwerp, and I think Eirik might have been involved with Inpuj as well. I was definitely inspired by 8bitpeoples in some ways, namely the way they handled themselves on the web. At the same time, we felt that we were interested in creating a different kind of catalogue, something more in tune with our personal taste in music.
Pause is known for releasing chip music but it also deviates to a few branching genres, can you summarize what the careless visitor will encounter when browsing your catalogue?
Mostly chipmusic, some game music of various kinds, and some electronic music too. There is a general focus on instrumental music, and more specifically, interesting forms/structures, melodies, harmonies and rhythms.
Any particular release you are most proud of?
Not counting my own albums, I think some of the compilations we put out were pretty good. Sea of Ice and Heartcode come to mind. I was also very into ??? – Wall You Need is Love, which I helped to master and assemble, as far as track order and transitions are concerned.
You recently announced Pause stopped their activity with their 100th release. Can you tell us a little more on the reason why? Lack of personal time?
Eirik and I may have slightly different reasons, but for me, I think we’ve reached a point where it has become clear that our priorities lie elsewhere and our interest in curating music is not nearly great as it once was. I’ve become very busy just writing music and living and stuff, and I saw this as a chapter that could be closed gracefully at 100. We hadn’t really given Pause its fair level of attention in about 2 years, so it seemed reasonable to let it go.
Your farewell message mentions you achieved the goals you set initially set out. How do you measure the success of a netlabel?
I think largely about the impact it had on its artists and the listeners. Pause was never about money, it was always about exposure and craft, and I think a lot of people found a lot of great music because of our site, and that was always the prime directive.
Do you believe digital platforms are replacing the role of labels? Not only bandcamp and soundcloud but also commercial ones like tunecore, beatport, etc?
Yes, to some extent. There are still successful netlabels like Ubiktune that show that there is still something to be said about the power of assembly. Ubiktune has a very distinctive sound that comes across in the albums they choose to release, and there’s a good kind of predictability in that, in the sense that you can always count on them to put out a certain kind of material. If you enjoy that style, then that is a great resource to have. Me, I’ve always enjoyed the frontier of the internet, searching out new artists and albums one by one, so I suppose I don’t miss being part of a netlabel too much. Though certainly, if I got a call from Ghostly or Warp, I wouldn’t walk away from that.
Did Pause have connections with local promoters to organize local events?
Nope. It was strictly an online affair. Eirik lives in Norway, and I live in the states, so coordination was difficult. I did organize one Pause show a couple of years ago, which was an instance of Pulsewave (http://pulsewavenyc.com) in Brooklyn that I helped put together.
Can you name a couple of releases from other netlabels that you wish they had come out through Pause?
Cheap Dinosaurs – Cheap Dinosaurs, would have been rad.

Webbed Hand

We recently talked with Chris McDill, curator of Webbed Hand Records to get some insight on their label and how they operate.
Lyndsey Cockwell – DWP
Who are the people behind Webbed Hand Records? What do they do for a living? How did they get involved with music?
I have been at the helm of Webbed Hand since its founding, and presently I am assisted by Aria Nadii, who designed the website and handles some administrative functions outside my skill set. Her input into this label has been of great value. When I first started the label my brother helped, as he was starting a label of his own, so we shared resources and ideas.
For a living we do, to borrow a classic quote, “a little of this and that.” Our involvement in music began as listeners and slowly evolved into being creators. I had sporadic experiments in tape-based sound art dating back to the late 80s, but didn’t get serious until mere months before I founded Webbed Hand.
What was the motive for starting Webbed Hand in 2003? Is it still valid today?
In the beginning, it was not a netlabel, but a CDr label which I started for the purpose of selling my own recordings. At that time I was also giving away mp3s hosted on my website. It was costing me more than I was making and the situation was not sustainable, so I had to seek an alternative.
