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one year I will call time on the label, but then
as these things do I came across the very
vibrant and exciting Bassline genre, then the
UK Funky genre started to blow up and one
signing led to another (that positive knock
on effect) and here we are today. I have
been very fortunate to have and still am
working with some of the best there has
ever been - both music and tech equally
important - the old music industry and a
new music industry running side by side.
BitTorrent - made with and for the
web's creative community.
I came across BitTorrent Bundles via
following Matt Mason on twitter, Matt
works for the BitTorrent company out of
San Francisco, USA & he was previously at
RWD Magazine (founding editor-in-chief,
and he also wrote The Pirate's Dilemma
(2008). I had previously been in a deal with
EMI but decided to leave after 3 years - it's
an honor to have worked with such an iconic
company but leaving felt like the right thing
to do at that point - I was also asked if I
would like my label to go via Warner Ada,
which I declined. At the time it just felt like
the old industry was lost when it came to
technology and it seemed they were
struggling to see my vision as did radio who
were watering down British Black / multi
cultural music, but these guys at BitTorrent
were technology, so it really did just make
sense. I decided to give the BitTorrent
Bundles brand one of my projects which was
a few years old, I entitled the release 'The
Best Of UKG EP' which was originally a 3 part
EP entitled UKG 2012 EP 1,2,3 and the
results were actually very very good,
considering I did no online promo - it just
seemed to take on a life of its own within
their seeding system, I then decided to
upload another in the Kayla L'ayton The
Remixes EP - again this was impressive, but
the big question was once the paygates go
up would the service be as successful as the
free download? Well, this is where we are at
now - the great thing about our community
(be it online or in the field) is I have seen
some of my contacts from our promo list
go on to use and are now using that service
with great results, which is a great thing -
the net is there for all, when these things
happen naturally that really does make me
happy - I have those, I did that / made that
happen smurk. And radio in the past few
months seems to be heading towards
where I saw music, which is a great thing -
you have to acknowledge / respect radio
pd's when they get on the right path and
even more so when they drop you an
apology email :)
The Developing Music Industry
I like the new industry, we recently saw Jay Z
and a whole host of artists come together
with a new streaming site, Tidal, which I
expect will develop into much more with
time - and of-course the live aspect is
thriving. Most music fans I speak with always
comment on how excited they are to see
their favorite artists live. In our dance
community I am constantly seeing festival
campaigns for dance music, in-fact I am
constantly saluting friends of mine who
have made / or are making that transition, it
really is impressive and a breath of fresh air -
we all seemed to come
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