Stay Ahead Of The Curve

Though most of the people I spoke to have been running their operations for 10 years or less, the musical landscape has changed at an astonishing rate since then. Very little about the industry structure from back then even exists anymore. With grime, for example, consumption has changed massively: Channel U is no more, dubplate culture is nowhere near as popular as it was, MySpace is long gone. The means of sharing the music has changed completely too. Where it Limewire and Bluetooth were once the main conduits for music, now it’s Snapchat, Instagram and Spotify links in the bio. Mostly, they admit, they would probably still found a label today if they were just starting out—it’s just the tools that would be different.



“It's all about streaming now,” Nightwave added. “It’s much harder to make any investment back because digital is so ridiculous now; not to mention the oversaturation of the market and the way press works too. I have only done a couple of physical releases, which are very rewarding, but the amount of work that goes in is exhausting. Plus, the pressing plants are all over the place right now as the major labels are cashing in on vinyl being ‘trendy.’”

Spotify, as Tom Lea explains, is a particularly vital part of the independent label’s business model. Getting one of your tracks added to a major playlist can be a huge win for your label, extending the lifespan of the track’s revenue by as much as 100%. “I’m pro Spotify,” he tells me, “in the sense that their playlists can give a real second life to releases. The first Yamaneko album’s a great example of this—it actually sold very well upon release, but traditionally a record will sell for the first few months and then grind to a halt. Then you’ve either made a profit or a loss and what you make on top of that is negligible.”

Lea does, however, warn against the over-reliance on a single platform. “Relying too much on one single platform that dominates the marketplace is dangerous—look at how Facebook pulled the rug out from under brands when they monetised. Spotify earns us and our artists money but it’s never been more important for us to build, develop and maintain genuine links with our fans that don’t rely on third party platforms we can’t control the direction of.”