In 2004, I learned from a friend about Creative Commons licensing and about the new section at the Internet Archive for netlabel hosting, and that inspired me to change Webbed Hand to a CC-licensed netlabel, not just for my own work, but open to other artists who make work that shares my musical aesthetic.
So I’d say the motive that is still valid today started in 2004, and it was a different motive prior to that.
Has your promotional release process changed through the years? Can you share with us your usual steps when dealing with promoting a new release?
By and large, I expect artists to take up most of the burden of promoting their work. I make announcements on Twitter and in relevant forums including Facebook, which does draw some listeners, but the biggest “hits” on Webbed Hand have come from artists themselves passionately spreading the word about their music. This is how it’s always been with Webbed Hand, and I think listeners appreciate that I’m not aggressive about pushing the music.
There seem to be more ambient / drone netlabels then there used to be physical labels. Do you agree? Do you think this is due to the internet allowing people to discover and share niche genres more easily?
Yes, and yes. Ambient and drone music didn’t have a lot of commercial potential, so the big labels weren’t exactly sending out A&R men to sign up ambient acts. Indie labels did release ambient, but only the biggest names sold well. The largest and most overlooked presence in the days before the internet was the myriad cassette labels, sharing experimental, drone, noise and other marginal genres. Highly collectible, some of that stuff. A few of those tape labels even turned into netlabels eventually.
The current prevalence of ambient/drone netlabels can be attributed to a combination of factors. Home recording has become affordable and of a better quality than ever before. Music production software, such as softsynths makes it possible to inexpensively get sounds that once would have required an investment of many thousands of dollars. Broadband internet access and the presence of sites that will host your music for you. It is no wonder there’s been such an explosion of talent, and the ability to share it, bypassing the old music industry gatekeepers.
Have you done or considered printing limited physical editions? Why or Why not?
That is how Webbed Hand started out, but I have not done it since 2004. Since then I have adopted for Webbed Hand the philosophy of 100% free digital-only music sharing.
I do have a plan for selling some of my own music on cassettes, but they will not be under the Webbed Hand imprint. I’ll have to start a new label for work of that kind.
You have a lot of releases out on Webbed Hand. How do you deal with quality control and the quantity of demos submitted?
One of the main ideas behind Webbed Hand is that it’s a label that releases things that are to my taste. If I like something, and it fits within the genres to which the label is oriented, I’ll release it. I’m not looking for the best of these genres, just whatever appeals to me. I have accepted work that from a production standpoint is sub par, but had a good feeling to it.
In the kind of work I release on Webbed Hand, quality is a very subjective thing. Even an untrained ear can distinguish a virtuoso of piano or guitar, but what identifies a virtuoso of drone music? In experimental work the criteria are much hazier. It generally comes down to evocativeness and production quality, and the powers of evocation trump everything else.
The quantity of submissions I manage by revising the submission page on the Webbed Hand site when I get too busy. For example, presently I am not taking work from artists new to the label, except for contributions to our “Rain” series of long-form ambient albums.
I tend not to think of submissions as demos, which to my understanding are rough edits of works in progress. I ask artists to give me release-ready material in the format and bitrate they want it shared at. I try to have a very fast turnaround time between getting the submission, accepting it, and releasing it. I have heard of some netlabels that take months.
Do you (or your artists) have any contact with local promoters to organize local events?
I wouldn’t know about the artists, as they don’t inform me of their personal activities. I share some of their albums, and that’s just about all. Webbed Hand has no local connections. As far as I know, not even any artists or friends within hundreds of miles.
How do you feel about twitter and youtube as a way to promote your work? Does it really reach strangers?
I use both, and they seem to reach some people, about proportional to the effort I have put into them, which is not much. Probably Facebook has a better reach because I’ve built a better network there and am a member of a lot of ambient-related groups. Youtube is mostly a playground for me to make music videos for my own recordings.
Any particular releases you are most proud of?
