Unique Original Articles » Short history of Industrial Music Labels

Industrial entertainment has been around for approximately thirty years at this point. Judging by the number of fans of industrial music, the chances are it’s going to stay and grow as the music industry develops. Groups such as Throbbing Gristle who launched the movement are not as well-known nowdays as they were before, but the new wave of musicians has restored the industrial music scene.

In the past bands didn’t have the promotional instruments that they have now. Internet technology has made it simpler to promote your music, book shows and stay in touch with the fans. In the early days your self-promotion would reach as far as your vehicle could drive and your promotional methods were primarily posters and the word of mouth. Industrial record labels were created out of the demand to combine the efforts of several bands into one and place the bands under one roof. This made it more convenient for the booking agents and bands to operate since the genre was pretty new to the scene.

The first thing that needed to happen was to create the association of clubs and get in touch with the booking agents. Booking agents then worked directly with the bands who wanted to go on the road. Eventually this method was getting too complicated to handle so artist managers emerged into place. These folks would handle several industrial artists and put them in touch with the booking agents. While booking agents had several different clubs to deal with, promoters stepped in and handled the work on local level. At this point, promoters would discuss the terms with the clubs, while managers would negotiate the terms with the bands. The booking agent is likely to be the one to merge it all together.

If you had the capacity to put this whole process together, then you in fact had a record label. Record labels are actually a network of artists, managers, booking agents, promoters, and clubs, all combined, working collectively towards the same goal. Wax Trax was the first industrial music record labels to achieve this and they helped produce bands like My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and Pigface. While record labels like Interscope and Nothing gear towards more mainstream artists, one can find record labels such as Out Of Line and World Empire who focus on smaller bands and maintain a much bigger roster. It is safe to say that without the support of records labels it would be pretty much impossible for smaller and mid-sized bands to get any serious followers. Back in the day tapes ruled the market and CDs were still not on the horizon. Profitable bands were still playing local shows and the only successful tours were weekend tours that consisted of only 3-5 concerts in the surrounding states.

Once the record labels got things under control, significant things changed. Consolidated marketing efforts resulted in much better outcome and before long we had bands that were able to pull off three-week tours across the country. Another great thing was that bands didn’t need to concern themselves with the marketing and promotion as much as on delivering a better product and their performance.

Record labels absolutely made a radical change in the early stages of industrial music. The unfortunate part is that not all of them were in a position to keep up with the changes in the rapidly evolving music industry, so just a couple are still around. Some of the recent record labels that are assisting bands in industrial music are Metropolis Records and Alfa-Matrix. These labels offer a very good catalog of bands and it appears that they’re not going anyplace any time soon.

One thing that records labels have to offer these days is very different from everything they had to offer at the beginning. Some of the things they offer include disc design, production in addition to song writing services. While this may give an idea that bands are doing less and less on their own, it also demonstrates that only the record labels that are willing to keep up with the music industry will make it through.

Increasingly more artists are handling everything by themselves today, since the web has made a massive difference in the way we communicate, especially with the fans. It’s hard to predict where the future will carry the music industry, but it’s guaranteed that there will be labels or similar entities that will be able to handle the network of promoters, booking agents, managers, bands and clubs under their wing. There are more performers in industrial music today than ever before, and that means the demand for those services is surely getting higher.

Learn about Industrial Music and Industrial Music Labels.
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