The sum-up as I read it, from most of the label owners amongst us - the people who actually get the music out there....
Chris (Inperspective): stay within the dum n bass scene, keep plugging away and the scene will change - the 'good' drum n bass will come to the fore again
Blue (Streetbeats): keep plugging away with numerous diverse vibes but use any and all available angles/scenes to sell the records
Pieter (Metaformal): the 12" vinyl format is doomed, or doomed for those who want to do anything different anyway, so concentrate on CDs and target LP releases outside the d+b scene
Brett (Offshore): keep plugging away, stay fairly contendedly on the fringes of the scene, although the vinyl format is dying..?
Rohan (Bassbin): stay within the scene but differentiate this style / these styles for marketing purposes
EHL (Warm Communications): Strength in unity, things will change once enough people are releasing the 'good' stuff
ASC (Covert Operations): Stay within the d+b scene and keep plugging away - things will change
0=0: keep releases very small and adhere to a punk aesthetic in order to survive - obscurity can be good
So it looks lke the majority view here is that separating from the drum n bass scene would not be conducive to what we each want to do.
I have to say that I still wonder why no-one has really addressed the historical fact of the Happy Hardcore / Jungle split in 1994 as a precedent for another such split..... but perhaps I'm alone in seeing the parallels betwen the 2 forms of music, and the total absence of anything to link them bar their shared roots once-upon-a-time...
Furthermore, in the absence of any desire to be being seen to be creating an umbrella term under which our disparate strands of drum n bass-related music actually fall, then it also appears to me that all this talk of co-operative tours etc. will in reality, have to be much more selective and far less all-inclusive than the presence of so many different representative strands of the music on this particular thread would have appeared to suggest was a possibility to begin with.
i.e. it's considerably easier to see the links between Inperspective and Warm Communications, or between Streetbeats and Metaformal than between those 2 mini-camps. And bear in mind we're talking about trying to sell these links/ideas to your average d+b Dilly fan, who gets everything neatly bracketed into latin/liquid/techstep/clownstep bla bla bla...
So.... the chief difficulties facing this strategy:
The d+b infrastructure: in order to sell records in numbers greater than 1000 a pop globally, and in the abence of any significant radio presence (especially in the USA) you absolutely MUST capture the ears of the current drum n bass DJ fraternity - the established big names, as they have absolute control over where and when the music is heard, or indeed IF it is heard at all. With the exception of Bailey, who else from this league has shown any interest in championing anything beyond this week's fashions or a guaranteed anthem? Have I missed them?
Of course, there are some of you who feel that selling 1000 units at a time is perfectly satisfactory, so I guess if you can sustain that through sheer graft, then this question doesn't really apply to you.
Distribution: most of you probably have dist. deals with Vinyl, yes? Pressing up maybe one 12" every 6 months? Less than that? I am also wondering how much of a dent it is possible to make in what is viewed by the d+b industry as a supremely disposable market (i.e. a 12" released 2 months ago is "old" and therefore out-of-date) with such a limited output.
Therefore - perhaps you decide to start more labels - so, where do you secure distribution for them? With the SAME distributors - putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak? Or do you instead commit to the occasional release strategy from your one label? If so, how do you maintain a profile amongst today's extremely fickle d+b audience?
These are, I feel, very pertinent questions that must be faced up to which no amount of sheer goodwill alone will answer...
Chris (Inperspective): stay within the dum n bass scene, keep plugging away and the scene will change - the 'good' drum n bass will come to the fore again
Blue (Streetbeats): keep plugging away with numerous diverse vibes but use any and all available angles/scenes to sell the records
Pieter (Metaformal): the 12" vinyl format is doomed, or doomed for those who want to do anything different anyway, so concentrate on CDs and target LP releases outside the d+b scene
Brett (Offshore): keep plugging away, stay fairly contendedly on the fringes of the scene, although the vinyl format is dying..?
Rohan (Bassbin): stay within the scene but differentiate this style / these styles for marketing purposes
EHL (Warm Communications): Strength in unity, things will change once enough people are releasing the 'good' stuff
ASC (Covert Operations): Stay within the d+b scene and keep plugging away - things will change
0=0: keep releases very small and adhere to a punk aesthetic in order to survive - obscurity can be good
So it looks lke the majority view here is that separating from the drum n bass scene would not be conducive to what we each want to do.
I have to say that I still wonder why no-one has really addressed the historical fact of the Happy Hardcore / Jungle split in 1994 as a precedent for another such split..... but perhaps I'm alone in seeing the parallels betwen the 2 forms of music, and the total absence of anything to link them bar their shared roots once-upon-a-time...
Furthermore, in the absence of any desire to be being seen to be creating an umbrella term under which our disparate strands of drum n bass-related music actually fall, then it also appears to me that all this talk of co-operative tours etc. will in reality, have to be much more selective and far less all-inclusive than the presence of so many different representative strands of the music on this particular thread would have appeared to suggest was a possibility to begin with.
i.e. it's considerably easier to see the links between Inperspective and Warm Communications, or between Streetbeats and Metaformal than between those 2 mini-camps. And bear in mind we're talking about trying to sell these links/ideas to your average d+b Dilly fan, who gets everything neatly bracketed into latin/liquid/techstep/clownstep bla bla bla...
So.... the chief difficulties facing this strategy:
The d+b infrastructure: in order to sell records in numbers greater than 1000 a pop globally, and in the abence of any significant radio presence (especially in the USA) you absolutely MUST capture the ears of the current drum n bass DJ fraternity - the established big names, as they have absolute control over where and when the music is heard, or indeed IF it is heard at all. With the exception of Bailey, who else from this league has shown any interest in championing anything beyond this week's fashions or a guaranteed anthem? Have I missed them?
Of course, there are some of you who feel that selling 1000 units at a time is perfectly satisfactory, so I guess if you can sustain that through sheer graft, then this question doesn't really apply to you.
Distribution: most of you probably have dist. deals with Vinyl, yes? Pressing up maybe one 12" every 6 months? Less than that? I am also wondering how much of a dent it is possible to make in what is viewed by the d+b industry as a supremely disposable market (i.e. a 12" released 2 months ago is "old" and therefore out-of-date) with such a limited output.
Therefore - perhaps you decide to start more labels - so, where do you secure distribution for them? With the SAME distributors - putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak? Or do you instead commit to the occasional release strategy from your one label? If so, how do you maintain a profile amongst today's extremely fickle d+b audience?
These are, I feel, very pertinent questions that must be faced up to which no amount of sheer goodwill alone will answer...