It’s hard to play favorites, so I’ll take the easy way out and say I’m proudest of the compilations. Some of them were a great success and it was fascinating to see the diverse ways that artists interpreted the themes of each. One of the earliest compilations, Far Afield, is approaching 75,000 downloads. In 2008 I released a compilation of ambient made with string instruments, and there are some terrific pieces on there. Highly recommended.
Thanks for your time! Any last words for our readers?
Sure. A bit about netlabel etiquette for artists who are seeking to get an album released.
In this day and age, there are many places to share your work beside netlabels, and you might even be able to make money by self-releasing, for example on Bandcamp. The primary value of a netlabel right now is if you have work of a specific style or subgenre, a netlabel will introduce your work to fans of that subgenre, and bring you into that community.
So if you say, yes, that’s what I want, then you need to find a label that exactly fits your style. Don’t just e-mail every netlabel you find on Google. Locate a few that closely match your genre, then listen to as much of their catalogs as you can, and really ask yourself which of those do you find the closest affinity with. First approach them. Submit to only one label at a time.
If your work is too different from the typical work on a label, they are more likely to reject it no matter how good it is, because they have an audience established for a certain sound, and they may not be part of other genre communities, so it’s harder to promote what lies outside their area of interest. Many netlabel owners are swamped by submissions that are completely inappropriate, because submitters didn’t do a little research first. Somewhere out there is a perfect netlabel for you that will take your work, and you’re not going to find it by spamming. If you really want to be part of a scene, get to know it. If you want to be heard, start by being a good listener.

Tranzmitter

Searching for Brazilian netlabels to interview we ran into Tranzmitter and exchanged a few emails with its curator Marcos Paulo Tiago. The answers are translated from Portuguese.
Substak – Between
First of all, thank you for agreeing to answer a few of our questions. Can you tell us something about the people behind Tranzmitter netlabel and how they got involved with music?
Currently I’m the only person running Tranzmitter. My name is Marcos Paulo Tiago. I have been listening to electronic music since 1987. Even with little resources back then I was always searching for more electronic music.
When and why did you feel the need to create a netlabel? Why a netlabel and not a traditional label?
I first caught wind of netlabels from other countries around 2006. A year later I had some friends who already produced good quality electronic music, and so I decided to get in touch with them to try something out. We received some positive feedback so I immediately created Tranzmitter’s first website to promote it. I think netlabels are the best way for producers to promote their work nowadays, so I never had any interest in creating a more traditional type of label.
Is your label focused only on deep house and techno music?
Our main focus is electronic music, Tranzmitter has releases in genres that range from Deep, House, Techno, Experimental, Downtempo and even Drum’n’Bass and Dubstep.
What netlabels influenced Tranzmitter? Are they still active today?
Yes, Unfoundsound, Deepindub and Inoquo. They are all still active to this day.
Some people are claiming that Jamendo, Bandcamp and Soundcloud are bringing even more artist independence from labels. Not just from the majors but also from indies and netlabels. My question for you is: What are the benefits for an artist to release through your netlabel instead of being entirely independent?
The main reason is because by releasing through a netlabel your music won’t end up restricted to only one channel or platform. Aside from the tracks being available through our website, they are also promoted by us in other channels, increasing the promotional network for the artist’s work.
Are you in contact with local venues and event promoters?
I organized a few events here in Brazil, but there are not that many clubs and promoters opening their doors to local underground music.
We noticed on your website that you also have paid releases available for sale. How do you see the music business operating? How should the free and paid music world coexist in 2014?
I see the relation between free and paid as being positive marketing for Tranzmitter. Having paid releases available is also a good stimulus for the producers who been releasing with us for a longer time.
In the free culture and copyleft movements, Brazil is named quite often for its techno-brega movement. It’s usually mentioned as an example of the anti-capitalist and anti-copyright evolution of music culture. Do you, being a Brazilian, share that view?
Tecnobrega is a popular musical genre traditional from the Northeast Brazil. In the South – where i live – it isn’t played all that much, so I can’t really say much about it.
