Underground Metal Labels Discuss Illegal Music Downloading

SupremeBrutality.net recently conducted at series of interview with different extreme metal labels about illegal downloading. The labels were asked the same standardized questions to etablish a broader and more diverse perspective on things. A couple of excerpts follow:

Answered by Matt Jacobson, founder and president of Relapse Records [USA]:

SupremeBrutality.net: Do you feel the market is getting flooded with far too many releases nowadays?

Matt: Yes, to a degree. There are more labels and more bands and more releases then ever. I think because of that there is less quality control, so more and more artists are releasing records that in the past would not have been put out. That is not all bad, but it does flood the market.

SupremeBrutality.net: How much has illegal downloading affected your label?

Matt: It is hard to say for sure, but it clearly has. Not only downloads, but CD burning and people connecting hard drives and exchanging gigs of music at a time. There is no doubt that our bands profiles are bigger then ever as more people are listening to the music then ever, but a number of the people listening to the music don't buy the CDs or pay for legal downloads. I think there is a shift in how young people view music. Not that they are less interested in then young people in the past, just less likely to pay for it.

Answered by Ruud Lemmen, founder and current owner of Neurotic Records [Holland]:

SupremeBrutality.net: Do you feel the market is getting flooded with far too many releases nowadays?

Ruud: Oh yes, definitely. Back in the days with for instance, death metal releases, we have had say a new DEICIDE album coming out and maybe one or two more death metal releases in one month. Check your local magazines nowadays; it seems there are 100 or more death metal releases being released. Each and every month. If you see that the kids still have about the same money to spend per month they will always go for the one, two or three releases that appeal to them most.

SupremeBrutality.net: How much has illegal downloading affected your label?

Ruud: Well, that's hard to say. I'm sure it has affected us quite a bit in a negative way. Especially the younger fans [without any disrespect to them] that are say 12 to 14 years old haven't really been growing up with buying CDs, they have been growing up believing that music comes free. In a few years this aspect will become even worse I think. However, putting actual numbers in terms of loss to this is hard, as it is something we have no control over.

Answered by Scott Ellingboe, owner of Brutal Bands/Extreme Underground [USA]:

SupremeBrutality.net: Do you feel the market is getting flooded with far too many releases nowadays?

Scott: Absolutely! There are far too many labels out there, signing far too many garage bands. This all seemed to start happening in the late 1990s, and then erupted in early 2000s.

SupremeBrutality.net: How much has illegal downloading affected your label?

Scott: Well, I don't really know for sure. But I know there are plenty of people out there that don't buy CD's. They download entire CDs. They don't care about how much this hurts the very music they enjoy. Many try to justify it by saying they are helping spread the word about new bands by making their CDs available to others to download. Yet these very same people are also sharing out well known bands as well. The fact is that in this day and age, labels and bands can easily promote their new music themselves, and most do. So there really is no reason at all why labels and bands need people to illegally distribute their releases for so-called promotional support.

Answered by Billy Nocera, co-founder and owner of Razorback Records [USA]

SupremeBrutality.net: Do you feel the market is getting flooded with far too many releases nowadays?

Billy: Yes! There's just too much stuff out there and it's almost impossible to get any kind of distribution. I really worry about the future of this music everyday. It's amazing I've been able to keep doing the label as long as I have [eight years and counting]. Labels need to focus more on quality instead of quantity. Why does there need to be 50000000 releases a year? Some labels put out over 10 or 15 CDs a year — why? It makes no sense to me. Why not just do three or five and make it high quality and try harder to promote it?

SupremeBrutality.net: How much has illegal downloading affected your label?

Billy: Not sure, but I'm guessing it's hurt a lot! I've seen all our releases on download sites and stuff like that. The good thing is that most people still seem to care about actually buying the release because they want the artwork and packaging, lyrics, etc. That's why we try to put a lot of emphasis on artwork and cool looking graphics and a great presentation. There will always be true collectors out there, at least I hope so!

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