Branding, eh? What a horrible term. You may be already thinking of focus groups, ad campaigns, politicians and media types in their gently amusing eyewear. You'd have a point. But in the new, web 2.0 world of self-releasing music, DIY labels and blogs, it's also actually pretty essential stuff. Why? Well, brace yourself, and read on... As we've mentioned plenty of times on this blog, although it's easier than ever to make your music accessible to the world, when everyone and his dog uploads their tunes and starts up a Facebook page, it suddenly becomes harder to get your voice heard above the noise. There are all sorts of tactics to combat this, but when you start to look at some of the best and most popular labels and crews, a pattern starts to emerge.
Take Swamp81, the ultra-cool label currently run by Loefah. At first glance, it's just another label, albeit one that happens to be very popular right about now. But on closer inspection, it has actually been very smartly managed. The music is, of course, very tightly curated. The A&R process is very strict, quality control is high, releases are relatively infrequent. The overall effect is of a label that's very careful about the music it releases. But it goes further - the music is all aesthetically linked; it's stark, it's stripped back, it has a futuristic machine vibe, while still referencing 80's electro and UK urban culture. That's the first hint of branding. The label name ties in with this too - Swamp81 is a reference to 1980s UK inner-city issues (see Wikipedia for confirmation...).
On top of that there's the graphic design. The design of the artwork and website also ties into the overall aesthetic; it's minimal, it's moody and it's very consistent (it's almost all done by the same person, French artist Ashes57). That might seem like an obvious thing to be doing, but it's a fairly recent development for a lot of dance music. Consider all those 90's house and jungle records with stupid cartoon characters on the front and poorly handwritten sleeves! A lot of labels still don't feel the need to tie their visual and sonic identities together like this, but it's certainly important to consider.Looking deeper, there's T-shirts and merchandising - the design ties up with both the music (by having the design 808/909/727, the label are explicitly drawing the connection to the 80's, drum-machine, electro influenced sound of the music) and with the overall minimal visual identity. The t-shirts and jerseys are limited runs, just like the vinyl-only releases. There are also the parties, which bring everything together - the design on the flyers and the sound of the music.
The overall effect of all this is extremely strong - it makes the label into a memorable, instantly recogniseable brand. When you hear one of the records, see the artwork or see a t-shirt, you could guess it's Swamp81 even without a logo or name. This is very important - it makes the label stick in people's minds over and above the million other labels out there vying for your attention.
There are plenty of other labels that could have been case-studied here - such as Night Slugs or Sound Pellegrino - but in all of them, the ethos is the same: a strong and consistent musical vision, a very clear visual identity, and just an overall 'vibe' that stretches across everything they do.
This doesn't just apply to labels, either - take the live streaming site Boiler Room, or an artist like Seiji, who self-releases his tunes and puts mixes on his own website. It all adds up to create something that is more memorable to the average music listener - and that will translate into more return visits, more hits, and more listeners!As you can see, it's not just advertising, or substituting something else for the music - it's all about making sure everything you do is for a reason, is linked together and works as part of a whole. And now, when artists need to be doing a lot of their own promotion, online press and even artworks, it's even more important. So next time, before heading out for your photoshoot in another dark hoody to stand in front of another generic example of urban decay, think a bit more about what you want to say with your image. And then work that brand!