Care to share with us a net release you are particularly proud of from your label and explain to us why you like it?
It’s hard to pick a release in particular. They all have something that makes them special. I feel proud of Tranzmitter itself, how it turned into a giant of the electronic music scene with over 120 thousand downloads among other things. It also enabled me to become friends with a lot of people, not only here from Brazil but also from other countries. So the label itself makes me proud.
Thanks for your time! Any last words?
Thanks for the contact with netlabelism.com and for the good work you been doing promoting netlabels and electronic music.

QED Records

We recently talked with Lionel Valdelion, the person behind the QED Records, the first Philippines netlabel, active online since June 2004.
Makkina – Street Souljah
Did you have any netlabel references when founding QED? Are they still active today?
I was looking at a bunch of netlabels when I started, such as Thinnerism and No Type, and the rest of the regulars over at the Internet Archive Netlabels collection. Sadly many of those first few netlabels are no longer in existence, or have stopped releasing anything new.
The motivation to start my own netlabel really grew when I started subscribing to the netlabel release mailing lists on Yahoogroups. Seeing all this amazing material released out of bedrooms in the farthest reaches of the globe inspired me.
Your website claims QED was the first Philippines netlabel, are there others active nowdays? Can you tell us a little more about the scene there?
There are now at least three more netlabels that I know of, plus a whole lot of individual artists who are packaging their releases on Mediafire and acting as self labels. While netlabelism isn’t something that ever took off here as more of a movement or a scene, it is something that indie artists understand the need for.
Are you connected with the Indonesians Netlabels Union in any way? I know it’s another country, but somewhat close geographically. Maybe you can tell us a little more about it than what we can translate off their website?
No connection at all. That’s been the one thing lacking in my management of the netlabel: any form of organized networking.
What are the predominant type of sounds we can find at QED?
Predominantly chillout and downtempo, but also a lot of breakbeat and DnB, plus everything in between. It never had a real sound because it is held together more by a geographical home base rather than a sonic one.
I read you relocated to the US? Not wanting to pry on your personal life, but can you share with us the reason why? Do you still keep in touch with the Philippines netaudio scene?
My wife and I migrated here to the US to start a family and grab the chance for a better quality of life. So far, it’s working. But I do still keep in touch with Philippine musicians via social media.
You have a very long catalogue for a netlabel, to this date over 4000 releases. My question is: aren’t you afraid that your higher quality releases get hidden under the quantity?
That number is actually deceiving. I started the netlabel with release number qd-4200. So there are only 72 releases thus far. Not very much actually, compared to other, more active netlabels.
But yes, having a large catalog poses a challenge. How do you give equal time to promoting new and old releases? The answer, I think lies in analytics. Look at what people are downloading more of, and promote more of the same sound/genre. Then look at the under-promoted releases you believe in yourself and promote those.
Do you treat all releases the same in terms of promotion? Especially when dealing with different genres it can be difficult to remain in touch with different target audiences, how do you deal with that?
I do promote everything the same way: blasting it out on social media. And to be honest, it never really worked. Or I was never able to optimize the process. I never was able to put enough effort behind it to do it in a way needed for more people to discover us.
I tried video and Youtube for a while, but again, not enough time to do so properly.
Can you share with us your typical promotion of a new release? What websites do you contact? Mailing lists?
I started out promoting the releases using yahoogroups. Today, it’s really only via archive.org’s Netlabel page, Twitter, Facebook, and a few forums. If there’s a manual out there that lists the best ways to promote independent netlabels, I would gladly download it.
Do you have any contact with local scenes organizing or promoting concerts?
I did for a while. But since the majority of electronic musicians QED Records works with are bedroom musicians, there was never enough of a motivation to create events for the releases.
Please share with us a couple of your releases and why any new listeners should listen to them.
