Why doesn't the pony community have a record label?

[CrashDistortion]

The title says all, but this has been a really pressing question: Why DON'T we?

Discuss

[the4thImpulse]

1. Not many people sell their music in the community
2. There isn't much of a large crowd to advertise too, non bronies will very likely look away from such music label and bronies can already find the music through various blogs ect..
3. The label needs money and there is very little money to be made in the community the way I see, a single famous artist (eg. tombstone) might make a bit here and there but it would not be enough for a label and staff to survive on let alone artist.
4. There's no real concerts put on by the brony artists aside from plethora of conventions bronies have in which a label is still unnecessary.
5. Is there really a need for one? We have youtube, soundcloud, eqbeats and a few other sites to host our music and digital downloads are the only way (with a few very small exceptions) fans are getting the music.
6. We couldn't sell remixes of the show because of todays copyright laws.

In the end there's just no, or very little, benefit to having a 'brony' label. I think we are very well off with what we have now.

[MRPPony]

Yeah, he pretty much covered it all. However there are a bunch of brony sites out there that hosts our music could be technically called a label. Like EQBeats is an open label and BMD is a more 'closed' label.
Other than having some well known website/group say, "This person can make some decent music," there's really no reason for any music producer to have a label. Labels can really screw over producers/musicians since you, the musician, is owned by them along with your music. Meaning if they wanted to do a "Download these 50 tracks for free", you can't complain about it.

I've never been listed with a label before nor do I believe all labels are the same, but someone I know who's a great Freeform Hardcore producer used to be part of a label and was giving his personal experience. Another thing to consider is when you talk to retired musicians who has been part of a label will tell you if it wasn't for the promotion of their music, labels are bullshit.

[Kibbie]

Why would we need a record label?

I think being a part of mylittleremix and EQbeats is more fun anyway. Most people around here don't sell pony remixes anyway. If their non-pony music is great and they sell it, well they can just go to some other record label.

[CrashDistortion]

Why would we need a record label?

I think being a part of mylittleremix and EQbeats is more fun anyway. Most people around here don't sell pony remixes anyway. If their non-pony music is great and they sell it, well they can just go to some other record label.

I never said we needed one, nor do I really pine for one, I'm just surprised nopony has tried it yet. Or even a promotional pony music channel with much of an outreach.

[Captain Ironhelm]

Kind of unrelated, but... https://twitter.com/MonstercatMedia/status/251423978802003970

Anyway, EQD and other such sites seem to be able to get stuff out to the brony masses k. Then there's the regulated charity albums MLR does from time-to-time.

[ph00tbag]

The roles a label fills are already taken, essentially. Marketing and promotion are done by EQD and CelestiaRadio. Aggregation and organization is done by a number of entities, including EQBeats. Distribution is done by preexisting ftp services like dropbox, mediafire and the like. The only role not filled is record pressing, but CD and Vinyl media are effectively dead, and brony musicians are content to deal in high fidelity digital media.

[Freewave]

You guys are forgetting about Equestrian Hype Records

http://www.youtube.com/user/EquestrianHype

They've been importing classic records made in Equestria in the 80's and 90's to Earth and in digital. A few of their greatest hits:





But seriously a brony record label is a cool idea that's been underdevleoped. EQHype kind of dropped the ball over the summer but is coming back with more retro goodness hopefully soon (their skype chat is energized again). I wouldn't mind seeing a brony label that has a particular musical focus or an impressive roster and maybe some promos and compilations and such to go along with it. Is it NEEDED? No but that can't stop it from being beneficial in some way to people who might BENEFIT from such an alliance (kinda like the Lesser Knowns Event IF it was a label or Kolt for lovers of hip-hop).

[CrashDistortion]

You guys are forgetting about Equestrian Hype Records

http://www.youtube.com/user/EquestrianHype

They've been importing classic records made in Equestria in the 80's and 90's to Earth and in digital. A few of their greatest hits:





But seriously a brony record label is a cool idea that's been underdevleoped. EQHype kind of dropped the ball over the summer but is coming back with more retro goodness hopefully soon (their skype chat is energized again). I wouldn't mind seeing a brony label that has a particular musical focus or an impressive roster and maybe some promos and compilations and such to go along with it. Is it NEEDED? No but that can't stop it from being beneficial in some way to people who might BENEFIT from such an alliance (kinda like the Lesser Knowns Event IF it was a label or Kolt for lovers of hip-hop).

This guy knows where I'm coming from!

[the4thImpulse]

Is it NEEDED? No but that can't stop it from being beneficial in some way to people who might BENEFIT from such an alliance (kinda like the Lesser Knowns Event IF it was a label or Kolt for lovers of hip-hop).

If its done right and the general brony population likes/supports it then it could be beneficial especially to the artists who are not well known in the community. I wouldn't want to see simply another soundcloud or EQbeats thing and whatever it is it would really have to be adopted by the larger brony community to be of much use to those signed.

[CrashDistortion]

If it starts out small, we can get some of the smaller brony musicians, then the bigger ones, then the mainstream ones, then Monsterkitty, then we can take over the world and turn NYC into a horse haven, A PONYOPOLIS!!!1!!

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....
.....

Or not.

