When was the first time you heard about FP and what was the occasion?

I heard about FP the first time, when their bassist Felix told me that he had started a new band. I’ve known him for ages, dating back to his first band DISRESPECT, and remember being kinda surprised that hey decided to play in a “tough” band again. His former project “Battle Royal” went in a completely different direction. I never got a hold of the 1st demotape Final Prayer released so I guess the first actual song I heard was “Every Man My Enemy” from their split with CRISIS NEVER ENDS. I remember that I didn’t like the vocals too much in the beginning but was blown away by the plain heaviness this song carried and still does.

Why did you ’sign’ FP and what were your expectations concerning the release?

For years I had a policy with Let it Burn Records of only working with people I personally know and trust. So I guess what gained my interest in the first place was, that I knew Felix was a reliable and dedicated person it would be great to work with. However it’s easy to figure out that I cannot sign every friend’s band simply because I like them (well, some labels do, Let it Burn doesn’t). So it was a 4-song demo-CDR with pre-recordings of “Right Here Right Now” that made the decision very easy. This was by far the best european “heavy hardcore” I had heard in ages. I also liked their approach of adding socio-political lyrics since at that time the only topics tough bands sang about were friendship, loyalty and trust (Today it’s more about Booze, Bitches and Pimpcars, which is even worse hahaha!). I didn’t have too many expectations right form the start, in fact I never do when putting out a “first album” by a band. I just released it and did my best to let everyone know about it.

Sometimes bands make huge steps between their demo and their first album which can be perceived as a change of style, break with their past etc. Did you think about anything like that before FP entered the studio? Is there something concerning ‘right here, right now’ that you would have done differently if you would have been in the band at that time?

I know exactly what you are talking about and to be honest, I already had some hard times with bands changing their style drastically between every release. However, in the case of Final Prayer I didn’t have any concerns like this. On the one hand because of their music-style. If you play tough, metallic hardcore there’s not too much room for experiments. Sure, you can become a little more metal or write a bunch of faster, more hardcore-like tracks but the core of the music stays the same. On the other hand I quickly found out that everyone in FP loves what they were doing. They were (and surely are) 100% into it and I never saw any signs of “Oh, let’s try to be real musicians and do something totally crazy like… jazz!!!” or anything like that.
As far as their debut album “Right Here Right Now” is concerned: No, I would not have done anything differently. This is the perfect hardcore album and I love everything about it. I love the songs, the sound, the artwork, the length, the spirit, simply everything. There are not too many records I would say the same about, so this means a lot. Definitely among the top3 albums I ever released on Let it Burn. I would have had a few “suggestions” for their follow-up album “Filling The Void” but “fortunately” I was not the one to release it, hahaha

If I remember correctly you signed FP without having the chance to see the band live first. Would you do something like that again? Did you feel like you were being thrown in at the deep end?

Usually we do not sign bands without having seen them live. It’s simply an insurance that the band has a future at all. If a band sucks on stage they have exactly 1 year to improve, if they do not manage to do so, they are basically dead. Hardcore music lives from raw energy and power, something you can only experience to 100% at a show. However I had a good feeling about Final Prayer’s live abilities. DISRESPECT was an amazing live band, the same with LIFEFORCE. It was kind of a risk signing them without having checked them out live, but not a big one and in the end Final Prayer proved to be among the best live acts in our roster.

‘Right here,right now’ has been release some time ago now. From a label perspective what has changed since then? Would you release the record to the same conditions again?

I guess me and Felix could spend nights and nights discussing this topic, hahaha! You can actually get an impression at www.blog.letitburn.de. Well, to cut it short: A LOT of things have changed since then and today it’s simply not possible anymore to release a record to the same conditions. I always try to make the best offers possible but the financial risk has grown constantly mainly due to the fact that record sales (except for the ones at bands’ merch-tables) have constantly decreased. You can easily tell from the amount of labels who quit over the last years, it has become almost impossible to break even with a record, not to speak of earning some money to cover the costs of an album that did not break even. I alway try not to sound winy over this topic so I won’t go into more details. I just hope that bands, promoters, fans, bookers, agencies AND labels become more aware of the fact that strategies, prognosises, prices, offers, deals, conditions, etc. that worked perfectly a couple of years ago do not work anymore these days. It’s time to rethink and reorganize.

