The dawn of the netlabel is nothing new, but it needs legitimization. Nathan Price, co-founder of DiggUp Tapes, talks with us about competition and artistic integrity:
Dingus: DiggUp Tapes is a DIY record label. Running completely on passion, what are some of the biggest challenges you face in A&R and distribution?
Price: Distribution is the biggest because it is basically just through online orders and whatever record stores are in driving distance. For A&R we are lucky to live in the Triangle and there are enough great bands and DIY bedroom artists that we really don’t have to look to find bands. The main reason we started DiggUp was to put out all this music that was getting made around here and only being heard by 10 people before they went out for the night. As hard as distribution and promotion is, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill is a really small place but because so much good music comes out of the area it makes that part easy.
I think the main downfall of DIY projects is that people refuse to turn away untalented friends, thus degrading the integrity of the entire operation. How do you prevent this? How do you keep artistic integrity while keeping things so personal?
Whenever someone asks us about putting out a tape and we may not be into their band I just try to tell them that they should do what we are doing and put it out themselves. I am more than happy to show them where we get the tapes, how we do the packaging and let them use our duplicator but sometimes it is just not a good fit. I think it makes the other bands that we do put out feel better when that happens too, like we are not just doing it because we may be friends or because we can’t say no but because we really like and believe in their music.
How can you possibly hope to compete with the mass media market? Is it even about that? If it’s not, then would you agree that these sorts of projects offer a more artistically inspired final composition because they ignore market demand?
It is definitely not about that. It is about growing a community and having something that you are excited to show friends and can be proud of. I don’t think I know anyone that can compete with mass media and if they do it happens from working at it and building support, or maybe they have rich parents and pay for promotion, booking agents and managers out of pocket which is just ridiculous to me.
Where do you see Digg Up heading in the future? What are your most grandiose dreams?
I think the dream for musicians 20 years ago was to get a record deal and to become famous. I talk to people in bands now and they just want to make enough to not have to bar-tend or work at a restaurant or coffee shop or whatever. For DiggUp we would love to be able to press more vinyl and have more money for packaging. We really want to try vinyl but it just seems so expensive to press. I think we will be trying out a Kickstarter for the Nieces and Nephews record in the next month or two which will hopefully raise enough so we can put it out.
