The current poster-children for the power of this new strata of the record business, and for AWAL’s role in it, are the Arctic Monkeys. The story goes like this: in 2004, Feigelson launched a satellite office in the UK with two London producers Kevin Bacon (not that one) and Jonathan Quarmby, and later Bower, a Sheffield-based engineer/electronic musician. Bower, Bacon, and Quarmby rang up Feigelson one day, singing the praises of a band they caught in a Sheffield venue: “They're called the Arctic Monkeys; they have a two-track EP, let's get them in iTunes." At the time, the Monkeys were not signed to any label, but did have a passionate group of fans who, after acquiring demo discs handed out at the band's live shows, began posting tracks online. "We said to them, 'Look, we can't offer you a record deal but we can certainly offer you a digital distribution deal.'"
STEPPING STONE: Editors made the leap to Sony/BMG, thanks in part to their deal with AWAL |
The band took AWAL up on its offer and soon their two-track EP Five Minutes With Arctic Monkeys was on iTunes. Internet browsers could get to the iTunes tracks via links provided on the AWAL website. Before long, the Monkeys cracked the iTunes top 10. The band released just another two-track EP via AWAL before signing with Domino Records a year later. "This happens with a lot of digital aggregators . . . how it worked was that we got a nice call from the Monkeys saying, 'Hey guys, we love you thanks a lot . . . You've been a great starting point,' " explains Feigelson.You could say that AWAL is first and foremost a buzz builder, a first stop for bands destined for bigger and better things? Feigelson doesn't disagree. After all, the Arctic Monkeys aren't the only ones to make the leap from AWAL to a “real” record label. Former AWAL clients the Editors, then signed to the small Kitchenware label, did it in 2004, signing to Sony/BMG. Ex-Easyworld front man-turned-soloist David Ford, another AWAL client, recently inked a distribution deal with Columbia following an impressive string of performances at South by Southwest back in May. Sheffield foursome Little Man Tate found a home over at V2 Records in March. And the AWAL guys fully expect current clients Neil McSweeney and the Gents, a critically acclaimed alt-country act hailing from Sheffield that's shared a bill with the Monkeys, to enjoy a similar kind of success.
Not all of AWAL’s clients are destined for major labels, and that’s okay too, Feigelson says. A scan of the AWAL UK catalogue's 50-plus pages reveals no shortage of longtime independent artists. Perennial songwriter Gary Marks put his entire catalogue up on iTunes via AWAL, as have now-defunct college-rockers Dispatch. Recently reunited British group Kula Shaker, who opted for a digital deal with AWAL instead of seeking out a major label upon returning to the business, are selling their latest EP Revenge Of The King exclusively through iTunes.
Paul Bower, AWAL’s London employee, describes another typical client he gets: "We deal with a lot of what we politely call independent artists: they used to be signed, have gotten back the catalogue from the label, and now they're releasing it on their own. They don't have money to press more CDs and go out and promote it, but what they do still have is fans, who probably bought the catalogue on vinyl." He mentions one such artist who put his catalogue online via AWAL. "He didn't think he'd earn any money at all and boy, he's getting his mortgage paid after a month online."
The allure of a service like AWAL is that it charges artists nothing up front. Instead, AWAL takes 15 percent of the amount iTunes pays the artist from download purchases -- that’s after, of course, Apple has taken its cut. Artists also retain rights to their catalogue should they decide to discontinue the service, a feature Feigelson admits may have worked against his company when it came to the Monkeys, who were able to sign to Domino without so much as a peep from AWAL.
Still, AWAL claims that its business is booming. "It's astronomical, I suppose you could say, the whole industry is a growth industry," declares Bower. He says AWAL’s income from royalties is doubling in size every quarter. Feigelson has recently re-launched the AWAL US site and has plans to expand the service into Japan, Korea, Germany, and Italy in the future.
Still, both men acknowledge that profits from downloads constitute a very small percentage of the music market. And there’s a kind of paradox to the AWAL model. In order to reap more profits from their artists, they’d have to sign those artists to contracts. But to artists, what’s attractive about digital aggregators like AWAL is precisely that they come with no label-like strings attached. The irony, if there is one, is that the future of Artists Without a Label may be to become a little bit more like a label. Feigelson says that were AWAL to find another Arctic Monkeys, he would "retain some kind of ownership with the band and work together, almost like a partnership. Maybe we'd do a deal with a distribution company or a major.”
"The end result of this game is to get more involved with the artists, you know, licensing, management, publishing, I mean that's partly where the money is."
On the Web
AWAL: //www.awal.com/
