Premier League’s Future Assessment
The end of a calendar year is usually a good time to assess previous decisions and developments and plan ahead for the year to come. It’s no different with PLR, that’s why I’d like to share some of the background behind decisions for the next 12 months and the way the label is heading. This should be interesting to read for anyone involved with the label, either as an artist or a supporter.
Looking Back On 2021
In many ways 2021 is a year to forget as soon as possible. With all the restrictions due to COVID on a global scale, nightlife and festivals being one of the biggest victims of these restrictions and a huge uptake in costs for daily living, it has been a very bad year in general. It’s no surprise this trickles down to music and label management as well.
I cannot pinpoint the many downsides we have experienced to just COVID. There are many areas in which the label still can improve. Especially when it comes down to socials and marketing. Truth is, 2021 was a poor year for Premier League Recordings, despite reasonable investments. Hype features dropped to zero in a few months, despite paying the subscription fee and applying for it through a form. Sales and quarterly revenue decreased while the total amount of releases increased compared to 2020. Every release comes with an investment, whether it’s financial (mastering, promo, Beatport Hype) or in time (artwork, copywriting, uploads, social media, feedback). When you see that the money and effort put in doesn’t return in results it starts to put a weight on these things and makes it harder and harder to stay motivated. Being fully transparent, the label had a turnover of at least -€2000,- (that’s a negative amount) in 2021. This hasn’t put the existence in danger, but all had to be compensated from private savings to keep the label afloat.
On the bright side, 2021 did have some positives as well. I’ve noticed that the way people speak about the label is very positive in general. I am happy the label has provided a stepping stone for some artists to release their first track or increase their exposure. Both social media followers and label followers on Beatport increased a lot. Streaming numbers (mainly on Spotify) did improve as well. All these things make it worth to stay motivated and keep on going with the label, heading into 2022.
Looking Ahead For 2022
It’s obvious however, that with such a negative turnover, this cannot continue forever. Things have to change, even when some are with heavy heart and go against the vision and approach I’d like to have for the label. That’s why I want to give a quick overview and explanation on the decisions for next year.
1.) With immediate effect, Premier League will no longer be a Beatport Exclusive label.
Main reason for this is that Beatport takes a too large share from any sales (at least 50%). The benefit of being a Beatport Exclusive label is mainly to be able to ask more for a file during the exclusivity period (€1.99 instead of €1.29). However, people that don’t need a track straight away usually wait with their purchase until after the exclusive period anyway. While at the same time the exclusivity limits the label to release on other platforms.
2.) As an alternative for Beatport, Premier League releases will be available exclusively through our Bandcamp for the first two weeks.
After these two weeks, the releases will become available on Beatport as well. To avoid any confusion, Premier League Recordings will not be leaving Beatport!
Bandcamp only takes 15% from a sale. If you like to support the label and artists, hit the follow button on the Premier League Bandcamp page and buy your music through there, because a lot more of your investment ends up with the label and artist(s), compared to Beatport. We will offer compatible prices to the ones on Beatport, but the additional benefit as a user is that Bandcamp doesn’t make a difference between Mp3 and Losless files. You’ll receive the Losless track (FLAC, WAV, AIFF) for the price of an Mp3 and you can download both at no extra cost. In addition, we will run our own discounts and special packs from time to time on Bandcamp too. Including sales of merch and physical media (when available) such as CD’s or Vinyl.
3.) Premier League Recordings will stop using Beatport Hype around April 2022.
Beatport Hype is a subscription based model, where a label needs to pay a monthly fee of €9.99 in order to be featured on the genre home page and chart in the separate Beatport Hype Charts. Artists often like to share these charts on socials, but that’s currently the only benefit for using Beatport Hype. After accepting more and bigger labels to Hype this year, Premier League hasn’t been featured on the genre home page a lot anymore. A feature immediately increased sales, so this has been a negative development. Overall, sales declined and PLR currently doesn’t break even on the subscription fee at all. This gives the feeling we currently only pay for the chart and social media shares of artists, while any profit from track sales evaporates with the monthly fee.