I picked these releases based on reader reviews posted on Archive.org:
[qd-4255] Araknidus & aLJar3d – Disturbanz
Kick ass drum n bass by two indie producers who started out producing tracks in the bedroom and parlayed it into gigs at venues.
[qd-4246] Demolee – A World in Slow Motion
Smoothest of smooth chillout and downtempo by a master of sublime groove.
[qd-4214] Makkina – Blissful
Downtempo drum n bass by a reclusive producer whose tracks have been featured on Cafe Del Mar.
[qd-4209] Acid42 – Downtampuhan
Chill house, acid jazz, ambient and a little world/ethnic flavor.
Thanks for your time! Do you have any question you would have liked me to have ask you? Also, any last words of wisdom for the readers?
Support your favorite netlabel by promoting them or buying their products (if they have any for sale).

Audiotalaia

I recently got in touch with Edu Comelles, the main person behind the Spanish netlabel Audiotalaia.
Hello Edu, can you tell us a little more about who is behind Audiotalaia?
Audiotalaia was founded in 2007. Since then I have managed the label by myself with punctual collaborations. Right now I work with Óscar Palou who’s in charge of developing the site. Also with Jaume Muntsant, we are usually in touch to work out collaborations or when he releases his podcast Nuvol de Fum. Also Carla Ariza designed the logo and a few guidelines about Audiotalaia’s aesthetic imagery.
But yes, basically it’s me coordinating the whole thing. In a few months we will start new projects in which more people will join me in a new endeavor involving physical releases. And yes, even though I’m by myself I always speak in plural when Audiotalaia is in the conversation: it sounds better
Can you tell us a little more about your artists and your aesthetic vision for the label?
At the beginning our main target was to release works of experimental music or sound compositions closer to an ambient approach. With time, the interests of Audiotalaia has widened the range of styles and genres. Nowadays we focus on various styles and we don’t close the door to proposals ranging from field recordings to circuit bending.
During the past three years the label has focused the interest on works and artists composing in Spain, we have discovered a very vivid and active scene (especially in Valencia) and we are focusing on spreading and disseminating works made in our country (at least we have something worth-exporting). So in the end, Audiotalaia has taken the responsibility of promoting and producing works by local and national artists. Even though we don’t close the door to foreign artists, not at all, but our primary goal is to contribute to this growing community of artists, living (or leaving) Spain.
Can you tell us about one of your recent releases and why we should check it out?
Our latest release by Basque Artist Lauki is a very nice release. He’s been collaborating for a while with Polish artist Pleq and this is his first solo album since 2010. We are happy to release his work because it captures the essence of the aesthetic philosophy of Audiotalaia. A very beautiful work based on recordings of string instruments processed and re-arranged by Lauki himself. After releasing his work we will receive him in Valencia as a guest artist at Off_Hz and this is something we rather like in Audiotalaia to meet the artists we are working with.
Lauki – CEO
I know you organize a few events now and again, especially in Valencia. Can you tell us a little more about your experience organizing local events and dealing with local promoters?
The experience in Valencia has been absolutely stunning so far. After my arrival (almost four years ago) I have discovered amazing artists working on a daily basis and producing a lot of good stuff. Avelino Saavedra, Jean Montag, Jorge Marredo, Martí Guillem, Alozeau, Josué Moreno, Víctor Trescolí or Josep Lluís Galiana are a few examples… But I could be writing names for a while. We can say that nowadays we have a very active local scene that is seen from the rest of Spain as a surprising outburst of creativity, events and culture in a political and socio-economical moment like this one.
We have an average of 3-4 concerts per month in a city not bigger than 800.000 inhabitants, a few self-catered festivals and a monthly based sound art event called Off_Hz curated by me and Carlos Flores. Off_Hz is presenting every month a double concert on different art gallery every time. Each concert counts with a local artist and some other artist we bring from the rest of Spain.
