In a bored moment at my sister-in-law's for the weekend, I have resolved to start my own record label. 'Fool' I hear you all shout. But why no eh? I've been in love with music for as long as I can remember. As a boy I had a book in which I used to write down all the lyrics from my favourite songs so that I could then impress my friends with my lyrical knowledge. When I started my first Saturday job I used to get my pay packet (cash back then) just before lunch, walk down Southend High Street to Golden Disc and spend two-thirds of it on records every week. Limited edition 12 inches, cassette singles, you name it, I bought it. Age hasn't changed anything (apart from the music delivery methods) - I now pre-order cds so that they'll be delivered on release day, buy £5 'album of the week' downloads, and order boxed sets and vinyl editions of things I'm sure I'll love. And once a year on Record Store Day I queue up outside Rough Trade East to buy armfuls of vinyl releases, then take them home and play them lovingly and reverentially.
Lately more and more of the music I buy has been on small, independent record labels - new, fresh music on limited edition 7" singles, sometimes with hand-drawn sleeves. This is the kind of thing I want to do with my record label - no big album deals, just start off with one-off single and EP releases for new bands, and maybe some licensing and re-releasing of old, obscure tracks.
Obviously this will take some time to set up, and I'll need to have loads of advice and assistance from friends (i.e. take advantage of them). As a first step I've tweeted at loads of people at record labels and asked them 'What advice would you give to anyone thinking of starting a record label'?
We'll see what the responses are...
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