MARC GUNN: How to Run a Renaissance Festival Record Label

I'm listening to something I found on iTunes U, a service that brings college courses for free download. It's called The Folkways Collection. This actually doesn't sound like a university course, but as a documentary on the Folkways record label. It is fascinating.

Folkways was a record label found in 1948. It featured recordings that documented folk music from around the world. It was a label that might print 5-10 copies of an album every year. Yet, while it didn't print many copies of an album, it made up for it by the number of albums it released. The label released 2,168 albums before the death of its owner Moses Asch in 1986.

That's a different philosophy from the major record labels who focus on releasing blockbuster hits instead of building a large catalog that cumulatively adds up to a decent sustainable income. The Folkways method is the Mage Records method. That is how I approach releasing music.

Yesterday, Modern Bard called me "the Chuch Norris of Renaissance Festivals" because by his count, I have released 34 albums, which is more than any other Renaissance festival artist.

My reason is subtitled on my new CD What Color Is Your Dragon?. It reads "Folk Music with Delusions of Grandeur". Yes, I would LOVE to sell a million records, and be played all over the world on regular rotation. God willing, maybe one day I will. While I hope for the best I plan for the worst. I know that the more albums I record, the more solid my financial future.

And so I record. What am I at four albums this year? With more to release... Sure many of these albums don't sell well. Some about as well as the Folkways fivers, but I've earned back my money on most of them. So as I see it I'm making a profit and will continue to for years to come.

Now that's not to say releasing one studio album every couple of years doesn't have its merit. It does. I admire people who save up and make an absolute brilliantly produced album. But I believe that for the indie artist, it is better to just record, and record often. The more you make the better your ability to turn your musical passion into a long-term career of musical bliss.

Not to mention, I hate it when albums disappear forever. One of the reasons I appreciate the amazing service Modern Bard gives to the Renaissance festival world.

Originally published at Marc Gunn .com. Read. Interact. Breathe. It's easy; it's free.

Labels: scribbles

2 Comments:

At 9:58 PM, utterings said...: I think the Folkways/Mage Records method also gives many, many more options to fans. I love your music, Marc, but not every single thing you record - that you're incredibly prolific allows me to constantly support an indie artist by purchasing the songs/albums I really love, plugging them where I can, and knowing that I'm likely to duplicate my enjoyment with another of your releases in 3 months, rather than waiting 3 years between albums for a more commercial artist, praying that there's something that I'll like on the "last new thing for some time."
At 1:40 PM, keltickitten said...: I think I have to totally agree on what is said above.

Just record more for a smaller group might work better than record less, but put more money into it, to get more money out of it, like the big record labels are doing.

People have to buy CD's because they like the music. I have a feeling that some CD's are more sold because of the hype that promotors put around it. It's like your sort of forced to like something.
I heard they even have a marketingstragegy on certain tunes. Just check how the brain responds to them and make sure it will sell.

That is probably why I have a feeling I keep hearing the same beats all over in every commercial song that is on the radio and indeed ... people are still buying it.