LJC Community Conversation: Artist Run Record Labels
LJC Community Conversations are designed to explore major ideas in the Latin Jazz world together as a community and inspire conversation through comments. My main motivator here is my belief that LJC readers hold a great deal of knowledge and passion around Latin Jazz, and I think that we can learn something from everyone. Whether you’re a seasoned Latin Jazz performer or a newcomer to the music, leave a comment and let your voice be heard!
The recent review of Dafnis Prieto’s Taking The Soul For A Walk inspired some interesting comments from Luis & Chazro about independent labels in Latin Jazz, sparked by the fact that Prieto created his own label, Dafnison Music, to promote this album. This is an issue effecting modern Latin Jazz artists, and something we should discuss . . . .
———
Major labels have been struggling with their place in the modern music world. Napster popularized file sharing in the general public, inspiring us to fill our computers with MP3s from our favorite artists. Many of us have forsaken CD players, carrying hundreds of albums on our ultra portable iPods. We’ve begun to ignore traditional radio and MTV, turning instead to MySpace and podcasts. Purchasing music has become cheaper and more easily accessible through online distributors like iTunes and Amazon. These changes shook the music industry, altered the course of popular music, and created a new listening experience for the public. It’s a new ballgame for everyone involved and Latin Jazz artists, like everyone else, need to adapt to the changing direction of the music business.
For a large part, jazz artists and especially Latin Jazz artists have traveled through these changes under the radar, and their careers have remained largely unchanged. Major labels never served serious jazz well; the massive promotional infrastructures built into major labels have always leaned towards pop music. Major labels have always employed jazz musicians, but the promotion of theses artists consumed little of their business. Jazz “stars” like Kenny G, Diana Krall, or Harry Connick, receive plentiful attention, but they exist as the exception. Most jazz artists spend the majority of their career jumping between labels and supporting their careers with self-promotion. Live performance remains their bread and butter, and they travel consistently; exciting live shows charge their reputations, and resultantly sell more records. Since jazz artists never felt the extreme tie to the major record labels that pop artists did, this change seems to hold less impact for them.
Several Latin Jazz artists have moved outside of the record label world and developed their own independent labels. Dafnis Prieto started Dafnison Music for the release of his current album, Taking The Soul For A Walk. Papo Vazquez established Picaro Records to release his 2007 album From The Badlands and followed that with the recently released Marooned/Aislado. John Santos has promoted several albums on his own label Machete Records from different groups: The Machete Ensemble, his folkloric group El Coro Folklorico Kindembo, and his current configuration, The John Santos Quintet. When Marty Sheller decided to record his own album, he formed his own label, PVR Records, LLC. Wayne Wallace founded Patois Records and proceeded to record albums for Kat Parra and Alexa Weber Morales, in addition to his own projects. This seems to be the current trend for Latin Jazz artists who wish to pursue music on their own terms.
The freedom afforded by running a record label brings a variety of pros and cons for Latin Jazz artists. Without a record company executive overseeing a recording, the independent Latin Jazz musician maintains complete artistic control over their work. Freedom to create without boundaries remains the most powerful positive of the situation. Without a record company splitting sales, the artist retains a higher profit from the sales of their work. They have a higher initial overhead, but the possibility of earning significant money exists in the independent realm. A lack of middleman between the artist and the listening public opens a new flow of communication, both online and off. At a concert, the artist represents their work completely and must connect with their public. At the same time, artists must make time for the online world of social media - a time consuming process necessitated by the modern world. For the first time, the artist is not only the performer, but also their company’s CEO. Business issues for the release fall completely to the artist; they may hire a publicity company, lawyers, artists, and more - in order to reach a level of success, they must split their time between artistry and business. For most artists, I would imagine that the significant pros of artistic freedom and higher profit margins outweigh any negatives for the modern artist.
The path towards self-promotion has been a rocky road for some Latin Jazz artists. Many artists’ websites sit on the internet without an update for months, leaving their fans wondering about live dates, new album info, or news of any kind. With news of a new release, I often head straight for iTunes, eMusic, or Amazon, usually to find independent releases unavailable. Sometimes these releases appear on download sites and sometimes they don’t. I often need to search for news of new releases, and sometimes, I don’t find a release until months after it was released. Since I’m looking for new albums daily, I would assume that the casual listener would be lucky to find these releases. I’m sure that different reasons exist for these gaps in business issues, but I’m guessing that the responsibilities of running a business in addition to developing your artistic identity overwhelms some musicians.
A variety of possibilities exist for the future of artist led record labels, but personally I tend to lean towards the positive side of the equation. From a listener’s perspective, I’ve encountered more new music in the past few years from “unknown” artists than ever before. Honestly, it’s been thrilling - I’ve never been so exited about music before. I do get frustrated by outdated websites and a lack of downloads, but I feel like these issues will work themselves out over time. I’m hoping that sources like LJC will help filter information for Latin Jazz enthusiasts, and more artists will experience success with their personal projects. Only time will tell . . .
