Interning on a Musical Oasis

Now Playing in the office:
The Arcade Fire- (Antichrist Television Blues)

Top 100 radio, 13 year-olds becoming ridiculously popular rock stars before their voices have had time to change, and who can even remember the last time that MTV (a.k.a. Music Television) actually played music? Today’s music scene is super commercialized and profit driven. Yet in the midst of corporate America there are still small beacons of light shining out through the crevices where good music hides. Indie record labels.

To begin with the word indie itself is vague, an over used catch-all term, so to clarify I'm not talking about hipsters who only wear vintage cowboy boots, have straight bangs across their forehead and can name 10 Scandinavian bands you've never heard of before. I'm talking about independent labels that are privately owned, staffed by a small, dedicated like-minded staff, and can't necessarily be recognized by three/four initials.

At this point I should probably include a little self-contextualizing background to help segue into this next part. So I have always been a big music fan, headphones permanently attached to my head and constantly searching for the next band to fall in love with. If I had to pick a genre I'd fit into it’d be that ever-elusive indie category (- think more indie pop/ garage-y music and less electronic stuff).

And now I'm interning at an independent record label; Original Signal Recordings which has artists such as (most prominently) Ingrid Michaelson, American Hi-Fi, David Ford, Butch Walker, Longwave and others to be named at the end of this post. So in support of all independently minded music listeners and producers, I thought I would start a blog to talk about my experience here and some of cool artists we have on our label.

DISCLAIMER: ORIGINAL SIGNAL RECORDINGS DOES NOT SANCTION THIS BLOG; I AM DOING THIS OF MY OWN VOLITION. THEREFORE IF I'M NOT PARTICULARLY INTO A CERTAIN ARTIST THEN I WILL SAY SO.

Anyway, now that the big imposing bold writing is out of the way:
Original Signal is an independent label located in New York City staffed by young entrepreneurs who have had experience in the record industry and are using the newest trends in technology to help publicize and promote bands. The label is fully equipped with all basic services including marketing (both online and offline), A&R, publicity, creative design, etc. Plus they have a relationship with Epic and a distribution deal through RED, SonyBMG Sales Enterprise and InGrooves (digital distribution).

So why go indie? Well as they put it, “We function independently of the major label system while benefiting from our close association with it. We can react quickly. We have a lean but extremely specialized staff. Most importantly, we have the freedom to only work on the projects we love.”
See basically they’re like a new breed of cat (“lean,” “react quickly”) roaming the jungle of today’s breaking artists and constantly adapting to the new technological environment and ever changing musical landscape. Now let’s just pretend that metaphor worked and move on.

It’s a small staff with no one over age 33, and a nice Soho office/loft with good tunes spinning all day long over the speaker system. It is the most chill work environment you could ever think of and houses both Original Signal Recordings and Music Nation, a self-described discovery and recommendation engine that connects fans and artists across multiple platforms using music, MP3s, videos, and all that good stuff. Check them out at www.musicnation.com.
Life as an intern here means promoting bands on that new thing the kids use called the intranet, and getting our artists music out to major radio and television outlets. The goal is pretty simple- get the music to the people. And every once in a while you get some perks like going out to see one of the artists perform, taking off your headphones to find them wandering the office, invites to private industry parties, or a private mini-concert from a potential new artist. It's all very glamorous and fabulous, or at least it sounds that way.

So in the coming weeks what you can expect is artist reviews, meeting some of the other intern staff and previews of upcoming record releases. Stay tuned music fans.

Cheers and Happy Halloween!
Laurie
laurie@originalsignalrecordings.com


A more complete listing of our artists:
Ingrid Michaelson
David Ford
Blanche
Longwave
Modern Society
Butch Walker
The Bronx
Lindsey Ray

Official Website: http://originalsignalrecordings.com/

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/originalsignalrecordings