Signing a Dotted Line/LABELABEL

I'm offering you a record contract

Hello, friends of Washed Memoir! Today is a special day for two reasons. First, my latest track is now available to stream or download on the service of your choice, including my Bandcamp page. I greatly value you taking the time to listen in whatever way suits your earholes.

Art: Miter

Enough about me. Today is special because I want to offer you a record contract.

That’s right, I think you “got the goods”.

This offering relates to the themes of “Riding a Solid Line”. It is about submitting to belief while refusing to submit to a system. The stakes here are low, so don’t be nervous. All you need is the courage to create and share art. Read on if you are interested in getting signed.

Wyld Tymes

Let’s start a record label. Well, there wouldn’t be any records, so maybe just a label…label. It could be called: LABELABEL. Labelabel is a label for artists that release some portion of their content on Substack. Labelabel artists receive the following benefits:

• Labelabel Artists will be cross-promoted on Substack by other Labelabel artists.

• Labelabel Artists are automatically given the title of “Artist/Co-President, LABELABEL”.

  • Co-Presidents of Labelabel will have the authority to sign any other Labelabel artists.

• Labelabel Artists retain all rights to everything that they do, no exceptions. Labelabel has no rights to any earnings, any materials, anything of value, or anything without value, or anything else. (Does that work for ya stinkin’ lawyers?)

• Labelabel Artists can be promoted on Labelabel playlists.

• Labelabel Artists and Co-Presidents can pronounce “Lablelabel” at their own discretion.

The process for becoming a Labelabel artist (at least for the first co-president) is to subscribe to Washed Memoir in Real Time and add it to your recommendations. I will, in-turn, co-sign the contract by recommending and subscribing to your Substack.

You will then officially be licensed to use the title of: “Artist and Co-President, LABELABEL”

As Co-President of LABELABEL, you have the authority to sign any other Labelabel artist and bestow upon them all of the above powers. You simply execute the same contract as above, with any artist that is creating content and releasing it on Substack.

As Co-President and Artist, your duties are as follows:

• Subscribe to the Substack newsletters and recommend any other Labelabel artists of which you are aware. Labelabel Artist/Co-Presidents can signify themselves by adding this title to their profiles, like so.

• Sign artists releasing content on Substack that you deem worthy. Sign anyone you want, but take it seriously, you’re in charge here. If you really believe in the artist, invest in them by paying for their content.

• Continue to create original content and release it on Substack (of course, along with any other services that you would like). Again, this contract is non-exclusive and non-binding. Think of it a low-stakes social contract.

• If you’d like, submit Labelabel artist Spotify links to me so that I may add them to a playlist, or create your own Labelabel playlist on which ever service you would like.

There are no consequences for dereliction of the above duties, however, we’re all in this together, so try and help.

Labelabel is intended for musicians releasing content (and to try and get more musicians releasing music in this way), but that will just be the basis of my signings. You are the Co-President, dear reader, so you are able to sign whomever you would like. Would you rather the playlist be somewhere else or on a different service? Go for it—you are not only a Labelabel client—you are also the Co-President.

The goals here are simple: We’ll remake the industry by decentralizing power and building non-hierarchical structures where everyone thrives. We will create an audience of ourselves and our fans, because we are so numerous, and our millions of Marshall stacks and speaker systems are so loud, that they cannot be ignored.

I guess I just proposed a Sub-Substack for musicians/a manifesto? Any feedback? Anybody ready to get signed? It might be the best record deal that you’ll ever get—even if you are already signed.

Maybe this is a thought experiment or maybe this is real. It’s up to you, friend.

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Notes!

One way for this to work and for us to discover other musicians creating on Substack— and to share our signings—is through the new social stream they’ve created called Notes. It’s basically a twitter competitor without all that musky stench. Here’s my first note (it’s a classic):

Notes is a new space on Substack to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. You can also share notes of your own, discover a lot of interesting writers, and you don’t have to be publishing a newsletter of your own. I hope that it can be a way for creators and musicians to discover, learn from, and support each other.

I leave the company in your capable hands….