[Acsii]

If it starts out small, we can get some of the smaller brony musicians, then the bigger ones, then the mainstream ones, then Monsterkitty, then we can take over the world and turn NYC into a horse haven, A PONYOPOLIS!!!1!!

...
....
.....

Or not.

[Lavender_Harmony]

The downsides far outweigh the benefits. Scalability, legality, cost out versus monies in, international taxing, rights registration, copyright holding, licensing, but if you wanna do all that, be my guest.

[MorteMcAdaver]

The downsides far outweigh the benefits. Scalability, legality, cost out versus monies in, international taxing, rights registration, copyright holding, licensing, but if you wanna do all that, be my guest.

^ This. The reality of such a business is very daunting, and staying independent is probably the wiser course. Besides, you can still have the community for free!

[cyrricky]

It's because all of the bronies who didn't get accepted into the label would throw a fit and whine and cry ala Balloon Party

[Freewave]

No offense but if it's done as a way to make money or as a business it really loses all appeal to me as that's such a minority standpoint in THIS community. I'm much more for it if it allows likeminded musicians to get their music to people (and not for moneys sake) and if there's a reason why they're united. If there's a united approach or sound (ie genre) and if these musicians like working together and hanging together and collaborating then it's a good idea. There's no point for a label if its just a thing for unrelated musicians to jump on in a short cut method to make a buck or a quick route to fame.

[Raddons]

It doesn't matter. I bet big names who actually are making money off their music now wouldn't be getting much more by being on a label, and they wouldn't be getting any more popular, and the lesser known people won't get on a label anyway.

The big names are pretty much set. When pony is over, Glaze, Tomb, and co. will still be sitting pretty on 50k+ subs (and that will probably break 100k eventually) and they know how to produce more than pony. They don't need a label.

[Friv]

I'm just going to make 3 points.

1)Running a label is expensive
2)labels AREN'T NECESSARY in today's world. Services like bandcamp and megabox will soon take a label out of the equation. Unless you want some big-ass corporation taking 99% of your profit in return for marketing and distribution, then there's no reason to have one.
3) The brony community thrives solely because of the internet, and brony artists either use bandcamp, or give their music out for free already anyways.

[Freewave]

It doesn't matter. I bet big names who actually are making money off their music now wouldn't be getting much more by being on a label, and they wouldn't be getting any more popular, and the lesser known people won't get on a label anyway.

The big names are pretty much set. When pony is over, Glaze, Tomb, and co. will still be sitting pretty on 50k+ subs (and that will probably break 100k eventually) and they know how to produce more than pony. They don't need a label.

Well of course the upper .01% of the community don't need a label and are set. I didn't think we're even talking about them when we're talkign about a label. Only reason they'd want to do something like that is if they wanted a physical product and even tighter dominance or unity .... Rainbow Factory Records (Woodden/Mic/Tomb) ...

Again people are talking about this conversation from wildly different perspectives (small vs large artists, non-profit vs profit, and large labels vs small united sounds). So it's hard to have a real point when each person is talking about completely different versions of what they think a label is or should be and thinking its a yes or no answer. Again if you look at something like EQHype where its non-profit, united in sound (retro brony music), united in appearance, and with artists that often hang out in a skype chat and talk together all night long its a good idea. If you have people IN that label to listen to your WIPs, to collaborate, and to bounce ideas off that's a united approach. Biggest argument against where EQHype has failed as it stopped putting out releases and didnt stick with the idea shortly after it began. That's not to say it was a bad idea cause i dont think it was. The biggest issue i see with anything that happens in the community time and time again is that people get frustrated that things don't catch on quickly so they give up on them and don't support them.

[CrashDistortion]

Alrighty, since this seems to be surrounding money issues, why doesn't the brony community have a legit, well-known promotional channel? I mean we have enough artists and good music to be featured.

[Magnitude Zero]

Alrighty, since this seems to be surrounding money issues, why doesn't the brony community have a legit, well-known promotional channel? I mean we have enough artists and good music to be featured.

Does the BMD have a Youtube channel? This sounds like something they might be interested in starting up.

[CrashDistortion]

Alrighty, since this seems to be surrounding money issues, why doesn't the brony community have a legit, well-known promotional channel? I mean we have enough artists and good music to be featured.

Does the BMD have a Youtube channel? This sounds like something they might be interested in starting up.

BMD? I'm not familiar with that acronym.

[Acsii]

Alrighty, since this seems to be surrounding money issues, why doesn't the brony community have a legit, well-known promotional channel? I mean we have enough artists and good music to be featured.

Does the BMD have a Youtube channel? This sounds like something they might be interested in starting up.

BMD? I'm not familiar with that acronym.

http://bronymusiciandirectory.blogspot.com.au/

[Rainbowdutch]

Alrighty, since this seems to be surrounding money issues, why doesn't the brony community have a legit, well-known promotional channel? I mean we have enough artists and good music to be featured.

Eqd?

[Acsii]

Alrighty, since this seems to be surrounding money issues, why doesn't the brony community have a legit, well-known promotional channel? I mean we have enough artists and good music to be featured.

Eqd?

Ew....
They don't promote enough lesser known artists... Plus I believe CrashDistorion meant a YouTube channel... I'll set one up if I have enough time