fonotype is an organization whose sole purpose is to promote electronic dance music, the artists who create it, and the culture that surrounds it. We give bedroom artists exposure to a wider audience, helping them to further their careers, become an example to others, and share their experience with other artists, building a strong, interconnected community.
A New Model For A Sustainable Music Business
The music business has changed. We believe, with all our heart, that these changes are for the better. The old rules of the Big Business Record Label are gone. Today, artists no longer need to get signed to a major label to reach fans and contribute their art to the world. Artists can now connect directly with their fans through online media. fonotype is committed to making this process easier for our artists.
Digital distribution has lowered the cost of getting your music "out there into the world" to the point where anyone can do it, and nearly for free. The problem is that there are so many choices, networks, tools and options that unpublished artists often don't know where to start. One of the things we do is we investigate every music distribution channel available, from traditional vinyl distribution to social networks. We establish "the fonotype way" of publishing music, and help new artists get published by leveraging our knowledge.
We only aim to earn enough money to continue to provide a service to ourselves and our community. We are committed to preventing financial matters get in the way of creating and sharing great music. fonotype is neither a profit-motivated organization, nor a non-profit organization. fonotype exist in between the two, in a rare and special sweet spot where we only aim to make enough money to continue to provide our services. We will never, ever let profits come before people.
No Contracts
As forward-thinking as we are in so many areas, there are still some things about us that are very old-fashioned. One of those things, is that we still believe in the value of a gentleman's handshake. All of our agreements with each other are spoken and understood, but not written down in legal documents. An attorney may call that reckless. We call it humanism.
We're not here to get rich; we're here to make the world, in some small way, a better place to live. If we had to cheat our artists to make a profit, as so many record labels have done in the past, we wouldn't be here. Consequently, we don't have any publishing contracts. Our artists owe no debt to us, and are free to come and go as they please. After paying our modest expenses, all the money we earn goes directly to the artists, where it belongs.
There are still the realities of day-to-day operation to consider - paying the website costs and so forth. We recognize that a certain stream of income is necessary to continue to offer our services to the world. However, instead of creating a mechanism to earn lots of money to pay all our bills, we, instead, have chosen to minimize our expenses to the point where the bills are easy to pay, without taking money out of our artists' pockets. fonotype believes that spending less is better than earning more, and this belief allows us to provide our services without separating our artists from their money.
What fonotype Is, And Isn't
First and foremost, fonotype is a service, helping our artists build their fanbase, and helping fans to connect with our artists. fonotype has elements of both a a record label and an artist management agency, but, strictly speaking, it is neither of those. A record label owns the music it publishes - fonotype does not. An artist management agency profits by acting as a middle man between artists and promoters - fonotype does not.
fonotype is a grassroots organization in every sense of the word. We started with a single artist blazing a trail through the new media industry, and then sharing the experience with another artist. We are not backed by a larger corporation. We are not puppets of a deep-pocketed investor. We are real people, real artists. We are independent thinkers. We are your neighbors. We are DIY.
While fonotype is centered around a core philosophy, we are not a hive. We are not clones. fonotype is comprised of individuals from all walks of life, with tremendously diverse backgrounds, opinions and beliefs. While we actively seek out people that share our core values, we also respect and appreciate the differences between us as a source of diversity and strength. We believe that if we all thought the same, our music wouldn't be very interesting.
fonotype is an artist collective, a community in itself, and our artists have a commitment to helping each other, as well as themselves, find success. There are no members or executives, just an officiated group of creative people. We work together, under our own management, toward common goals. We provide opportunities for artists to collaborate and exchange ideas, tools and techniques. We share risk and reward. We leverage the strength of collective knowledge to find better ways of making and promoting music. We are more than the sum of our parts.
Looking Forward
If you've read this far, you must be interested in what we have to say. Here's how to take the next step:
If you're a fan, go download some of our music and listen to it. If you like what you hear, share it with others. All fonotype music is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means, in simple terms, you're free to share it with others and remix it in any way you like, as long as you credit the original artist, share it with others under the same license, and don't make any money from it.
If you're an producer, remixer or performer, and are interested in finding out more about us, write us an email and introduce yourself - we'd love to hear from you. Depending on where you are in your music career, fonotype can help you to write better music, get your music into the hands of people who will love it, get more and better gigs, or otherwise take your career to the next level. Likewise, we believe that we can learn from your experience as well, and as we grow in numbers, we grow in strength. Together, we can create a better world, for both artists and fans, one song at a time.
J. Codec
j@fonotype.com
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