While sitting in a pub in North London last Saturday I got chatting to a scruffy and very tired-looking man who, it transpired, is head honcho of indie label du jour Stolen Records. Now, whether you’re a fan of their releases or not, it’s hard not to admire the Stolen’s contrary attitude towards the industry. All of the bands they deal with have gained at least some level of cult success – whether that be Tap Tap’s ability to wow the blogosphere or Let’s Wrestle’s knack, as he neatly put it, for ‘collectively raising the Shoreditch eyebrow.’
So is Stolen Records as given to singing the industry jeremiad of plummeting profits and internet thieves as every other label? Apparently not. According to my new-found friend, he and the other owner of the label have hardly noticed the recession, let alone the long-term decline of the music industry. Of course, this is partly because their label is run in a remarkably digitally-savvy way: no budget is given to the artist to record (nearly all of the albums they’ve released were recorded in the artist’s bedrooms), and the physical product is only available online, bypassing the need for distribution. That said, they are not the only label to employ such methods, so the reason for their comparative immunity must be down to people being willing to pay for the records they are releasing. Which is surprising given that the type of bands they deal with are normally blogosphere favourites, and that bloggers (yours truly included) are hardly renowned for their deep pockets…