If labels need to ‘re-organize’ as you say, in what way do they need to re-organize? Are digital releases the future? Likewise: can Cd’s considered to be an outdated medium? Or should a hardcore label like LIB go back to the roots and only do vinyl releases?

The cd IS an outdated medium, that’s out of the question. It is bulky, slow, has only 70 minutes of playtime, does not support multimedia and is way to expensive. Of course we do not have to automatically deny everything that is outdated but compared to vinyl (which has been outdated for decades now) the cd hardly has any nostalgic value. It’s a little bit comparable to VHS-videocassettes. No one would shed a tear, cramming out their old VHS-tapes and thinking of the good old days. Vinyl has a big advantage compared to the cd when it comes down to nostalgia and “emotional value”: it is not a “passage media”, as I would call it. The cd was crucial and necessary for the shift from the analog music-world to the digital, but this process has been completed years ago. To come to the point: Vinyl is old, it is vintage, it is a technological chapter of its own. The cd was only a means to an end. That’s why I believe the cd will sooner or later disappear completely. When that will be depends on the “next sound carrier” that comes along. Do you remember when the DVD came up? It took only a couple of month and all VHS-cassettes were completely banned from the stores. That’s a great example to see how quick such “shifts” can happen. However, since there’s no “next sound carrier” yet (at least no system that is mass-suitable enough) we will live with the compact disc as main sound-carrier for another couple of years, I guess.
Coming back to the question: Yes, I believe that labels should start preparing for the digital age. Digital record sales have increased constantly over the past years and if you look over the big sea to the US, they alredy have a good 40% of all record sales being bought digitally. That’s a good indicator where we’re gonna end up sooner or later, too. The other way to go is vinyl. Sounds weird, I know, but the nostalgia this media carries is deeply rooted within the hardcore-/punk-scene. Vinyl has a great standing among collectors and music-fans all over the world and the combination with free digital downloads of the music simply leaves not many arguments left why one should not buy vinyl. However vinyl still is a niche-thing. You can only reach a “hard core” of listeners which might be cool for a hardcore-hardcore band but any band that is willing and wanting to also address listeners outside of the scene will have to look for a label which also releases other formats.

This question might sound a bit rude, but why should ‘the kids’ actually care about all this? I suppose HC has been around before the crisis of the ‘music industry’ and will be around afterwards…

No worries, I am already used to “rude questions” when it comes down debating with Final Prayer over this topic Well, even though that hardcore-scene has moved quite a bit away from what I got to know back in the early 90s, I still believe that there is a great awareness for ecological, social and political procedures among hardcore kids, these days. So why should they care about the “music industry” at all? Because they can either become/stay a cue ball of the music industry or they can start making their own decisions. The time is perfect to tell labels, promoters, bands, etc. what YOU want instead of simply taking what they offer you. It’s a little bit like breaking into Troya with a great plan and then not giving a fuck about what’s gonna happen next. The fans and listeners have contributed a big part to the crisis of the music industry by using the internet as some kind of “everything for free”-store, which was a good and important thing in the beginning. But now is the time to sort out how we all want to handle the process of creating, releasing, promoting and selling music in the future. The chance for codetermination has never been as high as now, within the hardcore AND outside of it. Say how you want to access music, scream out if you think pricing-policies are ridiculous, laugh out loud a promo-campaigns and ads that would never make you buy a record and most of all: decide consciously how you purchase your music. Labels, bands and bookers will listen to you and go into it.
It’s tough for me to speak “for” those big major labels since I do not have enough information of what’s really going on in these companies. In addition to that it is not my point to defend their marketing- and pricing-strategies. I rather focus on mid-range and smaller labels since I have a deeper view and that’s also the environment of Let it Burn Records. I see a lot of labels searching for “things that work” and if it is adding digital booklets to iTunes downloads: they do it. If it’s offering pre-order deals (shirt + cd) for 15,00 euro instead of 25,00: they do it. If it’s focusing on a nice and meaningful artwork: they do it. So, to pick up my previous point, I see way more effort and willingness among labels to step towards their “customers” than ever before.

