The record label. That big, shadowy entity that "signs" artists and "releases" records, hidden in shiny office towers in New York and Los Angeles
The record labels you can find in your backyard, however, aren't quite as big and are much less shadowy. Michigan is home to dozens of labels with talented rosters — here are the stories of three of those labels.
'The only difference is that they have a billion dollars, and we don't.'
MSU alumnus Deon Jones began Black Sea Music in 2000. When his original business partner left the label, Jones turned to Black Sea's first signee and fellow former Spartan, GT Hymnself (real name Ryan McGroarty), to fill the void.
"I decided that he and I needed to become business partners to move this label forward," he said.
Their biggest step forward has been placing GT Hymnself's album "Midwest Side Story" on the shelves of major retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City and f.y.e.
"We were able to get in the stores ourselves. We didn't go to a distributor; we went directly to the stores," Jones said.
McGroarty said Black Sea gained the respect of the retailers by approaching them personally, going so far as to place a call to the vice president of Best Buy.
"They see you're serious about your hustle, which our hustle is the music, so they see you're serious and willing to put the work in, so I believe they respect that more than somebody else trying to sell your product," he said. "If you can sell it yourself, then it's going to go further."
In addition to GT Hymnself, the Black Sea roster currently boasts R&B singer M-Rey and reggaeton act Final 4our. The label also employees 17 people, though as Jones said, not even he and McGroarty are getting steady paychecks at the moment.
"We're definitely a business, from the top to the bottom," Jones said. "We're actually functioning like a major record label. The only difference is that they have a billion dollars, and we don't."
So they take the promotional opportunities they can get, like tours of f.y.e. outlets and high schools throughout the state or putting in late hours in the club handing out fliers.
It's all grassroots for now, but as meetings with major labels in New York approach, Jones said there's no reason Black Sea can't be the next Bad Boy Entertainment or Roc-A-Fella Records. Not that Black Sea would flee toward more glamorous digs.
"We want to stay here so we can discover artists from Michigan, so we can discover artists from Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, and put these artists out front on your MTVs, your BETs, and put them out there so the world can know that Michigan has talent," he said.
'You never anticipate postage.'
Given the number of bands sprouting from the fertile soil of Michigan's bedroom communities, it's appropriate that one of the state's leading independent lights would be called Suburban Sprawl Music.
Founded in 1999, Suburban Sprawl Music has grown — ever so slightly — from a one-man operation to a pseudo-collective consisting of seven bands — Child Bite, El Boxeo, Javelins, The Pop Project, The Recital, Rescue and Those Transatlantics.
"It's not like a typical job," said The Pop Project's Zach Curd. "Basically the idea behind the label is that the bands run it, so basically whenever there's work to be done, someone just volunteers to do it."
The bands took over operations for Suburban Sprawl after its founder, Erik Koppin, left to become, as Curd put it, "a real guy with a real job." Curd said that having the bands behind the wheel lends a sense of authenticity to the label.
"There's just this traditional idea of a record label, and then there are the bands, and there are the record label people, and this is a music business, stuff like that," he said. "You know, I think that's false, that's just straight-up false."
With their members spread out from Mount Pleasant to Ferndale, the bands of Suburban Sprawl rely on the Internet to stay connected and to take care of label business.
"I'll go three weeks without seeing Those Transatlantics, but we're all pretty much in constant communication," Curd said.
Though no one associated with Suburban Sprawl is currently making a living off of their band or the label, Curd said it was not difficult keeping things afloat financially. Pressing a run of 1,000 CDs costs the label around $2,000, an amount that can be made back by selling a few hundred discs.
"It's really not that costly to run a label," Curd said. "There's a lot of little costs, like postage. You never anticipate postage."
Curd said there was something special happening with music in Michigan, but admitted that he wonders if the same is true in other states and other countries.
"Does Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., have an amazing scene that I don't know about?"
The bands of Suburban Sprawl remain busy — Child Bite, The Pop Project and Rescue are releasing albums in the coming months, Those Transatlantics and Javelins are working on new material and El Boxeo just wrapped up an extensive tour of the south and Midwest.
"I'm super proud of what we've done so far, even though it's really not that much," he said. "I don't really have visions of it being like a giant media conglomerate or anything like that. If we could be like an indie label that sustains itself, I'd be happy with that."
'The label itself makes more money a year than I do.'
Operating from his old bedroom-turned-office, Ben Blackwell, opened Detroit label Cass Records for business in January 2003.
Blackwell, who is the drummer for Detroit rock band The Dirtbombs, runs his small-scale, relaxed label for bands — many of them from Detroit — that need a record label to get started or put out a quick single.
"There were a lot of recording bands that were friends of mine, that were really, really good and just not getting put out," he said. "I just wanted to put out music that I liked."
Blackwell said he runs his label as an extension of his love for music, which is the only good reason to start a label.
"If a record label exists for some other reason, there is something wrong," he said.
Blackwell used the example set by Larry Hardy, his good friend and owner of The Dirtbomb's label, In the Red Records, when launching his own label.
Among the first records on Cass were 7-inch records by the garage rock bands The Mooney Suzuki and The Cyril Lords and the original release of Detroit gothic-country band Blanche's, "If We Can't Trust the Doctors." The debut was re-released on V2 Records Inc., after about 2,000 copies were sold on Cass and a tour with The White Stripes.
"I'm fairly certain V2 was aware of Blanche from the beginning, but when they saw what I did, they realized they could do something with them," Blackwell said.
Blackwell does essentially all the work for the label, manually putting records with their packaging after they are manufactured at Archer Record Pressing Co., a plant on Detroit's east side. He then sends the finished product to his three main distributors — one for the U.S. one for England and one for the rest of Europe.
While Cass has also released a full-length album with another staple of the Detroit scene, The Sights, the majority of the label's releases have been 7-inches.
Blackwell said his label has focused on 7-inches instead of full length albums not only because they are less involved — publicists and contracts aren't necessary, he said — but also from his personal affinity for a singles-driven music market.
"My state of mind has always been, if you're in a band and you can't make an interesting 7-inch — two good songs, good cover art — there's no reason you should be doing a full album," Blackwell said.
Elvis Presley, Nirvana, The White Stripes — all those artists' first releases were 7-inches, he added.
Blackwell puts all revenue from Cass Records back into the company, making a living instead off The Dirtbombs and as a freelance writer for the Metro Times in Detroit, The Stranger in Seattle and SF weekly — San Francisco's arts and entertainment magazine.
"The label itself makes more money a year than I do," he said. "Once it gets to the point where it pays for itself, things run a lot smoother."
