Popular Keywords

Unknown Artists and White Labels from the last Century

We’re back at it with the fourth episode about Techno and House music but today we’re gonna mostly focus on the roots of a special segment of it since forever : unknown artists and the so-called white labels. Through the last century or so, several eras of unknown artists have been taking place, each time as a consequence of different situations; indeed, over the course of history, white labels and unknown artists have been not only shaping a specific side of music, but also some sort parallel canals used for freedom of speech or political expressions – especially during world wars. This said, it has been evolving into a special tool for any kind of music genre from the 60s by means of white labels releasing untitled creations so that the scarcity of anyone’s digging would be kept.

So today, it is not only a musical topic that I’m covering, it is also a historical one since unknown artists and white labels are dating back to the late 19th century, these have had their own peak periods and are still today used – and we know very well about it. For this fourth episode, I’m going to start by explaining where white labels are coming from, why unknown artists EPs have been a of specific use through war times and how vinyl were actually hidden during such, so that we can connect the dots of their overall evolution up to nowadays – so let’s start.

PART I - UNKNOWN ARTISTS

As I mentioned, let’s go back in the late 19th century, since this is the moment when the very first vinyl and tool to play it were invented by Emile Berliner, a German-American inventor who is the man behind the creation of the gramophone and the vinyl record. Long story short, Emile Berliner was basically troubleshooting different methods for sound recording and reproduction which led him to go further with one of his inventions related he called the Gramophone as I mentioned, and on this matter he also developed the 5inch vinyl record, he patented his music reproduction system to sell it which gave birth to the ancestors of our dear vinyl and turntables, which you had to active by rotating a special arm yourself. I could do a way longer part about how vinyl was ever created, however this would make of this episode a way too long one, this said I feel like not everyone is aware of how the very first record labels pressing vinyl are still today very connected with today’s music industry, so you can definitely expect one soon about it.

Let’s now move on with unknown artists, as the creation of both the vinyl and the gramophone have been obviously leading to the launch of a related record label, this one was named after its creator, and so in 1889, the E. Berliner’s Gramophone label has been the very first label to ever release an unknown artist EPs. This was of course absolutely groundbreaking to be able to translate sounds onto an object that would be able to be played through a device, and actually the first record ever released was labeled as unknown artist not because the artist was unknown, but because it was fragments of poetical works put together, and this was such a thing that it didn’t take long for people to be willing to include music too on vinyl records. Therefore, many inventors were getting interested in Emile Berliner creations and wanted to design their own gramophone and their own vinyl contents, and so overseas this is in Washington DC, in USA, that the very first recording sound company there was creating its own device called the phonograph with slightly different vinyl records which were 7inch instead of 5”. In 1896, Columbia Records delivered the first vinyl featuring musical recordings, this was a one-sided EP coming from the baritone singer J.W. Myers titled « Everybody Has Their Day » and it started a very, very, very long collection of vinyl and record labels because for the record, Columbia is still very active in the music industry since it’s owned by Sony Music Entertainment today, but we’re gonna cover this in just a moment. From the early 20th century, many more record labels started to be created, especially in USA, in Russia, in France and in Germany, including ones like Victor RCA which was first of all a rival of Columbia, but which ended up being also owned by Sony Music Entertainment nowadays.

Let’s advance a bit in History to get a different purpose for unknown artist to be featured on vinyl and so on this matter, let’s go further with the development of Columbia Records which is basically the ancestor of labels that started to manufacture records through sublabels by the beginning of the 20th century, enabling more record labels to be popping up including Harvard Records in 1905 or Little Wonder Records in 1914. In the very first place, Harvard Records was created to sell a lesser expensive version of the phonograph, and so the label was made to match that phonograph name and basically the release references were identical to the ones produced on Columbia Records, but in an anonymous way as unknown artist. In a nutshell, Columbia was selling vinyl doublons through some of its sublabels as unknown artists, since their first activity was not the sale of vinyl but the sale of phonographs, so the format would also sometimes evolve from 5 to 7 to 10 inches. This was also sometimes a matter of copyrights infringements, yes, for example with this other label called Little Wonder Records and so, long story short, the records released on this label were mainly created by Columbia Records’ chief recording engineer Victor Hugo Emerson, but were released as unknown artist to avoid royalty payments but anyways this was ruled in court back then.