Isn’t it a bit far-fetched to assume that big corporations like Sony or Warner will all of sudden “care” about their customers. I mean companies always “care” about their customers insofar as they want them to buy their products in order to make money. But this does in no way necessarily mean that they’ll create products according to the demands of their customers. I mean now that vinyl is coming back, Sony and Warner start selling Lp’s for 20 Euros (instead of Cd’s) – that’s ridiculous from my point of view…

Well, you said it yourself, the do care about making money (or at least surviving) and thus their customers play a key role. Even though I agree with your sample (major label’s vinyl pricing is ridiculous) I am quite sure that the time of heedlessly exploiting customers are over. For 5-7 years there’s grown too much consciousness among fans and buyers. The “illegal download disaster” has shown both, the labels and the customers, who really is in power. Sure, labels (especially multi-million-dollar corporations like Sony or Warner) will always try to maximize their profits but the times of constantly overstepping the mark are over. The labels’ role has become less important – due to the social web there’s a way stronger direct link between the artist (by the way: it is the ARTIST who creates the product. The label just throws it into wrapping paper and puts a price sticker on it) and the fan than ever before and the labels know that.

And don’t you overestimate the ‘rationality’ of us customers in the first place. If you’d ask me what I want, I’d say make music free for all. Put everything up for free download. Art should be for everybody to enjoy, not only for those with enough money to buy it. How are you gonna turn this attitude into a new marketing strategy for independent labels?

One thing that hasn’t changed during the constant decline of CD sales is the average amount of money each customer spends on music in general. It’s easy math: If someone saves 12,00 Euro for not having to buy an album he/she will surely spend this money on a concert ticket and/or merchandise item The general purchasing power has not decreased at all, it’s simply channelled into a different direction. If independent labels now thoughtfully reorganize their marketing- and pricing-strategies they will surely regain their core business: selling music. By the way, I agree with you that art should be accessible for everybody to enjoy but I totally disagree that it should be offered for free, no matter what. Artistic value might not be something you can fully compensate with solely money but to a certain degree “paying” for art (especially when the production-process – studio, artwork, pressing, etc. – has caused expenses) is just a reasonable thing. So if people claim to get things, they impute a certain value to, “for free”, it’s highly contradictory, if you ask me.

Why the re-release of ‘right here, right now’? Simply to make some money without having to invest in studio budget, artwork etc.?

First of all: we DID invest in a beautiful new artwork hahaha The idea came up once the original “Right Here Right Now” album was sold out and it was about time to do a repress. Usually a repress below 1000 copies does not make much sense and my prognosis for selling another 1000 copies of “Right Here Right Now” was pretty bad. So we thought about making it a completely new release, with a new artwork and, most of all, with a new “value” for the fan, listener, buyer. We added some rare and unreleased demos, split-songs and compilation tracks, called it “Best of Times” and thus created an “early discography” that documented what Final Prayer had recorded up to “Filling the Void”. For the band it is a precious “time stamp”, for the kids it is “value for money”. We sell the CD for a really fair price and so far the feedback has been great!

How do you envisage the future of LIB rec.? It seems that some diy labels continue to operate rather well despite the ‘crisis’ that hit the music industry during the last decade, while others cease to exist. Where do you see the future of diy labels in the HC-Punk sector?

