In too deep: When signing to a major label goes very, very wrong

Record labels are at the beating heart of the music industry. They are hubs of inspiration, playing an essential role in cultivating new musical styles and nurturing artists. But they need to be independently-minded, and helmed by forward-thinking and passionate people.

Underground dance music is defined by its independence, and as reflected in our Top 20 Labels of 2016 feature, all of the imprints responsible for curating the most interesting records right now are small-scale operations that prioritise music and innovative ideas.

On the other hand, major labels can look like an appealing prospect. Artists need to get paid and they want to be recognised for their work. Majors offer more money and more exposure, but they are operations that can often come with baggage that taints the deal to an unworkable extent.

An artist like Prince provides an example of how sour these relationships can turn. Throughout the final years of fulfilling his Warner Bros. contract he appeared with the word “slave” written on his face during contractual obligations and changed his artist moniker to an unpronounceable symbol to protest the company's ownership of his work as Prince.

Once freed, Prince (or The Artist Formerly Known As) pioneered many of the industry’s now defining features, such as being the first person to release an album online with ‘Crystal Ball’ in 1998, launching the online streaming service NPGMusicClub in 2001 and giving away his 2007 album ‘Planet Earth’ for free (via the Mail On Sunday). In 2015, he repeated his warning: “Record contracts are just like, I'm gonna say the word - slavery. I would tell any young artist - don't sign.”

In the electronic music world the story of FischerSpooner is perhaps the most famous example of how messy working within a high stakes deal can get. The electroclash duo with roots in the art world made serious waves with a series of shows that trod the line between performance art and music gig. A bidding war was sparked for the release rights of their debut album ‘#1’ in the US. Ministry Of Sound saw it as their ticket into breaking the States, and if rumours are to be believed, tied up a multi-million dollar contract, described by member Casey Spooner to RBMA as “a ridiculous offer that was just stupid not to take.”

As it panned out, the marketing budget was blown through in three months and Ministry of Sound co-founder James Palumbo claimed “four albums, or maybe five” were sold. “It definitely wasn’t ten.” Nearly everyone involved in putting together the deal was sacked, and the contract was bought out by Capital Records for a proper in release in May 2003, by which time the hype had died completely.

FischerSpooner’s tale indicates large amounts of money can be more disruptive to the work of musicians than helpful when a business perspective becomes the dominant impulse, a viewpoint fuelled by our monthly guest columnist The Secret DJ in a recent article in which they wrote “major labels call themselves a business, but are insanely unprofitable, utterly uncertain, totally rudderless and completely ignorant.”

French producer Alexkid, who has done remix work for a number of major labels in his homeland, shares similar experiences, telling us: “[Major labels] call you because they want to have a bit of that street credibility that independent labels have,” but “they’re people who don't come from a musical background; they come from business schools so they just apply recipes on how to market to people.” This has played out with him being sent unsuitable tracks to remix with the naïve demand that they get played in clubs, sometimes directed in nonsense jargon. “I've had people give me a pitch as colours and shapes: ‘This has to sound like mint and amber'. It's just like, I don't know what you're talking about!”

Talking about how his experience working with independent labels differed, Alexkid said: “There's a bit more freedom of choice, and at the end of it all having some freedom is quite priceless. When someone puts a lot of money on the table for you then there's a whole group of people having an opinion of how you should do it, and one way or another you end up being influenced by peer pressure and some of the decisions eventually are not yours.”

In his Resident Advisor Exchange, Artwork noted that although happy with Magnetic Man’s major label deal, the amount of money thrown at them did have a destabilising effect on the production initially. Artwork reveals that they hired a mansion in Cornwall to work on the LP, and his collaborators Skream and Benga went “fucking stir crazy” in the remote location. After a full six weeks a group of big wig executives came to check on their investment. The trio had made one song that had the lyrics: “Ketamine, check. Cocaine, check. Ecstasy, check. Let’s party.” They quickly returned home to Croydon and made the album in earnest.

For other artists, the money on the table from majors has resulted in more sinister and controlling outcomes. Kissy Sell Out, who has worked with multiple major labels, has been on the receiving end of executives trying to forcibly impose creative decisions on his music.

While Kissy was recording his first album in Bath he was visited unannounced by a member of the major’s marketing department. “He very rudely demanded that the studio engineers, singers and studio owner stepped outside to leave me and him alone,” Kissy recalls. “He pulled me out of my chair and sat opposite me on a table. He took off his tie and suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves and then, I promise you, he said: ‘Look Kissy, let’s cut the shit ok! I wanna chat man-to-man. I don’t care about your music right now, but listen. I’ve had a nervous breakdown and my wife has left me.’ Being only 23, and painfully shy in those days, I had absolutely no idea what to say. He continued: ‘You’ve got a lot of money to make this album, so let’s spend it. You’re going to work with the songwriter for Britney Spears, and that’s final!’ He stormed off back to his car, and I licensed my album away from the major label a few weeks later. I never did work with the songwriter for Britney Spears.”

Kissy has now launched his own independent label Stepper Man, which has put the wastefulness of majors into stark perspective. “The reality of advances can hit you like a cold shower,” he says, listing off the lengthy list of costs that see the money squandered “without you realising”, such as “first class travel to get your A&R person to the studio each day”.

“The label even began to insist that I should spend £30,000 on getting my album mixed-down by the engineer for Kanye West at one point, and threatened to drop me if I didn’t reach a compromise,” he adds. Now working independently, the costs for the latest release from Sirmo titled ‘Badman’ on Stepper Man amounted to the electricity of two computers. And a video he knocked up in two hours on Adobe Premiere amassed 2.9 million views in a week on Facebook. “That is what being an independent label manager means to me – it’s a passion.”

Pursuing his passion for music is one of the factors that contributed to Colin Bailey recently droping his Drums Of Death alias and launching his new independent project Austin Ato. “I realised I’d fallen into the industry too deep, it wasn’t for me. My heart definitely wasn’t in it,” he tells us. “I love weird, beautiful records and I don’t care about poppy ‘crossover’ tracks. Austin Ato is me reclaiming my love for obscure house, disco and afrobeat. I don’t need majors, they’re good if you make that music but I don’t, my friends don’t. I’m much happier now.”

Kissy Sell Out says much the same. “My music means everything to me, and I have learnt that working with people who believe in what I am doing is the only way to be happy,” he states. “If you can get that from a major label, then good luck to you.” For artists wanting to make music that is fresh and true to their personal vision, evidence suggests keeping it independent is the only way to go.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer, follow him on Twitter