Of course when I’m mentioning both Columbia and Harvard Records, I feel like anyone is pretty much familiar with these names, since both of them are famous schools part of the Ivy League; this said, did you know both of these schools were founded before America was even known as America, yes, and so when it comes to music and vinyl, I haven’t found the proper correlation yet for a reason why these schools’ names have been used as record labels ones, nevertheless following different researches I did, I do think in those times music and moreover arts were doubtlessly tools of communication for monarchies and governments. And that is leading me to another side of unknown artist which evolved as I said, as a tool of communication but this time from artists to the people, especially during the WWII when releases titled :

« Oh, Could I But Express In Song »
« Soldier’s Last Letter »
« Goodbye, May God Take Care Of You »
« It’s All Over Now (I Won’t Worry) »
« It’s A Lie! It’s A Lie! »
or
« Warsaw Concerto »

were being released up to 1945 from the US or UK, while there was even labels related to military radio service networks such as the US War And Navy Departments and the US Armed Forces Radio Service, both record labels connected to the US government, created during and following the WWII in order to entertain their American soldiers. During that period though, because many records were confiscated or destroyed on German occupied territories, in order to keep these musical arts, some wanted to find a way to hide them through radiographic images to keep them safe, which can sound both genius and crazy but yes, and actually now I think about it, I’m definitely going to do an episode about how records were hidden during the World Wars because it shows as well how such political tools has been in the meantime used as tools to keep freedom.

Of course, following the war, the people were aiming to more culture, more freedom, more arts, it’s giving the need to open your mind and your senses after such period, and so this led the vinyl industry to literally skyrocket everywhere since it was the main way to listen to music, giving birth to several musical genres that lasted ever since, such as Rock’n’Roll, Disco, Blues, Jazz, Soul, Pop, R&B, Salsa, Bossa Nova and actually so much more, and because this much new musical genres were becoming way more available, there was also always more music to play and therefore the very firsts Disc Jockeys were starting to perform as well. The culture of music has been growing so much by inviting itself inside many homes worldwide post-wars, that it has also led to the rise of artists, of record labels and of Djs, who were performing more often from the 60s and of course with vinyl rising on the other hand, making music always more diverse, these Djs started to be digging more and more, so obviously at some point they wanted to keep their special weapons kinda secret, and this is how this unknown artist thing sort of came back, while the so-called white labels became a lot more used too. This said, let’s get more in details about these white labels.

PART II - WHITE LABELS

Basically since the very debuts, white labels were distributing records without any official labels or branding, usually produced in small quantities and used both for promotional purposes and by DJs playing exclusive tracks that were not yet released to the public. The idea of a white label is essentially to release in limited edition a record stamped with only very basic informations about the music featured – such as the artist name and the song title at max – and from the 60s, this concept of white labels was often used by independent record labels to promote their releases to radio stations and DJs, but also to be able to play some music without any preconceived opinions about it. In a way, white labels were often seen as a way for artists and labels to test new material or to build some attention towards their upcoming releases. On the other hand and mostly over time, the white label thing found different variations when it comes to its use, starting with promotional copies distributed to journalists or music distributors in order to assess consumer opinion, a bit like today when you think about it, as Djs are definitely testing the crowd response to their musical productions during their performances – which make them decide whether or not one creation shall be released on vinyl or on Bandcamp – as well as test pressings, a topic that I’m covering in details in one of the YouTube videos about the making of MINIMALER Factory.

Nowadays, the so-called white labels are usually producing records in limited editions between 200 to 400 copies, these are regularly ran by independent record labels or Djs and I would even add that for some artists, this is somehow the very first manner to get confidence in releasing their creations and have what they would consider to be a neutral feedback on it, this time not from friends but from vinyl lovers, and this eventually helps to release under their own artist names, and as a matter of fact, there was even a peak period when it comes to white labels and unknown artists by the early 2010s, a period pretty interesting in my opinion because it kind of correlates with three distinctive situations according to me : established artists who wanted to incognito, as well newer ones who wanted to get confidence into releasing their music or just people who wanted to release what are called edits – which are basically copyrighted contents. Indeed as I mentioned so far, unknown artists releases have been used as tools, considering the fact we just didn’t know the artist or as copyright infringement ones in the vinyl very debuts, but also as means of discreet communication during wold wars or just because you wanted to keep your digging selection for you. This said by the early 2010s, another wave of unknown artists and white labels started to take back a very specific place within the vinyl industry, and because this is a subject I kind of know since I’ve been part of these guys buying unknown artists for a while now, but also part of those running white labels afterwards from 2016, let’s rewind a bit on the last 15 years of unknown artists releases and labels as part of the Techno and House music scenes.

PART III - WHITE LABELS / UNKNOWN ARTISTS TODAY

Now let’s focus on these white labels and their unknown artist releases since 2010, which as I said have been supporting a lot of the vinyl industry especially through the digital era. Indeed, in case you’re listening to this kind of music or collecting its records for the last 10 years, you most probably know about white labels like Botanic Minds Sunset Series from Ted Amber, Creatures the sublabel of The Other Side (run by Maher Daniel), ODE run by Romar, the sublabel of RORA, the DRG Series curated by Dragutesku, QNQN series by Guy From Downstairs, Stowaway from Nu Zau or even MINIMALER’s little baby prisma. And of course, I really feel like you might have also heard of these Digwah, Little Helpers, Interpret, Telum, Vibes Ltd or the EEE vinyl series, as well as these Inhere, Nanel, Sous Sol, Yellow Wax or even the Utique ones – of course among many many more.

