Interview: Vernon Neilly of Boosweet Recordings

Boosweet is an independent record label specializing in the recording and distribution of name acts, and artists, as well new and coming acts, and artist's with the objective of promoting and selling their products world wide via the Internet. Also talent searches for promising new talent will be held on a regular basis! Boosweet Records will also be a one stop wholesaler for all music product from all of your favorite recording artist's, there will be special packages offered at big savings for those who join the music club. Boosweet Records will also be running on a regular basis, give aways to random people who enter the site, as well as many free connections to key people and companies in the recording industry, to help individuals to get their music to people who can hear their product. On occasion Boosweet Records will be running promotions to give away free studio time, to those individuals or groups who have joined the various talent searches, and contests, as means for those individuals or groups to have an industry quality CD for their promotion.

Do you feel this is a good time for the independents?

I feel that this is a great time for indies because of the consolidation of the bigger companies and corporations. It means that there are voids that are going to need to be filled, and for the indies who have already been marketing their groups and brand and having some sort of success, they will be able to step in and possibly fill some of the void that exists. As an owner of an indie label quite frankly I have been waiting for this time because I knew it was coming years ago.

Where do you feel this is all headed?

Most of the majors have strong foundations and are backed by huge corporations so they will continue to hold their own, but as you can see by the latest happenings in the industry, they are having to make drastic cuts to departments to maintain. I think that this type of downsizing will continue to happen, and the majors will be more dependent on the independent companies to bring them new developed talent. I see the majors becoming more like talent brokers, buying acts from the strong independent labels when they reach a certain level. Much like they are doing now but to a greater degree.

What affect is this all having on society?

I think that whether it is music or film, producers are having more trouble these days re-inventing the wheel so to speak. When everything has already been done and written about, and they have already taken the shock value up to 1000%, where do you go from there. The challenge is to come up with fresh ideas for story lines, new ways to approach things that have already been done. The public has been shocked into numbness, look at the story lines that they are writing for tv, and movies these days, 15-20 years ago the censors would have been all over this stuff. Now the general public needs to be taken to the next level of shock, it’s actually frightening, look at what this stuff is doing to the younger generation today.

What are some of the challenges facing artists, writers and the industry?

I think the same as they question before, writers are challenged to come up with new and more exciting themes, and ideas. Like I said this goes for music as well as film, I mean how many times can you write the same story a different way and make it appealing. We live in a sensationalist society so writers have to always be thinking of extreme things to write about, that’s if they want to get the attention of the general public. I actually think that the people who write for animated films probably have it the easiest because they can stretch the imagination a lot farther, it is expected from that sort of medium, fantasy. On the other hand writing for real life situations, that’s another story.

It appears that many people were afraid of new media, feeling that it would hurt their companies. What are your feelings towards this?

I think that they are starting to come to grips with new media because they have come to the realization that it’s not going anywhere. People in the film industry like Lucas and Speilberg and a few others embraced it early on and decided to use it as a tool, an extension to what already was, and that’s why they lead the pack. On the music scene people who where not afraid of change and new it was coming whether they liked it or not are ahead of the game. New media is the wave of the future, we are seeing it more and more in our daily lives, I personally welcome it. For a person like myself who runs an independent company it levels the playing field out there in so many ways. The amount of people that I am able to reach because of it is astounding to me, I would not have been able to do 15 years ago what I am doing now without it.

What can you recommend for the independents in order to survive?

Well one of the obvious ones is staying afloat as a company in this highly competitive business, and world day to day. The growth of my company in the last 2 years has been very good, so it will be a challenge to sustain that growth. Like any other label owner there is always that challenge of finding that right artist or group that’s going to help grow the label as well. With the majors they make their stars, with indies the labels and groups make each other.

Where do you see yourself in five years or so?

I will always be involved with music in some sort of capacity because it has been such a significant part of my life for all of my life. I don’t know whether I will still want to be running a label at that point, but maybe more on the educating, and consulting side. I got into this industry at a very young age so I have seen lots of things change and go down. I want to educate the younger generation about this business because it is the kind of business that without good direction and guidance, you can get eaten alive, used and abused.

It might be a good idea for record companies to become media outlets.

Broadband is great and is growing all the time, it will be just like the age of radio, or television eventually. More and more people are becoming aware of it and it’s advantages, there are still some technical things to be worked out with it, but I think when those barriers are completely knocked down and everyone everywhere can have access, then it will be truly serious. Once again it boils down to people having choices, broadband opens up a heck of a lot of choices, like cable and satellite has done for t.v. programming. When people can tune into programming from anywhere in the world on their computer screens, and it be glitch free, or get music station from anywhere without buffering problems, it’s going to be the Jetson age for real.

But what about the system? Doesn’t the fact that major labels controlling a majority stake in distribution make it tougher for the indies?

Yes the majors do still wield the big stick because of the financial backing that they have. For indies it’s still going to be about niche marketing as it has always been and building from there, then as you grow you start to take a piece of their pie, which indies are doing today. Then they will come and make you and offer that you cant refuse, or better not for that matter of fact if you want to stay in the business. If independents deal with independents and create coalitions of independents then you have a stronger voice to deal with the bigger companies, and that is how the playing field can be leveled on the resources side. There are still tons of mom and pop independent record stores around the country and the world that will deal with you as an independent, why, because they are not getting any breaks from the bigger companies. Lets say that you have a hot group that you are working and you need product in a certain city, most cities have independent record store coalitions that they belong to for support. The main store in the coalition buys product from you and distributes it amongst their membership, you give them a per unit rate that they can make a little money too, your distribution problems are solved. I have been moving records like this for years, some might say what about Soundscan reports for charting, I tell them I am not concerned with Soundscan I’m in it to make money and some chart figure is not going to bring revenue to my company account. That whole system has been fixed and tampered with anyway by the majors, when they started to get questioned on it they acted like they did not know what was going on, but they knew. The retail promotion people from the larger labels go out and encourage extra scans at the point of sale in exchange for a kickback of some sort from the label, and or promoter, numbers are inflated, higher chart action is acquired, the label is happy because now they can induce sales on fictitious numbers. I’d better stop here on this subject!

What are some of the challenges that face you daily?

My work brings a new and different challenge every single day it never is dull moment because, I am constantly either trying to develop new business, maintain old business, or do some sort of damage control. I am looking for new and interesting talent constantly to help get their music out there from all genres. I am constantly growing on the technical side of the industry too, staying abreast of new products that are either revolutionizing, or that will revolutionize the music industry. If the majors knew that digital recorders were eventually going to be so cheap that anyone who had any kind of engineering skills could record a CD in their bedroom and put it out on the market, they would of never allowed it to happen, but there are things being developed now that are going to take more and more power out of their hands, it’s a good thing, people should be able to decide what they like and don’t like!