A BROOKLYN-BASED AGGREGATION & LABEL SERVICES COMPANY
Financial Planning
• Including business plans, budgeting, cash flow and other financial projections, and day-to-day business management.
We work with all of the relevant digital service providers. For a complete list, click here. In addition to ingesting and delivering your content, we profile your release and seek marketing opportunities when applicable. Our successes here are based on effective partnerships and releases which have a properly executed marketing campaign.
With the ongoing shift in the retail marketplace we are positioned to take full advantage of these changes. Independent distribution is at the core of Virtual Label, and while larger accounts are still important to some of our artists and labels, smaller indie retailers are picking up the slack with more opening every year. Physical product provides value to artists and fans, and Virtual’s catalog is curated based on quality, not quantity so to maximize our visibility in the market.
We are not focused on any single genre or trend, rather we are interested in creative career development. For a sample of our clients, click here.
With our collective roots based in independent distribution, running labels, as store buyers, and in artist management, our value lies in our experience. Our consulting is ongoing and built into our client relationships.
DIGITAL RETAIL DISTRIBUTION
Virtual Label LLC provides direct access to all the major and secondary worldwide digital service providers. We provide significant value for our artists and labels by not only identifying new services but by actively marketing to existing services and being at the forefront of all emerging services worldwide. We are successful in securing significant visibility for new releases and catalog on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Pandora, Facebook, TikTok, Qobuz and more. We can (and do) provide this service to artists and labels that are not distributed at physical retail by Virtual Label LLC and provide the human touch so often missing with many of today’s digital distributors. We have built our digital business by focusing on music that we love and by referrals from our existing clients.
We utilize a well-respected content management system as our digital warehouse and delivery partner who can quickly and easily deliver our 50,000+ track catalog worldwide to new and existing services. Similarly, our royalty processing platform provides our labels with monthly digital accounting that is accurate and easy to use.
PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION
Virtual Label LLC provides access to national physical distribution via our partners AMPED Music Distribution in the USA and via AMPED Music Distribution or FAB in Canada. Our strategy is to pull together a very select group of indie labels and artists in order to maximize sales by emphasizing quality over quantity of partners, thus representing a very concise and curated catalog.
The benefit of working with Virtual is that all aspects of retail marketing are overseen including designing and executing marketing plans. We provide our clients with detailed sales information and oversee all of the day-to-day administration and contact with AMPED Music Distribution and its sales and marketing staff.
For more information about AMPED Music Distribution, visit www.ampeddistribution.com
We also provide export services via Shellshock and Rush Hour in Europe.
VIRTUAL LABEL SERVICES
CONSULTING
LICENSING
MARKETING
We can assist our labels and artists to put together a marketing plan for their project, including targets and budgets, and help manage the process throughout the release cycle. We can also put together a customized marketing team to execute this plan:
ONLINE/SOCIAL MEDIA:
We assist in strategizing and finding appropriate marketing firms to handle each release.
RADIO PROMOTION:
We work with the key independent promotion firms for college, specialty and commercial radio.
PUBLICITY SERVICES:
We have long-standing relationships with many great independent publicity firms and will find the one suited to each particular project.
MANUFACTURING
Virtual Label partners with A to Z Media to offer our label partners a cost effective, highly efficient CD/DVD/Vinyl manufacturing solution that will save you time, money and the hassle of dealing with your physical production requirements. Think of A to Z as your “Virtual” production department. A to Z has been around for over 20 years and is primarily focused on assisting small to mid-sized labels. Based in New York City, they work with a diverse range of clients and offer a wide range of innovative packaging solutions.
MANAGEMENT
SWANS
Official Site
DAN ZANES
Official Site
MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO
Official Site
MASTERING
Virtual Label partners with Taylor Deupree to offer high-quality and affordable mastering for your projects. Taylor’s services provide your project with the final touch to bring the best out of your music and deliver to the manufacturer an error-free, ISRC-encoded production master for stress-free replication. Taylor Deupree has been working in the music industry for over 20 years as an artist and founder of the 12k label. Deupree mainly utilizes high-end analog compressors and equalizers with some of the best digital/analog convertors around to bring warmth and clarity to your final mixes. For more information, visit 12kmastering.com.