Off_Hz is having a tremendous success in the city. In this small world of experimental music or sound art or whatever you want to call it, there is only a very small amount of people you may reach, still with this disadvantage Off_hz is filling art galleries with people listening to weird music. This is just an example but the case is that Valencia (I don’t know why) is very eager to listen to new music, after three years of continuous work and a lot of pedagogy and didactics we have managed to attract new public and every time more people get interested in that.
We have always been against the inherited elitism of some festivals where you play in front of a few sound artists and composers, you deal with each other and nothing really happens. We are always avoiding this, we take the risk of confronting a non-literate audience, and see how they react, the feedback you get at the end of the concert is richer than any literate comment by some Electroacustic Music legend, something that, make no mistake, we also respect, but… sometimes a fresh and clean approach by someone with “clear ears” is a nice slap in the face.
In regards to the question about the local promoters, we in fact are some sort of local promoters, we work on a self-cattered, DIY philosophy and it has been working nicely so far. Valencia is a city that allows an easy way to organize things, the law is flexible and the rents are low. Also the underground scene in Valencia is quite a vivid one. There a lot of locals and venues where to organize a concerts is quite easy, some of them have even amazing sound equipment such as Plutón.cc a venue we collaborate with often and a epicenter of a part of this scene. In the past, places like La Clínica Mundana (currently closed) functioned in similar ways.
What is your standard procedure when promoting a new release? Do you have regular contact with album reviewers or certain preferred platforms to announce your releases?
We promote basically through social networks such as facebook and twitter. Also we have a very strong mailing list with local and international media reviewers, radio programmers and so on. One of our targets is to be very present on radio in a Spanish basis also we keep promoting the latest release until the next one pops up after (more or less) one month. We like to give time the album to widespread and become sometimes viral. Of course we send personal emails to concrete reviewers that are eager to talk about our releases. This part of the promoting machinery is focused on international media blogs or review platforms, as said before our main target is to show things done in Spain abroad.
The music world is always changing and labels need to adapt and try new models. Can you tell us more about your plans with Audition Records that are described in your homepage?
Audition Records is now in full control of Julián Bonequi. Nowadays the label has stopped production for a while. Bonequi has done amazing work recollecting and preserving a very complex and rich scene based in Berlin, after this hard work I think he deserves a break and a lot of applause.
With Audiotalaia the path leads to another adventure. We are going to open a new catalogue for physical editions that will come to fruition in the following months with new and very promising projects. Also and this is still too early we are starting to think about vinyl editions. For now we will start with CD and limited editions and as this works out we’ll see if we go further. Still with this new addition we won’t leave the free download catalogue, this will continue as always.
What are your plans for the future?
Well I guess I have answered a bit of this in the previous question but the future (as uncertain as it is) will lead us to expand our activities, we want to place a special effort on exporting our model of work to other cities  and to start moving artists around the country in new projects we are already working on. So the future, I think is gonna be tough but exciting.
Any last words or a question you would have liked me to have asked?
Just to thank you Filipe for the opportunity to share with you guys what we are working on here in Valencia and Audiotalaia. Thanks very much and congratulations for the work done so far at Netlabelism.

This Side Music

The next netlabel interview in our monthly rotation is with the guys behind This Side Music, a duo based out of Greece, focusing their netlabel on electronic music (house/techno). They have been running it since 2007 and have had 18 releases so far.
Lee Fraged & Double Trouble – Say it with your own words
Could you please introduce us to the people behind This Side Music? Who are you? What is your background? What do you do for a living? How did you get connected with music and netaudio?
The netlabel started in Crete island, Greece, by Lee Fraged and Linny Berret and it was a product of a years-long friendship and musical companionship. Lee currently has an office job, he has worked in record sales for many years. Linny is a computer engineer. We have both been spinnin’ records (house/techno) and serving the local scene since the late 90’s – the club is where we met. What brought us even closer was a common taste in music and, of course, living in the same house for many years.
We also consider Dimitri Barnias (aka Dok) the third member of the family. Dimitri has contributed a great deal with his music, his spirit and his studio equipment and time to what we do.
