Welcome to Burning Cheese Fist Records! can you guess why I didn't start a logo business?
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This is the place-holder logo before a more official one is made. Anyway, my name is Leland, I'm the owner of BCF Records, and we are just going to start this one without looking back!
Being a musician, song-writer, and audio engineer, I've been exposed to a variety of angles and perspectives within the music business. There are some things that I love about it, some things that I hate about it, and some things that don't make any sense at all.
As an artist performing in bands and live groups, I have realized first-hand how hard it is to survive, and make yourself well known in the world of music. For instance, the cost of recording, mixing, gas money, promotion, merch, CD's, among countless other expenses for performing artists, hardly is recouped by the $60 (maybe) at the end of a show to split between 5 members. Selling music can also be discouraging to artists, as most do not want to spend money on music that is so easily accessible through the internet.
Though I understand the frustration of artists in today's society, and have witnessed the discrepancy in effort to payment ratios, as a fan, I also don't want to pay for music! It's so easily streamed online, and when artists are stingy about payment for albums and songs it can really turn fans away. So here we are, introduced with a problem where artists aren't getting paid enough for their work, and fans are expected to pay too much for the music they love. This paradox is the core of the formation of BCF Records. With this label, I am going to give back to the artists while still being loyal to the requests of the fans who support them.
Through professional registration of artist works under performance rights organizations, digital distribution, and royalty collection, I will start you as an artist off on the strongest foot possible in today's music industry.
I am working to have a close relationship with my artists and offer what I can to their success, including my experience in music production, live performance, and song-writing which can be further reviewed here.
So how is this record label different than any other indie record label?
When I think of typical record labels in today's music industry, there are a few key features pop up:
Long contracts (to make sure artists stay with the label and don't just bail at the first sight of success. Labels need this ensure their initial investment on the artist pays off during the artists most successful releases.)
Signing over of rights to music (there are usually two entities of music rights, one being composition - the actual song-writing portion - and one being the master recording - the official recording of the work. In agreements with record labels, these master recording rights are usually signed over to the label to enable distribution and assert partial ownership over the artists work.)
Non-diverse genre acceptance (labels usually stick to one or two genres or sub-genres to develop a brand in that genre. Each genre has a different market and set of fans so this allows them to narrow in on and specialize in a specific market.)
Though these things are important to the survival of record labels and help secure profit, I think some of these concepts are out-dated. Being part of the Burning Cheese Fist Record Label, we are going to keep these features at heart:
Freedom for artists (I believe artists deserve to get the most out of their own endeavors without signing over their lives to confining contracts and losing rights to their music.)
Less on profit, more on getting fans music they love (I feel that Labels should be focused on getting good music out to fans, and less on how much money they are going to make for the label. If fans like the music, the majority of the benefit should go to the artist, not the label.)
Diversity (I think that acceptance of a variety of genres and styles is important in today's society. It gives the label more options and opportunities to expand and introduce new concepts developed through working with different styles.)
Anyway, thanks for bearing with me on that one! For the near future news, we are in the process of registering BCF Records as an LLC and joining the performance rights organization BMI as BCF Publishing. BMI offers free registration for artists making it the perfect starting place for getting back to you as the artists. So coming soon BCF will be up and running! Currently working with some rap and hip hop style artists along with my self produced acoustic, alternative, and electronic music so stay tuned for new releases!
-Leland Holden