Here’s some possibile ideas to explore:
* Do you see artist led labels as a positive or negative?
* Do you feel differently about artists promoting their own work without a label?
* Would you be more or less likely to support them?
* What are some future possibilities resulting from this trend?
LEAVE A COMMENT below with your thoughts. I’d love to hear from every LJC reader! Once you’ve left your thoughts here, don’t forget to visit our past community converssations.
———
Do you have an idea for a future Community Conversation? As much as I enjoy exploring my own interests with this regular post, I’d prefer to have this forum address the overall interests of the entire community. Do you have an issue that effects Latin Jazz? Do you have an idea for a fun topic? Let me know so that we can throw it out to the whole community - Leave a Comment or e-mail me.
———
Click here to have these posts delivered via email. Or, click here to subscribe to the full text RSS feed and never miss another post!
Stumble it!
LJC Delivered to Your E-Mail Daily!
Join The LJC Community in a Feed Reader
Loading ...
Chip, this is an excellent topic! I just wanted to point out that while there may be more artist-led labels now, along with a perceived reduction in major and indie label record deals (though I don’t know that to be fact — is it?), several artists have paved the way for those of us in the Bay Area. You mentioned John Santos, who achieved Grammy nominations for his work with the Machete Ensemble well before the iTunes era. Another artist duo to consider is Madeline Eastman and Kitty Margolis, who with MadKat Records have created an awesome body of work (not primarily in the Latin Jazz vein, however).
Any label has to start somewhere, whether it’s Fania or MaxJazz or MoTown. Some start from business people, others with producers or artists, others with aficionados (have you looked at the gorgeous catalog of Adventure Music: Mike Marshall, Michael Spiro, Claudia Villela, Jovino Santos Neto, to name a few?) Success ultimately depends on so many factors. You mentioned some of the pitfalls. I hope others post in this forum with their views on what makes an artist-led label work!
–Alexa
Alexa - you make a great point about artists forging into independent territory before the digital revolution. Musicians certainly made their own albums before the internet, laying the groundwork for today’s DIY mentality. They proved that it can be done; I imagine it was just a whole lot more work in those days! John Santos made some fantastic albums - I’ve got alot of those CDs all the way back to Orquesta Batachanga; a classic bit of West Coast Latin Jazz. Thanks for pointing out MadKat - true they may not be Latin Jazz, but they really took matters into their own hands and promoted themselves strongly. I’ve probably seen Eastman and Margolis live more than I’ve heard those albums, but the MadKat label is certainly known. True front runners!
It would be interesting to collect stories from these early pioneers of artist based independent labels - I’m sure that it would be quite enlightening!
I agree that a label has some sort of starting point, but I do wonder one thing - with so many artists taking matters into their own hands, will the market get over saturated? We have access to so much these days - that can be a good thing, but I’m afraid information overload causes us to miss a lot of great music. With each individual artist promoting themselves, how will we sort through it?
I think that you guys have got the right idea at Patois - gathering a group of musicians together to produce albums. There’s strength in numbers, and it helps you stand out. You still appeal to a niche audience, so someone who likes your album may check out Kat’s record. There’s a built-in support system that makes the work much easier.
There are several independent labels that bring together artists like this - Adventure Music is a great example (I’ve just gotten into them recently - great stuff!); I also think that Zoho, Cacao Musica, and Anzic do a great job. It’s kind of funny, we’ve always had these iconic record labels in jazz - Blue Note, Fantasy, Impulse, CTI . . . are lables like Adventure or Zoho the iconic labels of tomorrow?
Lots of interesting thoughts on this topic - although I had something else planned, I’m going to leave this on the top of the page for another day to attract more comments!
…”information overload causes us to miss a lot of great music…”
Not so sure of this as I feel it’s ALWAYS been possible for some releases to slip between the cracks. Obviously,with the new technology available it should be easier than ever for an artist to record and totally create their product. An amusing example, to me, was recieving the Annette Aguilar & Stringbeans release; ‘No Cheap Dates’ (a great record, btw!), only to find that the disc was a CDR!!. Called the vendor who expressed surprise and asked if I wanted to send it back, of course I said NO, but I think there’s a morale lesson stuck in this story somewhere that escapes me. I’m an old-school dude, I don’t download MP3’s for various reasons; 1st & foremost, I need to be able to feel something physical when I buy music, regardless of format, MP3’s feel like something you should be able to get for cents, not dollars. Secondly, being an audiophile, MP3 sound-quality is an issue for me. I know there are ‘ways’ to improve it but I dunno, it just ain’t for me. Bottom line, I’d rather have a CDR from Annette Aguilar than a download!
