#labelweek: Believe Recordings Interview

Stereofox launches a new column! The purpose behind #labelweek is to give you access to the music industry's backstage. Once in a while, we will focus on a label and on its rooster during a whole week.

We start with Believe Recordings, which belongs to Believe Group and has two branches in Paris and London. We talked with Michele Marcolungo, who is web PR. He told us more about the label within the music industry and gave us a glimpse at his job. I've teamed up with Sabrina Eleb to do this interview.

Noémie: Introduce the label.

Michele: I work for Believe Rec. which the "classic" label section of Believe Digital a digital distributive label. The fact that the core-business is digital distribution enables the firm to develop fairly well. Its a company that is turned toward the future compared to other labels, which still majorly invest on physical distribution. Digital distribution develops a lot these days, so we're in a quite positive dynamic. We suffer differently from the disk crisis. Believe Digital was created 10 years ago; it was an answer to the issues raised by the physical distribution and the crisis due to download and the internet... Then the creation of the label Believe Rec. was a response to the demand that seek other way to distribute music.

In France physical sales still encompasses 70% of the music sales. So we ought to be able to offer a widen range of possibilities for an artist. We ought to be able to adapt the offer to the artists' demand and in the same time to adapt to the market. This is what urged to the creation of the label 4 years ago. We wanted to answer the need of certain artists who wanted to go because they needed to produce physical disk - and Believe Digital did not do it yet. So it was a risk to lose digital sales as well, because digital and physical are intermingled.

When Believe Rec. was created, we started with hip hop, because it's a genre that relays mostly on the digital market. Then we have widened our offer. Now we are a team of about a dozen people encompassing marketing, advertisement, internal communication, community management...

I am in charge of the web communication strategies for artists on the internet and on the media. We all work together because we are a small team, and we work with other Believe Digital sections as well.

Sabrina: How would you define your online strategy? Are you more focused on online content or social media?

M: You don't separate the two actually. It forms a whole: social media are feed with content which are either produce by the artist, the label or the media. All 3 kind of content are different but shuffle which makes a good alternative between all of them.

Then every artist is different and has his/her own way to interact with his/her public (via web content). Thus some artists are more engaged than others.

We are here to advise them and build a strategy that will adapt to their public and maybe that will reach wider public. I am working on the relationship between artists and the web-media. Yasmine - our community manager - deals with the social media. And then product manager supervise all management and coordinate everything. So we are able to produce our own content. Within Believe Digital, there is a studio called Believe Digital studio where 5 people produce videos. And then within Believe, we have created a video section specialized on digital video distribution and audience development on platforms like Youtube and Dailymotion… 

To really answer the question, we aim at developing an organic strategy that will adapt to the album, the artist, the public, and the surrounding. Then everyone is kind of specialized: Press Relation, Community Manager... But we have a good team, there’s no division between us. That's what enables us to create cohesion but moreover constant discussions where everyone participates in. Everyone masters something in the process but we all take part in the strategies making and their applications.

Noémie: Believe Rec has two branches in Paris and in London. How do you work all together?

M: The headquarters are in Paris, the London branch is more recent. The basic idea was to share signee. Of course, we don't suggest French hip hop artists to our UK counterpart, but we suggest artists who can potentially break into the UK market. The aim is to have a project manager on both countries, to work either on the UK market or on the French market.

Breton, for instance, are technically signed on Believe Rec UK - almost mainly because they're English - but they're core-market is France. So in their case, we talk permanently with Breton UK manager about development strategies. Then it's a reflection upon how to integrate this or this medium.

About how do we sign artists, this is made hand in hand between both branches. They send us suggestion and we do the same. Then each branch decides for itself. It's great having teams dedicated to several markets; it enables the label to offer a wide range of services and a better service to artists.

 Sabrina: So as a web PR, do you follow assigned artists or do you deal with all signees?

