B-Sky-B and Universal join forces – an indie label’s thoughts

I’ve always thought, since the dawn of all things Alcopop almost 2 years ago, that its been rather a good time to be running an indie label… With musical talent emerging in the UK faster than we can press music (no I don’t buy the ‘naysayer opinion’ that there are no decent artists around these days – look further than the end of your nose damnit), and fatcat majors having choked upon their cream and concentrating on downsizing rapidly – there seems to be quite the space in the market for small labels who are willing to work with people they believe in passionately. Especially with the amount of ace industry people, hard-working distributors (in our case Shellshock) and more willing to support the likes of Alcopop, BSM, Smalltown, This is Fake DIY et al.

Sure, the days of finding one breaking artist, receiving a fat pay-off and assimilating yourselves into a major seem to be diminishing – but here at Alcopop we’ve always rather dug our ‘fiercely independent’ tag. Now don’t get me wrong – while I’m not suggesting that if someone came along and offered to help us pump a whole heap of their cash into our dearly beloved artists, I would dismiss it out of hand. But we very much enjoy the freedom to work with bands we know are clearly awesome, and watch them grow knowing that we’re supporting them not just because we think they will sell records…

Indeed, what we lack in cash I hope we make up for in work ethic and creativity – and while major’s deal with the fickle bunch who will turn on an artist who wears the wrong outfit in Heat Magazine, we’re lucky enough to be appealing to people who know their shit – and have supported us since the beginning, by buying the stuff they genuinely like.

However, a new *albeit foggy* threat seems to have emerged today, with well known musical pioneers (ahem) B-Sky-B teaming up with Universal to offer a pay-by-month way of downloading songs. Now although the details are sketchy and only one unwieldy corp has signed up thus far, if a whole heap more put pen to paper, and the subscription fee is reasonable, the most independent artists, who I imagine would seem of little interest to Rupert and his cronies, could lose out – if the world and their dog take to subscribing and using his system, forcing iTunes to its knees.

That’s a bif IF though, and for sure It’s not all doom and gloom though. As Spence on norockandrollfun.com sarcastically puts it “Amy Winehouse, U2, Kanye West, Duffy, Rihanna, Eminem, Elton John and Abba – Wow!!!! I’ve been waiting for a resource from which I could buy stuff from these cutting edge artists for ages!!!”, and like any advance in downloading illegal/ripping MySpace songs – I still firmly hold on to the belief that genuine music fans will buy music/ support live shows… After all – what’s 3 quid on a limited edition debut 3” Data.Select.Party single, or 7.90 on the new My Awesome Compilation album (from Smalltown Records by the way).

I’m conscious I’ve written a lot of words now – and I don’t want to bang on unnecessarily, but I guess I just wanted to address the issue of the day, and in a way – a hearty thank you all for supporting us. I’m not naïve enough to suppose that the good name of Alcopop will be forever and divinely protected against whatever tempestuous wave of uncertainty the music industry is propelled headlong into next, but I feel pretty safe for now. So I’d like to raise an Alcopop to you – and the fact that man (pictured) doesn’t totally dominate the music industry just yet!

Lv Jack PoP