Well one of the basic ideas of a subculture is to stay functional far off what the mainstream does. So when the “music industry” suffers from a severe crisis it is still possible to run a small diy-record label, maybe even easier. However, as soon as you’re among the – let’s call it – ’semi-professional’ labels you’re kinda “playing with the big ones” and also suffer among the same preconditions as they do. It’s easy to say: “well, why not break everything down to DIY-level then” but the things that “semi-professional” bands (same prescription here) such as Final Prayer, Teamkiller, Zero Mentality, To Kill, etc. expect from their label, may it be concerning promotion, distribution, reliability or simply general label-business, is far off DIY-level. And to be quite honest: I love the “level” Let it Burn Records is on. It is something that can be taken seriously but at the same time it is not something that can financially break my neck since I also have a “real” job.
So coming back to the question where I see the future of diy-labels: I think the process we have witnessed over the past 5-6 years will continue, maybe even accelerate. That means the smaller labels will focus even more on low-level, diehard-DIY bands/releases (limited vinyl pressings, etc.) and the big labels will continue trying to find out how to finally squeeze more money out of kids and bands. And Let it Burn Records? Well, we just do OUR thing.

Do you think it’s possible that through the demise of the record industry possibilities to get your hands on independent records will actually become more narrow, because only a few big players will survive, themselves ending up with some sort of quasi-monopoly over the market? Or I am not taking the multiple channels of the internet enough into consideration here?

Nope, I don’t see any risk like this. There will always be bands wanting to present their art/music and they will surely find ways to do that. If everything fails and record labels just don’t get it, things might break down to a more diy-level again, making the bands doing it themselves. As you indicated, the internet has a lot of potential in this context. A risk that I do see, though, is a limited amount of major labels holding the monopoly on a certain sound carrier or transmission path for music. an example: Just image Sony or Warner (or Microsoft, or Apple, or Google, etc.) develop a new and easy way to buy and consume music that EVERYBODY follows. They’d surely have a dangerous monopoly on that. It’s a bit like the combination “Apple iTunes + Apple iPod” which nowadays is the most common way of consuming music. Even though this “system” is the most successful these days, it is far away from being a monopoly. You can add your own mp3s to your iTunes library (you don’t have to buy all your music from iTunes) and there’s dozens of other audio-players and media libraries you can use. However such things change quickly these days and the risk of a big corporation abusing their advantage definitely is high.

In fact it was the release of FEAR MY THOUGHT’s debut album “23″ that accelerated the label growth for the first time. Even though there was no other label interested in releasing their album, there was already a bit of a “hype” around the band which rapidly lead to 1500 sold (oh well, most of the cd’s were traded for other label’s crap we never got rid off) copies. The band played constantly and the name “Let it Burn Records” got heard by more and more kids. FEAR MY THOUGHT’s second album “Vitriol” followed shortly after and doubled the buzz around the band and the label.

The next “big thing” for Let it Burn Records was continental licensing. SAVING THROW, ARMA ANGELUS (whose members are now in RISE AGAINST and FALL OUT BOY), SCARS OF TOMORROW and others were released for Europe. Unfortunatelly most of the bands never came over to tour or split up before they got a chance, so this kind of cooperation never was as close and thrilling as with European bands.

In 2003 we released another crucial debut album. This time it was a new and hot band from Hungary called BRIDGE TO SOLACE which had already gained international attention in a slightly different line up under the name: NEWBORN. BRIDGE TO SOLACE’s music was punk, hardcore and metal alike and it seemed as if the band offered what everyone had been waiting for. “Of bitterness and hope” sold 3000 copies and it’s successor “Kingdom of the Dead” another 2000.

It was until 2006 when we had the next “big album” at Let it Burn Records. FINAL PRAYER’s debut “Right Here Right Now” marked a new musical direction for the label (we hadn’t really released any “tough” hardcore so far) and attracted a whole bunch of new kids who had never heard of the label before. The album went well, just like the career of FINAL PRAYER, who, among very few others, form the spearhead of European Hardcore these days.

In 2007 we only had one release (the biggest failure by the way, we still have around 70% of the first press on the shelve) and everything that we put out since 2008 basically forms our current roster: RED TAPE PARADE, THE CASSIDY SCENARIO, STORM&STRESS, TODAY WE RISE and DEATHSPIRIT.

Our latest signings BLACK FRIDAY ‘29, ZERO MENTALITY, TO KILL, TEAMKILLER and GOLDUST outline very well what Let it Burn Records has become in 2010: One of Europe’s leading hardcore labels.