M: Each project manager deals with a certain number of artists. Then some job positions has to deal with pretty much every project; that's the case for PRs and for the community manager. So safe few particular cases, we work with every artist covering genres from French hip-hop to electro and pop. Currently at Believe Recordings we have two sections: a “urban” hip hop section and a electro/pop section. The promotional team covers every section, even among the project managers there isn’t a clear cut between each sections. Each of them is able to work on every project whether it be hip hop or pop. However it is really different to work on a hip hop release and on an electro release for example; because the two genres do not share the same publics or consumer’s habits or even the same language.

Before working for Believe I was used to working on indie music projects. Then I discovered French Hip Hop and really it’s another world. At the beginning it was a bit difficult to accustom to different working habits, but in the end, it’s super interesting and very grateful music genre. I really respect Hip Hop fans because they’re more engaged and attentive. In a way, hip hop is everything to them. It’s a really beautiful approach and they have a close relationship to the artist: they comment, they grant him/her.

Noémie: This is linked to the street-credibility in rap, isn’t it?

M: Yes of course, it is part of it. But all in all it’s just a separate community. Like, with rock band, it’s quite different. In hip hop, you kind of have this feeling like it’s a matter of life or death. When you talk with fans, they know everything about the artist, it’s really impressive. 

Every rapper has a whole different experience and a different public. There isn’t an homogenous rap public despite what people think. For instance, in indie you’re cautious so as the album does not leak. But if an album leaks in hip hop, it’s a catastrophe!

Noémie : But as an listener or a consumer, I have sometimes the impression that some artist put their music on free download by themselves – whether it be their mixtapes or even albums.  

M: Well releasing a mixtape online is different. As for album, there has been the case of Angel Haze in US hip hop, but in that case I think it was more because she was arguing with her label and she was fed up of the constant delaying. So it’s a rather peculiar case.

Normally, if everything goes well, you defend a rap album until its release. It’s quite astonishing but in the case of rap album sales, the ratio digital/physical sales is completely turned upside down. In some extreme cases, you can reach 70% of digital sales and 30% of physical sales. When you put album in pre-order, people buy it directly. The public is super attentive as I already said. They are watchful and thus have a tendency to buy the album on iTunes if it hasn’t leaked – it a kind of a mark of respect and awarness toward the artist. But yet, if the album leak then the sales drop. In rap it’s really more important than in any other genre because it’s a market that is mostly based on the digital. And again, even in backstage, you can see that there is more careful attention put on the half of the artist, the manager or even the public. It’s really a shame if an album leak – more than on any other music genre.

 Noémie: How do you choose the artists with whom you working?

M: This is the task of our marketing director – Henri Jamet, and Believe Rec France general manager  - Romain Vivien. Henri is also A&R.

As for selection, we chose something with a potential and an artistic value that we think are worth the shot and might work on the market. Several parameters are taken into account, but you have to know that a band, who is ready to be signed, is a band who has worked a lot before. Every signature is singular and special. There are two ways: either we take into account if a band has already developed a public, if media are kind of receptive or simply; or sometimes the music is simply really good and you feel that it can work out. Either ways, the process is very long, it generally takes months.

 Noémie: I was wondering if you most generally go toward independent artists who have already a certain presence on stage and a following or do you accept suggestions made by aspiring artists who will perhaps send you demos and invite you to gigs?

M: We rarely sign band who submit us demos… In 99% of the case, it’s not that good. A label signature is related to the music quality, which automatically goes along a band preparation and all the work that has been done before. What a label does is to sell music whether it be physical or digital sales. We work at developing an artist image, and therefore the most important thing for an artist is to have a public. Yet, build a public takes time and it is difficult. So generally, when you take the decision to sign an artist you have to options:

Either you bet on an artist, because you had a musical crush on him or because someone recommend him to you, back him and you know that he has a team supporting him. You check whether he has a tour manager, a booker, an editor, who works with him, who supports him, or if he has a manager… A record company doesn’t make everything. It’s really every professionals of the music industry as a whole that enables an artist to release an album, and do a tour.

