We have to say: Musicans led labels isn’t such a new thing after all. However, in the past one to two decades active musicians have more and more come to founding their own labels.
In the third jazzahead! Podcast, Ulrich Beckerhoff (artistic direction team of jazzahead! and trumpeter) talks to three musicians who have founded their own labels: Robert Landfermann of the Cologne-based KLAENG records (Germany), Tobias Meier of Wide Ear Records (Zurich, Switzerland) and to Heinrich von Kalnein, founder of Natango Music from Graz (Austria).
We’ll dive deep into the reasons for musicians founding labels on their own, what this has to do with the market and in what way it is an answer to the existing label scene. Are musicians led labels a contrast to the “big business”? What all three have in common is the aim to make production easy and grant the artists an optimum of freedom. However, there are different approaches. Find out how these labels are defining their very own way of working: KLAENG and Wide Ear records have a collective-based structure whereas Natango Music is spearheaded by its founder. What are the production circumstances for artists on the label, how about PR and dividing costs – and of course: Whose music will be published?

Expect individual stories and personal insights into life and work of these musicians and their labels.

With:
Robert Landfermann, KLAENG records | klaengrecords.de
Tobias Meier, Wide Ear Records | wideearrecords.ch
Heinrich von Kalnein, Natango Music | natangomusic.com
Moderation: Ulrich Beckerhoff, jazzahead!