Happy Birthday

Seems 1989 was a good year to start an indie label, as Merge and Warp turn 20. Warp was started by Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and is the home to artists such as Aphex Twin, LFO and

Guardian UK Story

Warp Records YouTube Channel

Warp Records Home Page

Vote for your favorite tracks here

Indie Label Success Northern European Style

From Michael Masnick (of Techdirt and Trent Reznor MIDEM lecture fame) posted this VERY insightful column, which I first saw at my #1 favorite site, hypebot this morning. Really gets to the heart to what it takes to have a chance at being successful as an indie label, which is pretty self-evident:

I am looking forward to digging into the 150 plus page study of two successful labels in Finland.

Read the article here.

Next Week's Assignment

Next week, my indie label's class will be hitting the COTIU blog hard with tips to 10 sites each that they feel would be beneficial to those interested in starting their own label and/or releasing their own music.

This is a augmented assignment to the write a business plan paper.

You will see about 60 listings like this:

Some Examples:
Residual Rewards: A site that explains the benefits of sole proprietorships / partnerships vs. incorporating
Hypebot: keep up with the music business news and helpful hints from those currently in the music industry” I can't start my morning before checking out the h-b
Ariel’s Cyber PR: A site with a lot of tips and advice (free how to guides included) to maximize your publicity and web presence. Ariel is so cool, a band I signed in 1999 didn't ask for more advance or royalties, just that we contractually guarantee to hire her on every project to tdo the publicity - how cool is that???
Tunecore: an aggregator to get your music on all the Digital Download stores. Also has incredible tips and other resources that fit within an indie's tight budget. Plus Jeff owned SpinArt Records, I still have my 7" cereal box of pop collection - beautiful colored vinyl with toy prizes and the Dambuilders "Tough Guy Problem" EP is still one of my 50 Top 10 records of all time.

So stay tuned for some great tip and insight to better you along from some very forward thinking, future leaders of our little industry.

History of Sub Pop

A clip from the documentary "Hype" about the beginning of Sub Pop - primarily how they 'branded' the label so that people trusted their taste and releases.

Poneman and Pavitt talking about the early bands

Poneman and Pavitt talking about starting a label:

Josh Freese Interview

Hear all about the new king of Scarce Goods and Upselling!

Josh Freese Interview, Part 1

Josh Freese Interview, Part 2

I Love Pandora But...

Without a doubt I have grown to love the Pandora radio - it is why I expunged the $15 a month charge from XM radio once they went with Sirrius and the service went to crap. So between Pandora's free App and MLB's "At Bat" app, I have replaced what I paid $180 a year for $9.99. am still in awe on how fast something I usd to love and depend on went down hill.

Now after a little time, you can program a station or two or in my case seven that will hit you with songs you like and songs that based on your preferences with a thumbs up or down.

However, here is what I noticed. I have two main stations, my 90's indie rock / pop station and my 70's/80's Arena Rock channel. To start a station you indicate the artist you like and you go from there. or indie rock, I started with Blake Babies and for Arena Rock I started with Bruce Springsteen. After about 20 hours of listening to both, I have yet to get a song by sung by someone of the opposite sex.

My indie rock play list consist of Juliana Hatfield, Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Letters to Cleo, Some Girls, Veruca Salt, Breeders, Bjork, Portishead, Throwing Muses, Helium, Kirsten Hersh, etc. Not a male fronted band in the bunch.

For my Arena Rock I get Springsteen, Dylan (though I constantly give it thumbs down, I just don't like listening to him, sorry), Tom Petty, U2, Bob Seger, etc . Come on - throw in a Joan Jett or Pat Benetar, maybe even a Fleetwood Mac to dip the Music Genome toe in the water that I might like female rock vocals. Obviously I do based upon my female only Indie Rock station.

I am waiting and waiting for an opposite sex vocalist so no matter who it is, I can give it a thumbs up and get a more balanced station.