MUSIC PUBLISHING
Virtual Label administers publishing for Another Tweekland (Meat Beat Manifesto), Sister Barbara Music (Dan Zanes) and Young God Publishing (Michael Gira/Swans) and is also home to the publishing companies Low Noise America Music, Songs of Virtual and Music of Virtual. Our eclectic writer roster includes Brett & Rennie Sparks (Handsome Family), Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh (Mekons), William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Daniel Knox, Taylor Deupree (12k), Moondog, and Paul Bowles. Our UK partner, BMG Rights Management, ensures accurate worldwide registration and marketing and licensing of our writers’ works outside North America.
Our Company Story
In 1998 my friend Dan Zanes sent me a cassette of his string band called “Rocket Ship Beach”. I listened to it my car while commuting from Cambridge to Salem, MA, where I was General Manager at Rykodisc. Impressed, I called him to let him know that Rykodisc would love to release it. In fact, I think we made him a fairly substantial offer, but Dan was adamant that he wanted to put it out himself. And so he did…
Fast forward to the Fall of 2000. I was back in New York working at yet another record label when Dan called me and asked if I would like to help him with his fledgling record company Festival Five Records. We quickly figured out that the two key things that Dan needed were distribution and a booking agent, both of which I helped him secure. Suddenly he had a real business with significant revenues. And, most important of all, the business was stamped with Dan’s vision. I realized that I was having much more fun working with Dan than I was at my regular record business job. I also realized that the model for Dan’s business was a model for others. The vision for Virtual Label came directly out of this experience – it seemed to be a logical next step in the development of the music business.
We were fortunate in having a ready partner in Ryko Distribution for physical sales but were also in at the ground floor with iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic and Napster as the digital marketplace started to grow and with CD Baby (Dan’s original web store on his site) in the growth of D2C.
These days the idea of self-financing and self-releasing albums is the norm and there are many channels available to do so. But there is still a need for the human touch, for the company that is able to advise and guide the process. Virtual Label is such a company.
My goal is to help those artists who want to create their own sustainable business while continuing to build their careers. My belief is that artists should own their own masters as the first step to taking true ownership of the rest of their lives.
I have spent over forty years working in the independent record business. In the course of my career I have worked in pretty much every aspect of that business from production to marketing, from business affairs to distribution. With Virtual Label I have been able to give artists the benefit of this “big picture” experience allowing them to do what they do best.
Peter J. Wright
Owner/CEO, Virtual Label LLC
ARTISTS:
10. Ft Ganja Plant
Augustus Pablo
Alexi Murdoch
Allen Ginsberg
Andrew Bird
Andy Statman
Arthur Russell
Barry White
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee
Chicha Libre
Chico Trujillo
Cibo Matto
Dan Zanes
Daniel Knox
Diamanda Galas
The Egyptian Lover
This Heat
Elizabeth Mitchell
Free Energy
Haunted Windchimes
Hazmat Modine
Henry Cow
Idan Raichel
Innocence Mission
Jesu
Jose Conde
Julianna Barwick
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion/Pussy Galore
Kavita Shah
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Luisa Maita
Manfred Mann
Mark Eliyahu
Mekons
Mercury Rev
Mia Doi Todd
Mollie O’Brien
Moondog
One Ring Zero
Rasputina
Renee and Friends
Smoke Fairies
Sonny Landreth
Steve Forbert
Sun Ra / Enterplanetary Koncepts
SWANS
The Bevis Frond
The Fugs
The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl)
The Handsome Family
The Sonics
Tim O’Brien
William Parker
Willie Nile
Willy Porter
Yael Naim
Yoko Ono
Youngblood Brass Band
Zachary Cale
LABELS:
12k
Allen Ginsberg Recordings
Audika
AUM Fidelity
Badman Recording Co.
Barbes
City Hall
Chimera Music
Cumbancha
Dub Store Records
Festival Five Records
iAso Records
Instinct
Intakt Records
Jamie Record Co.
Kudos Distribution
Little Bird Records
Menlo Park Recordings
Mesh-Key
Ostinato Records
Pi Recordings
Pressure Sounds
Red Parlor
ROIR
Sarah Records
Shellshock Distribution
Spare the Rock
The Secret Mountain
Urban Geek Records
Vinyl 180
Young God Records