Digital looks at two bloggers who took very different approaches to starting a record label.
“Who is Sliimy?” was a phrase bandied about by many music celebs like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Britney Spears on Twitter last month and within hours most of their followers (and intended audience) found out whether they wanted to or not. Sliimy turned out to be the first signing to celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton’s major label-backed record label Perezcious ( like “precious” but harder to pronounce), a French Mika-esque pop star with funny hair who releases an album in September.
Perez had enlisted the help of his celebrity friends to promote Sliimy to the masses. Perez may not be as groundbreaking as he intends to look though. Sliimy is already signed to Warner in France so Perez’s endorsement is merely an attempt to help Sliimy break into the U.S. Market.
While Perez has the pop culture platform for endorsing artists through tours and labels, on the other end of the scale, most are still relying on word of mouth and blogger recommendations to help them get where they want to go.
You couldn’t get more of a polar opposite to Perez than Neon Gold Records. The “boutique” New York-based label started by two New York college kids Lizzy and Derek began life as a blog in August last year with the express aim of releasing 7-inches of artists they were excited about. They used the music blog as their mouth-piece for getting the acts noticed and then would release 500 copies of each release, creating a hip label that majors now look to for upcoming acts.
Their indie-buzz acts have gone on to secure major label deals as the two became known as online tastemakers. Their first release was Passion Pit’s Sleepyhead – a band now signed to Sony, followed by the wonderful Marina and the Diamonds - now signed to Warner and playing Electric Picnic next week.
Most recently, Neon Gold have been bigging up the likes of London’s Ellie Goulding, Australian popster Goyte, Boston’s synth-heavy Yes Giantess, Swedish DIY pop band The Sound of Arrows and David Byrne soundalike Wolf Gang.
It proves that even without the mega-dollars hoarded by the likes of Perez, you can still make a difference. Expect many of these bands to be on the major label release schedule come the end of the year.
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