I am VERY proud of what we have accomplished within these 10 years. Most other labels that started their business around the time we did, called it a day when the music industry started suffering from “digital age cataclysm”. Without sound winy, we also had hard times and still do, but working with such amazing bands and releasing music that we personally go crazy to is one of the best things in the world. As long as this label pays for itself Let it Burn Records will be around delivering high quality wild music. That’s for sure.

Everyone who has ever seen BLACK FRIDAY 29 play “Kill this Dream”, “Pressure Release”, “Open Letter” or ANY other song from “The Escape” live, knows what I am talking about and most likely shares the same feeling for this album as I do. I’ve seen some of the most impressive singalong-scenes, highest pile-ons and most crazy stagedives to these songs. I’ve seen kids going crazy to this everywhere for 5 years straight now. With “The Escape” BLACK FRIDAY 29 have created something indestructible, something to outlast decades.

I am more than proud to able to rerelease one of my alltime favorite hardcore records on my label.

Preview and download: LET IT BURN RECORDS app

I am aware of the fact that there’s no real “need” for label-apps yet but being one of the first indie-labels to get this up an running definitely feels nice. I am sure hundreds of labels will follow and soon having an iphone app will be as common as a website, myspace-page or twitter account.

Apple’s keynote is not over for 5 minutes and the WWW immediatelly starts discussing (best case) and bashing (worst case) about the new alpha dog in digital media: the iPad. I spent a couple of hours over my decision whether to write an article about the iPad or not and – most obviously – decided to do it. In case you wonder why, you might have to wait for my last paragraph.

All this buzz about the iPad which is going on right now mainly is about its features/capabilities, its pricing, its overall “meaning” for our workaday life and most of all about its success or failure. You will find loads of blogs about technical details, also about the pricing policy and it’s predicted developement on the market. The issue I want to pick up in this article is the “meaning” of the iPad or – what fits my point more precisely – its “power“.

Even if the iPad presented yesterday is not the non-plus-ultra multimedia-device (infact there’s some important things missing: a camera, flash-support, maybe usb-ports and sd-card-slot, the often requested multitasking ability, etc.) it’s overall “meaning” and “power” is unfathomable! It’s nothing less than a digital revolution.

When you saw Steve Jobs sittng on his couch last night, holding the iPad in his hands it was crystal clear that this is the way we all are going to live out our digital lifestyle for the next 3-5 years (or maybe even beyond that). This is the way we’re gonna surf the internet, read books and magazines, check emails, watch movies, share photos, play games and do a little office work along the way. This is the future and it’s going to take place on our couches, yippee-ki-yay!!

It may not be THIS iPad generation (the SDK already reveals some great features for future generations), maybe it’s not even a neverending “Apple only” victory like the iPhone (Infact the competitors have learned a lot from their past mistakes. The first “iPad-killer” was released even 3 months before the iPad itself) but three things are unquestioned:

• this is the way to go
• everyone will follow
• and once again Apple was the company who set the agenda

So why is the iPad relevant at all for a blog that is circuiting around music in general and detail. Well if you had read my postings about musicDNA, iTunesLP, the death of the CD and the argument over haptics, you would know!

Besides videos, lyrics and extended artwork, MusicDNA is capable of carrying blog-information that can be continously updated everytime the user/file-owner goes online. A file size up to 32GB is possible.

MusicDNA is said to be released in late summer 2010. Leading recordlabels have already shown large interest and iTunesLP-inventors Apple will definitely keep an eye open, too.

In the US there’s quite a lot small music portals/communities which have specialized on the promotion of young, yet unknown bands. ‘Bottom up”, so to say… Since the idea is as genius as it is simple there’s no further explaination needed, so I am just gonna introduce you to the most important platforms:

1.)  Pandora
Most of you might have heard of this website already. That’s the scary tool that analyses your taste of music and introduces you to bands that you ought to like. Big fun, loads of band information and soon available on your car stereo!

2.) iLike
A very flexible music discovery tool that can easily be connected with facebook (most facebook-band-pages use the iLike-plugin as an audioplayer), myspace, twitter, etc. 30 second clips of all tracks are available along with shitloads of free mp3 downloads. Can also be added as a widget to your iTunes installation.