The true challenge for the artists is simply getting the word out. No check that, 1st create something WORTH buying, THAN get the word out. It don’t mean squat if you’re the next Mambo King and nobody knows about it. THIS, to me, is the single largest obstacle facing our Latin Jazz artists today. In my humble opinion, if an artist cannot be mentioned (favorably) at Descarga.com, Chuyvarela.com, Latinbeat, or HERE(!!!;), for all intents and purposes, the release will be doomed to obscurity.
After reading the above it’s all pretty simple to me. 1st, make a KILLA record, 2nd, send free copies to the above-mentioned organizations, 3rd, sit back and count the money flowin’ in ;)!!! Just goofin’ of course but enough can’t be said about creating the all-important “Buzz”. I’m afraid I’ll have to leave it to smarter folk than me to come up with a formula for THAT! (For anyone that’s interested enough, I’ve mentioned ANZIC records, for me, the epitome of a modern successful recording company. Go to their site, click on reviews, THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about when I say “Buzz”.)
I have always tended to favor independent labels over big coglomerates,so I particularly welcome the trend towards self-production.In the current market place,a lot of the music that is released as self-productions would probably go unheard.
Jazz in particular has a long history of artist-owned labels,going back to the 1950’s (at least) when Charles Mingus and Max Roach used to own/operate Debut records.But,self production is also a gutsy move,as the artist is assuming 100% of the risk in putting out the records.The evolution of the internet as a marketing medium has help facilitate this,as an artist can now sell music through his own website,or through services such as CD Baby or Artist Share for example.
More power to the artists wjho have the guts too self-produce is what I say!
Chazro - I agree; getting the word out about a release is vital, and I think that’s the tough part for most artists. It’s extremely time consuming to put together promo/CD packages, research media outlets, contact them, send out packages, follow up, and maintain contact. Even a full-time musician that’s not juggling a day gig would have trouble doing all this on top of a practice/rehearsal/performance schedule. The online world does make connections easier, but staying on top of honest contributions to forums, MySpace, Twitter, and jazz websites (to name a few!) takes so much time. And then add the fact that a whole lot of artists are trying to do the same thing - wow, you’ve got to be totally dedicated.
One good thing that comes of this I think - the cream mostly rises to the top. With so many choices, a lot of times, people gravitate towards the finest material. Well, I can’t say that completely - they probably gravitate towards the most familiar names. Then a lot of new artists that are producing great music need to work twice as hard to be heard; I guess that’s where the idea of paying dues comes in.
I hope that LJC helps artists spread the word a bit - I try to give younger artists a good deal of attention, but its funny - there’s only so much space. Even when I’m posting 5 or 6 times a week, I feel like I’m missing someone.
Great point about artists recording their own material - the power is certainly there. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an audiophile, but I’m not picky about the product. I just want to hear the music; a CDR would work just fine for me. I like MP3s quite a bit, but I do admit, I really dislike the fact that I don’t get liner notes when I download an album. There’s got to be an answer to that . . .
Luis - I’m right there with you, I’d love to support independent artists over big conglomerates. I don’t feel that Latin Jazz falls into the big guy vs. little guy mentality too much - most of the artists that reside on the labels like Concord or Bluenote (although I don’t think Bluenote has much Latin Jazz right now) deserve massive promotion - Palmieri, David Sanchez, etc . . . I do feel like there is an incredible amount of unheard talent in Latin Jazz and that falls to the issue of people sticking with big names. Some sort of outreach for people to hear younger artists would be a good thing. I’m not quite sure how that would work, but I do think it’s necessary.
You make a great point about Debut and the history behind artist owned labels - being in the underground of the music scene forces you to take matters into your own hands. If the mass public doesn’t want to hear your music or someone at a label wants to tell you how to play the music, then you need to do things yourself. I love Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus - if there was no Debut, that album would probably have never been made. The idea of self-promotion links itself to jazz strongly.
It’s a good thing that you bring up Artist Share - that’s a whole other ballgame. Fans supporting artists by paying for the creation of the album - what a fantastic concept. And look what it’s given us - at the very least (and I wouldn’t call this the “least” by any means!) Bryan Lynch’s fantastic album Simpatico. I hope this model takes off and becomes a normal occurance. I know that Edward Simon is producing an album of boleros this way, I’d love to see more artists take advantage of this!
Chip,
Fantastic point about Brian Lynch’s Simpatico,which is a CD that rivals anything a mayor label or a minor “independent” could put out.An album that 20 years from now will be considered a “Revisited” classic.
Very happy to hear the Edward Simon is going the same route with a new project.I feel Artist Share’s model is a great one and I am very happy to see them doing more latin jazz.