Or else, you can also pay close attention to “prescriber” media which talk about a band that professionalized and whose fanbase is growing. If the band is really good than many professionals will come to their gig be it tour manager, booker, editor…  Then each parts may make offers to the band, and if everything goes well, the artist signs on every stage of production. As I said, you need a tour manager to organize a tour so as to present the album. Yet if you don’t have a record, than you have nothing to submit to media and you can’t be discovered as an artist. So every stage of the music industry is intermingled. Now an editor or a label has become the stage that pushes the project to succeed and finance it. A band cost a lot of money: you have to record demos, find a live setting, organized empty tours to grow a fanbase…

Within Believe we have Zimbalam, which is a subsidiary. It enables independent artist to put their music online without the intermediary of a record company. That means that an artist can remain independent and still live on one’s music.  The choice has to be made on taking into account whether the artist will have time to do everything alone, and whether he/she has enough insight on his/her own music? It’s really a lot of work to do, they are a lot of things to know that most of the time musicians are not aware of, do not master or ignore. But on the other hand, artists like Wax Tailor master their own musical project on their own. He is totally independent but works with Believe for the distributive part. He has collaborators but he takes the decisions in the end. He produce his music by himself, he is his own manager. It’s possible, but it’s difficult, especially for a debutant artist. Most of the time, independent artists try to improvise when professionals know what are the stakes and the mechanism at stake. Generally it’s quite complicated for a new artist to work totally independently. To fulfill the example of Wax Tailor, it’s a guy who knows what he does, has a total control over his image. It’s one of this strength: it’s his own project and he manage it fully. He has partners because he needs some but he takes the decision in the end. Partners are here to help him complete his strategy. This is very respectable.

 

Sabrina: Can you tell us how many signed artist do you currently have on the label?

M: We don’t have much signed artist compared to other label. We are willing to work fully on on-going projects and maintain a rather calm rhythm of signatures. I can be much precise concerning the number, but currently we are working with about 20 artists. On-going projects are not necessarily released record, it can as well be recording artists. Each artist has a different rhythm of work.

There are different types of signatures: exclusive recording contract, license deals, 360 deal and so on… Every artist signs a contract that suits him/her best.

 Sabrina: In general what types of contract have you… distribution?

M: Distribution is another thing. Believe Digital offers a wide range of services for a better distribution, with services such as promotional follow-up, etc. We adapt to the artist. All in all it can be any type of contract.

But when we talk about Believe Digital, we talk about a catalog. Among European independent record companies, Believe is one of the major digital distributors up to date in the European Market. We have an important share of the independent music market. As for Believe Recordings, we are smaller. We have signed artists in recording contract like Charles Pasi, Mina Tindle or Buridane…  In the Hip hop/French rap section, we have LECK for instance. Otherwise we have different types of contract, notably license deals/ improved distribution etc. Now more an more bands want to remain the owner of what they do, so record companies adapt to this demand. The business model of the 70’s or 80’s with fixed contracts does not exist anymore. It’s no more a contract of 3 albums, you make them and shut your mouth. Nowadays you have to be flexible and work better.

 Sabrina : Can you describe your work day as a web PR?

M: Oh! It changes every day ! It depends on the period, on the releases, on many things… I can’t make a “traditional work-day” depiction really but I can disclose different aspects of my job. Actually, you can have different aspect of my work in a single work-day because every released album is at a different state of development, so basically I can switch from a task to a complete different one depending on the album I’m working with. So, one aspect of my job is planning: you listen to the album, define the objectives, plan things and define deadlines. Another aspect comes when you’re at the core of promotional work: you contact journalists, suggest to work with them, introduce them with the project, organize promotional days, schedule interviews… Then, one you know which journalist will come; you fixed appointment, watch out that we’re on time on the schedule… Three steps are really the key-part of the communication aspect of PR: planning, setting and follow-up. Concerning follow-up and reporting, you check what has been done and how. You double-check that things have been done accordingly as what you have defined with the journalist. You basically make sure everything has been done correctly. This is the job!

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