When and how did you feel the need to start a netlabel?
Back in 2006, when the idea was first conceived, we had already experimented with various methods of electronic music production along with friends in the local scene. We tried to find ways to express ourselves independently, outside the music industry rules and commercial mindset, and the technology was available to help us achieve our goal. Several other existing netlabels inspired us (such as Thinner/Autoplate, Deepindub, Tropic et al.) so when we had enough material to justify the creation of a new one we decided to set it up – that was in 2007. One of our main goals was to share and promote music of our personal taste with a focus on great sound, as close as possible to the traditional labels. We wanted This Side Music to be a musical commonplace for like-minded people, rather than just an outlet of random sounds.
Do you feel the premises that made you start are still present nowadays or has the world changed and your objectives along with it?
This Side Music is still a resource for good electronic music, under a Creative Commons license, so our main goal is still alive. Items are available for sale from time to time – we’ve had a DIY CD release that fared quite well in terms of sales and there is also a release available on Bandcamp. It’s important to keep in mind that this is a non-profit situation, so we have to cover all expenses such as server & mastering costs ourselves – actual income from donations or sales is minimal. Kudos to Dimitri’s Diapason Studio for serving us for free when we need it!
The world changes of course; we relocate from time to time (Lee has lived in Berlin for 2 years, Linny currently lives in Athens), we get busier in our personal and professional lives, and this translates to a slower release cycle. We believe that having 3-5 releases per year is good enough if we want to keep the spirit alive. We also have other projects we plan to associate with This Side Music, such as a traditional vinyl release.
How do you measure the success of your netlabel?
It’s been more than five years since the first release, and we have a nice roster of artists that support us and have become our friends, some of our releases were really successful, in terms of downloads and feedback (while some others not so much), but most importantly we have enjoyed some fine music. It is an ongoing ride and we plan to keep a steady, albeit slow, pace.
You divide your catalogue into 2 sections, can you tell us a little more about that? Why does that division make sense?
We indulge ourselves in a wide spectrum of electronic music, so in the sense of “releasing good music”, we decided that we should release more than one specific style. The division in 2 sections was the simplest that could be, one “Up” section for mostly uptempo, driving stuff and one “Down” section as a space for home listening, ambient or esoteric music. Every listener can choose to follow the activity on the “sublabel” that interests them most; someone interested in dance music might want to filter out the experimental sounds of This Side Down, for example, and vice versa. Each section seems to have its own fan base, the “Up” being more popular as expected. Moreover, the ‘This Side Up/This Side Down’ juxtaposition sounds nice.
Can you tell us a little about the situation in Greece and how it affects your personal life and also the label?
The financial crisis has affected friends and people around us deeply – increased unemployment and depression – and it’s hard to overlook such a situation. We try to counterbalance this with good music and engagement in creative activities on a personal level as well as through the netlabel.
Are you connected with local promoters to organize local gigs for your artists?
We prefer to organize our own gigs and events in local venues – including Healthy Summer, an annual summer event in southern Crete. Local artists get more exposure – covering travel expenses to the southernmost point in Europe is not cheap – but sometimes artists from the label come on vacation here, so we hook them up with a gig or two if possible. Other promoters in the area are mostly all about money and cheesy commercial music so smaller or specialist venues are our targets.
How do you see the world of music evolving in the next couple of years?
The fact is that music gets recycled as time goes on, while technology evolves and production values and techniques change. We expect to hear fascinating and unexpected new sounds, as well as some of the same, modernized probably, yet actually tried and tested formulas.
Can you tell us a little more about your next upcoming release?
Currently we are working on a new Dok release for This Side Down, a conceptual mini LP with manipulated ambient recordings from his DAT tapes.
Thanks for your time. Any last words of wisdom for our readers?
If you really believe in something, do it yourself. Don’t expect others to do it for you.
Link to the Label Page.