So, in these kind of return debuts of white labels around 2010, many releases were simply labeled as Not On Label, and actually you can just look at the number of these on Discogs since 2010 regardless of the music genre, there are it’s roughly 200K ones, but so these were aiming to highlight what we could call covers nowadays in more mainstream segments of music, in the sense many songs from the 70s/80s/90s were revisited in a more electronic manner and were released under unknown artist on white labels. As a matter of example, this unknown artist one from 2010 which has no related label titled « Bro + Tin + Pri + Eaz » and so maybe you see the point of it.. sooo this one basically features 4 tracks and as you might have recognized it (or not) Bro stands for an edit of James Brown, Tin relates to an edit of Tina Turner, in the same idea Pri is for an edited creation of Prince and for Eaz too, but imma be honest I didn’t know the related artists sooo voilà. This became bomb let’s be realistic, because the most part of music – I can feel safe to say – everyone was listening to during their childhood was turned into more rhythmic ones and so many more singers and musicians have been edited under unknown artist releases such as « Insomnia » from Faithless, « We Will Rock You » from Queen or « OMG » from Usher just to name a few, here again these were not tied to any specific record label when released and usually stamped with the face of the edited artist. Even though this was really nice to hear different versions of a well-known track, if you look at it in the bigger picture, in my opinion these situations kind of relate to, at best, taking advantage of someone’s art situation, or at worst, a stealing somebody’s art issue, and I know as a fact that it is necessary to pay copyrights to artists as long as they’re alive, and I hope you do know but in case you don’t, it’s not even legal to use someone’s copyrighted music up to 70 years following their death if you don’t pay the related royalties.

I did myself pay it once I registered any edited creations to be released on a prisma vinyl to the related authority (SACEM in France or GEMA in Germany for example) when it was needed and I know that it has a certain cost, but mostly I feel like it’s a mark of respect to someone you’re using the creation of, inspiring yourself from. These unknown artist vinyl series kept on popping up during the early 2010, adding some features very typical of these white labels like hand-stamping, no data, no artwork, sometimes even just one track and always in very limited editions. In just a couple years, edits on white labels have been steadily changing as more original creations have been selected to shape these unknown artist releases back in 2014/2015, and from my experiences or personal thinking, as I said earlier I do feel it is related to either be getting confidence in releasing your music, or be getting incognito for people to focus on the music rather than the artist name : to summarize it all, it was basically a way to attract curiosity about the music and who could have produced it, rather than on the notoriety of who could have released it.

Back then it was also pretty different to release music on vinyl, to run a record label and all, because the market was definitely not as crowded as it can be today, for example in like 6 to 10 weeks you could have your all EP pressed and up to sell, we were starting the presales something like 2/3 weeks maximum before the release date, and it was actually feeling out in a matter of days or weeks, like it was definitely easier to make it happen back 2015 or so, because first of all it wasn’t fancy to run a record label and as a beginner in it, it was most certainly with less struggles that it could ever be today. On the other hand, there were so much less record labels in our music segment, which made it doubtlessly better for vinyl customers to keep track of each record they would be interested to get in their collection, but also for labels because, as releases were selling out way faster than today and with a much bigger stock; as a matter of comparison, today labels are selling between 100 to 300 copies maximum up to 6 months, but back in 2015 – wow and I realize now it’s almost a decade ago – it was around 500 copies or more and everything was sold out in one month at max for the most part of labels. This was cool because then you could focus on what could be coming next, thinking about more details for your label, etc..

For example on prisma – the second white label I opened back in 2018 – I really wanted to attract to curiosity towards the artist from vinyl lovers, and so the idea was to promote the release as unknown artist up to after its release date and to name it with the coordinates of the producer behind the music so that people might be able to connect the dots on who could have produced it if they could go as far as putting the coordinates together on Google and see the city and country related to it, and on the other hand I was including a secret track on the releases so that there would always be an extra for the ones who actually supported the label by purchasing the record. Other white labels has their own characteristics that made each labels pretty recognizable back then, it was in pretty minimalistic ways with colored-stamp records including imprints like All Inn, EEE – standing for East End Edits – Telum, Key All, Interpret, Tooney Lunes, Digwah, Paradise Pizza, Sound of Vast, VDK or more recently the CCCP Edits. Other labels focused on colors with just one or two elements to distinguish themselves from others, such as the Botanic Minds Sunset Series from Ted Amber, ODE, Capodopere, Toolwaxx or Voy just to name a few.

From 2017 these unknown artists releases have been pushing further their artworks to give another perspective of such white labels including not exhaustively the DRG Series from Dragutesku as well as the QNQN series by Guy From Downstairs, Nanel, Ouvert, Memory Remains from Kirik or Yellow Wax, which is definitely one of my absolute favorites. So, in order to wrap up this podcast let me share you a bunch of my favorite white labels releases that have been delivering only one EP since their very launch such as Belief, Himalaya, Tutanj Kamon or Xor49 and interestingly enough all of them have been released the same year back in 2018.

So voila, that is wrapping up this fourth podcast transcript about the music industry, this podcast and more are available on Spotify so feel free to check them out!