to say. I want to feel a spark—in the lyrics, the arrangements or their playing. It has to move me. We get a lot of demos and many are very good— but they’re also generic. And that just won’t cut it. How important are live shows and performance skills? They’re very important. We release the sort of music that’s meant to be heard live. Our genres require touring. In fact, with the demise of brickand-mortar retailers, we sell a lot of our product at live shows. Because of that, venues have become our new retailers. How important is social media activity? Well, our music attracts an older demographic, so it’s not as important as working with acts that attract a younger audience. However, I’ve noticed that acts that get involved with social media often get better results. What is your signing process? Actually, we initiate most contacts. Because we’re so established, we’ll hear about acts that are creating a buzz from promoters, festival producers and bookers. Then we’ll check them out and see what they’re up to. I like to see acts that are busy and playing a lot of shows. If they’re doing something that gets us excited, we’ll contact them and have a meeting. What do you consider before signing an artist? Before we sign anyone we try to gauge how cooperative they will be. Sometimes management can be a problem, because some managers take an adversarial approach that complicates everything. If they’re not willing to make it a real team effort, they usually do not sell many records or make much money. Besides, no one wants to work with a pain in the ass. What would keep you from signing an act? If they’re not willing to tour, I won’t work with them. You can have the greatest record ever recorded, but if you don’t tour I can’t sell it. We do everything we can to help acts on the road, but they have to want to do it. There are acts out there doing it—without a label or a booking agent. Obviously, they’re ambitious, and that’s one characteristic you need to be a success. You also need to be talented and have a little bit of luck to become a really successful artist. How do you help acts tour? We set them up with booking agents. We’ll do advance promotions and publicity: we set up interviews and promote radio airplay. We’ll do everything we can to make their shows sell out. What type of deals do you offer? We’re traditional and sort of old school. We don’t do 360 deals (i.e. deals that share in sales, publishing, merchandise, touring and sponsorships). More often, it’s a straight two to three record deal. Sometimes we might share in publishing, but that’s about it. Where do most of your sales come from? We sell way more physical product than digital. Fans of our genres like to have a physical product. So, we sell more CDs than downloads. We also offer vinyl if we think the act can move it—but it’s become more of a specialty item. Do artists really need a label deal today? With the Internet and all the tools artists have available to them now, they could go DIY and make money—up to a point. But, if they want to really advance their career, label support could be very helpful.
Are you looking for anything in particular? We’re always looking for new talent. But, we’re very picky. We have to feel passionate about the act and what we can do with them. If we believe they have great potential and will work with us, we’ll talk. How do you like to be contacted? They can email links to their website and music (no attachments). Mostly I want to know how active they are. Send the information to: info@ blindpigrecords.com
Rennie Jaffe
VP & Label Manager relapse.com
RENNIE JAFFE HAS BEEN with Relapse Records for 10 years. Although the label (founded in 1990) specializes in heavy metal, it doesn’t focus on that style. In fact, the Relapse roster includes artists from a variety of genres, ranging from stoner and alternative rock to hardcore,
Where do most of your sales come from? Physical sales exceed digital downloads, probably because of the genres we work with. Fans of certain genres are more invested in the acts, and support them by buying CDs and merchandise. They want something they can own and hold. We used to release a lot of vinyl LPs, and they sold well. But, today, if I don’t think an act can sell at least 500 in vinyl, I won’t put them on vinyl. When we do, though, we offer a combination of colors for our vinyl releases—they’re really eye-catching. How do you find new acts? We get a lot of referrals from our roster acts. They’ll tell us if another act is worth checking out. We don’t really have any set parameters as to whom we’d be interested in. Everything goes before an A&R committee. And, if it turns us on, we’ll move on it. How accomplished does an act have to be to get signed? Relapse used to only sign acts that we could develop. That has changed, though, because of changes in the business. Now, the Internet allows us to know, pretty quickly, if an act will pop. In fact, we used to do three-record deals—now we might only do a one record deal just to see if anything happens. What type of deals do you offer? Historically, we offered traditional deals that included a three-album commitment, publishing and master ownership. But, that
“Now we might only do a one record deal just to see if anything happens.” grindcore, death metal, retro thrash and doom metal. However, the increasing popularity of extreme metal has made Relapse more mainstream, with acts on its roster appearing on magazine covers and getting videos broadcast on TV music channels, with some charting on the Billboard 200. How is your label different from other labels? We have our strengths and handicaps. We started as a niche label with extreme metal. And although we still release that style, we also cover other genres. Times have changed and so have we. We don’t really follow a strict point of view. We’ll get into anything that interests us and gets us excited. How important is social media activity? It’s hugely important and our artists have to be part of it. Our promotions department spends a large portion of their day maintaining social sites. Fans want to connect with artists, and social media is the way they do it. If an artist is not willing to put in a little time to connect with their fans, it can hurt their career. How important are live shows and performance skills? It can be a game changer, if their live shows are great. However, some of our most popular acts don’t tour. It’s more about the music. Metal fans, in particular, focus on the music and musicianship. So, they’ll buy CDs simply based on that.
has changed. Now, we’ll do one-offs and even licensing deals where the act retains ownership of their masters. It really depends on what the act wants and what will work for the label. How many acts do you sign each year? Typically we’ll sign five to six new acts per year, and release 25 to 30 new albums. Do you sign acts simply off their demo? That almost never happens—it’s very rare. If we are interested we’ll contact them, usually to let them know we enjoyed their music and ask them to keep us up-to-date on their activities and new recordings. What would keep you from signing an act? If an act has unrealistic expectations, that could be a problem. Also, if an act resists being a team player, that will turn us off. We’ve found that proactive acts are usually more successful. Do you see any new trends in the business? I believe CD sales will diminish, but won’t ever go away. In fact, I think we’re close to the floor now. Even with all of the digital retailers and outlets out there, we still sell more CDs than anything else. How do you like to be contacted? Artists can go to our website and get contact information as well as view an FAQ list. January 2015
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