We give it some time before cancelling Beatport Hype, because we already signed artists for early 2022 who might expect us to be a Beatport Hype label. For anyone dropping demos in the future, this won’t be the case anymore.
For a full disclosure on the thoughts behind the decisions regarding Beatport, I published a Premium article on Medium yesterday.
4.) Release frequency will drop from 8 to 4 a month. Release day moves to Friday.
In the initial 2022 schedule the plan was to release 8 tracks each month, on every Monday (main label) and Friday (sub labels). Every release comes with an initial investment of at least €50–75,-. To lower the costs, we have decided to spread out our current releases more and release less tracks a month for the time being. Because we no longer depend on Beatport updating their charts and features, we will also move the release day to Friday as it is more practical to ready releases that way.
I am aware that some artists are waiting for quite some time now for their track to be released. This decision will delay some future releases as well. However, we try to get them out on a first come first serve basis (unless other dates have been discussed) and we can assure that any track that has been signed by contract, or has been accepted through chat with me personally or demo reply, will be scheduled and released for certain. Any artists with concerns regarding this are welcome to contact me and I am sure we find a solution.
5.) In new contracts we will start to recoup Mastering fees.
Recoup investments mainly means that the label starts to pay out revenue after they have made back the costs invested in a release. This doesn’t concern all costs. We already used Recoup investments on Remixers asking a fee. The only addition to this will be the mastering fee. We like to have masters of the highest quality, that’s why we use Double Helix Mastering by Driftmoon ever since the inception of the label. Now, quality comes with a price but Driftmoon has proven time and time again he is worth every penny. It’s the choice of the label to go with such a high standard mastering, that’s why we’ve always covered the fee involved and usually ask for premastered files. PLR will continue to cover the mastering fee, but this will be deducted from the sales revenue on the artist statement. This way, it lowers the risk for the label to not make back any of the money invested in a release. Especially because we already take a risk often by signing unknown artists and/or unusual tracks. Tracks that are already mastered will be assessed by the label on case-by-case basis.
In a way this decision feels like a personal loss, because I don’t want to take this measure but feel I have to. That said, the way this will roll out still means I don’t have to ask additional upfront costs to an artist and the risk for the investment remains with the label.
6.) Social Media reach has to improve.
One thing I certainly feel accountable for is that the label doesn’t make use of social media enough. In 2022 the social media game has to drastically improve compared to last year. This means, more relevant information shared on Facebook and through Medium articles, a revamp of the label’s Instagram and investment in a brand new design to upload every new release to our YouTube channel (similar to the ones used by Black Hole recordings or Bonzai). This should be finished on the 1st of February, but we aim to reach this goal sooner.
7.) Demo selection and signing tracks will be more selective.
We will have to look at tracks that really fit into the label’s vision, Trance with a retro feel, now that we will reduce the amount of releases. The exceptions for this are remixes and releases on the League One sublabel, which covers a more modern uplifting sound. However, League one will only release once a month, which means getting signed to PLR with a very modern sound will be getting increasingly more difficult.
8.) Sub label Machine Room will be frozen for the time being.
We didn’t actively seek for Techtrance releases in the past and don’t receive a lot of demos fitting this subgenre. Machine Room was designed to release this type of tracks. But because the input is too low, we have decided to stop releasing Machine Room tracks for the time being. Why we call it ‘frozen’ is because if we receive high quality TechTrance demos we can always decide to continue the Machine Room sub.
This seem to be the changes for now. Obviously, any additional news will be published through Facebook and published articles as well. If this raises any questions or concerns, I gladly be of service to provide an answer.
I feel excited for 2022 and I hope the decisions we make will both help to get the label sustainable and still feels like a good and fair home with the best intentions in mind regarding our artists.
Have a wonderful 2022, let’s make this one we do want to remember!
Marco Svarda
Founder, Premier League Recordings