3.) TheSixtyOne
“democratizes music culture”… Right, this means the FANS are able to rate and comment on all tracks bands make available on TheSixtyone and not a paid or corrupted editorial staff. The website hast just recently been redesigned and fueled with a long list of great features that makes it almost irresistable. Great concept, great realization, great music!

4.) Last.fm
This is the only music discovery website which is already established in Europe, too. In difference to Pandora it  suggests artists that you might like but not because of musical attributes but based on other fans’ listening preferences. Also for show-announcements last.fm becomes more and more essential.

5.) Midomi
Midomi works similar to Shazaam that everyone should know by now from embarrassing tv-spots. The only difference is that Midomi also recognizes whistling and singing instead of only a song playing on the radio. Crazy, huh? iPhone app, android, nokia and windows apps available, too.

6. Hypemachine
Hypemachine understands itself as “blog aggregator”. The intro of the well structured website says: “every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love — and it all ends up here.” . There’s LOADS of free music and an iPhone app is in the works.

7.) JamLegend
The last one for today is the most fun one. Jam Legend basically is the “everybody’s version” of Guitar Hero and Rockband. You can play songs by more than 350 artists (a lot of heavy music by the way) using the website’s interface our your own controller. Its a constantly growing community with great competitions and rankings while the best part is: It’s all for free.

As I mentioned above most of these services are only available/big in the US at the moment but I am sure you are geek enough to find a way to log in anyway. If not you might have to wait for another couple of months / years but at least you’re “prepared” now.

Bull-Shit! I am so intangibly sick to death of hearing the same old argument over and over again. YES the CD is an obsolete medium. And YES artworks and lyrics are an essential part of almost every album. But cross your heart: How many times do you actually go to your CD shelf, pick out the album you want to listen to, throw it in your stereo, sit down and hold the booklet in your hands? That’s right…

EVERYONE uses iTunes (or one of its few noteworthy peers) and has a mobile mp3-player. That’s the way we consume music in 2010. The funny thing is, that even though we are talking about “11111s” and “00000s” all the thought, passion and hard work bands put into creating a great album consisting of all three, music, lyrics and artwork, is still momentous and most of all available.

Notwithstanding I am one of those old school digital immigrants, my CD rack has been collecting dust for years now. I own over 1000 CDs, basically all my favorite music, but I would rather buy an album a 2nd time in iTunes before I listen to its physical equivalent. I know I am not alone and I allege that the time we spend with our digital music library by far exceeds the time we are actually listening to physical CDs. People spend hours and hours to organize, rate, rename or update their media libraries. And guess what, they love it! They stare at their “cover flow” and feel proud of the great record collection they grow.

iTunes is the new CD shelf. The cover-flow is the new visual AND haptic (most mp3 players support “skipping” through your cd collection with two fingers or other multi-touch gestures). And almost every songtext that has ever been written is available on the internet. But this is just the beginning. Think of iTunes LP, the new album-format that not only includes mp3s and a cover image but also videos, pictures, multimedia content and interative gimmicks of your favorite band. Think of large multitouch displays in your living room. Think of new multitouch gestures that allow you to skim through a virtual booklet. Think of animated album covers that uncloses an artist like Jake Bannon a complete new dimension of expressing his band CONVERGE. Or think of a “mood” button that shuts down the lights in your living room, projects an animated cover on your wall and allows you to dive deeper into your favorite album than you have ever dreamed of. Some of these ideas might still sound very futuristic but others are just a stone’s throw away and might decorate YOUR living room in a few months already.

See, I run a record label and I still print my releases on CDs. I know that there is a market for physical sound carriers left and my urge is not to devaluate or diss compact discs. I just want to call up all those Luddites who have not recognized yet that the digital age of music consumption has already reached their own personal lives years ago. Wake up! And check your habits… and haptics.

40% of all record sales in the USA in 2009 were digital… Another 2-4 years and we might have the same numbers at European music markets as well. Note to self: rethink distribution and marketing strategies.

For more information check blog.nielsen.com