About AngstLAB Records...
AngstLAB Records is, simply put, a new kind of record company. We're not sure if we're the first ones to try this, but we most certainly will not be the last. Founder Mike Dailor explains why in his own words:
"As a musician and DJ, I've dreamed my whole life of the Holy Grail of the music world: getting signed to a record deal with a major label. Over the last year I've become friends with the members of Silent Auction, and realizing that it was time for them to go up to The Big Show, I set about researching the best record deal for them. You can't imagine how floored I was to learn that there is no such thing as a fair record deal (even the "best" deals are amazingly unfair to the artist), and that in fact getting a deal with a major label is probably the worst thing that can happen to a fledgling band, ensuring that they will work their tails off for years while the record label buries them under an ever-growing mountain of debt that they will never be able to pay off.
It's an incredibly complicated and convoluted business, but basically the record company charges the artists for everything they do on the artists' behalf (signing advance, pressing CD's, packaging, product returns, touring, promotions, merchandise, advertising, etc.), often at inflated prices, and then pays the band a percentage of whatever is left over after all that stuff is paid for (if ever) based on their CD sales, usually at 13 cents or less on a dollar. So in a nutshell: the record company gets fat, and the artist gets screwed.
Now to be fair, the record company *is* in the business of generating profits for the record company. But doesn't the artist who actually makes the stuff that's being sold deserve to make some money, too? If only to enable them to drop ONE of their Starbucks or Kinkos jobs and spend that time creating art instead? Well, I thought so too, and that's why I started AngstLAB Records.
Our formula is really simple: we spend only what we need to spend to put out a quality product, and once that expense is covered we split every dollar that comes in the door 50/50 with our artists. So out there in dinosaur land, an artist will sell 100 CD's at $12.99 and get somewhere between $20 and $100 in their pocket, depending on their deal. Here, they'll get $650. That's a pretty easy choice to make, isn't it? I sure think so. Thanks for letting me ramble, and thanks for supporting the artists here at AngstLAB Records."
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