#net-label

Six Pillars launches the season with a commissioned show from Vietnamese composer and performer Nhung Nguyễn, aka Soundawakener.

Based in Hanoi, Vietnam, Soundawakener has begun this year to release her compositions on ambient net-label Petroglyph in Norway and works to develop her own techniques of composition and improvisation. Her sounds are minimal and mostly exacted on an upright piano, and…

I'm a professional now, but officially, a very humble beginning, but that's ok too. I have this philosophy, even before I started offering pay albums, give people links to both free and pay albums of the same. There are millions and millions of people on the net and if you give a free album and sell that same album elsewhere no one will care, everyone will get their chance. That's how it is with me, music should be free, people should have a choice, if you want a free album, then you take a free album, if you want to support the artist, you can do that too. There is no reason to pirate my music, yeah it's under copyright, but that would offend me don't you think? Sure it creates more exposure, but you're doing that without my permission, I have all the rights to my music so It allows me to be in control, doing this myself. And that's where we are today, people pirate (raises hand) because they have no money, we've all done it, we're all guilty. Though I listen to people's music and have only downloaded a few albums on the net ever, so I'm 0.1% music pirate, audio software; well that's another story (broke) laughs, I plan to redeem myself; flips halo.

One of the biggest problems with past labels and artists were they expected you do nothing but buy buy buy, no previews. That's the beauty of the net, we can use it for good and still make somewhat of a living from it. I don't believe in stripping the fans of the music, and even though no one really downloaded my albums before, shouldn't give me a right to take that away from people.

So now I've setup Bandcamp payments, and iTunes, through distrokid.com. My latest album coming is -ATD- and as I've said a few times it will be both on Fwonk* Records (net-label) and Bandcamp, and now iTunes. Fwonk have done a great service to me, it got me thinking about a business model, not that I want to be rich, it would be nice to have a little extra in the pocket, musicians don't make a living these days, they make spare change, so I've heard. If you were on a major label, then yes, but people are having second thoughts about that mess, they call us the DIY musicians, though I dislike using the term because it's trendy, nevertheless, that is what we are.

Though I was solo long before others, but in 2000 I didn't know a soul on the net, no one but a small College radio played my music 1 time, and that was a special electronic show on Saturday nights. That's hardly exposure but it was fun, kind of like today, people hearing the music on a few net radio stations in rotation, it might even be the reason why some find me, thank you RKC, Rockers Drive, and friends who promote. So as you can see, there is potential, it's fun too. I found something was missing so I had to do something about it, just promoting all the time and getting a few who like the music was good but I wanted to feel professional, pursuing a music career has always been my dream and if I can only do it from my bedroom, then so be it. You meet a lot of great people in the music world. And I've learned that you promote each other, we're all here to help the other, in the 90s it was everyone climbing on each others back, that is what was so great about Grunge, everyone was there for the other guy, those times are hidden away in the Underground, so I can still be underground and have a little exposure thanks to Distrokid.com.

I don't believe in keeping music from people, people from my generation grew up to that crap, the record labels hogging all the music and you only got to hear 1/14 of a album on the radio and Mtv, though the 90s were amazing, Record companies were greedy and still are. Even though I've never ventured to a big city, I read about the record labels, I hear about things, observe what is wrong with them and it shows me why people pirate music, because the record companies continued to put higher prices on albums, our economy went south after 911 and it's getting worse, it's no wonder that no one buys music anymore.

Almark

Could it be that I hit gold? I'm usually very skeptical about things like this but these guys are based in UK and US. It's a modest but professional net-label where they showcase multi-genres, my music caught their ear. I know in a earlier post I wrote about how I wouldn't be on a net-label but that's only because of stipulations. These guys however require nothing but your music and you set the copyright to your liking, which I like. It looks like the deal is set, they want my music on their website, pretty excited about it, it will showcase my albums more, it's a good thing. Check them out, also if you're a musician add them to Soundcloud, they are very approachable.

https://soundcloud.com/fwonkrecords

https://twitter.com/fwonk

They release on archive.org and I believe their site. I've spoken to them in email and the mentality is very upstanding and friendly.

Here is their description on soundcloud.

Fwonk* is a netlabel offering free music downloads under the Creative Commons license. We have 80 releases behind us now, and are well established with a wide varied portfolio, ranging from hard hitting house, to acoustic balladry, from ambient drones to grindcore.

*pause*

First thought that went through my mind: