There’s hardly anything I’ve been doing constantly for such a long time like Let it Burn Records… 10 years is a long f**king time and sometimes it surprises me, that the label is still alive. When I started LIB in 2000 with my friend Daniel, none of us would have thought that this would go ANYWHERE.

In fact it was the release of FEAR MY THOUGHT’s debut album “23″ that accelerated the label growth for the first time. Even though there was no other label interested in releasing their album, there was already a bit of a “hype” around the band which rapidly lead to 1500 sold (oh well, most of the cd’s were traded for other label’s crap we never got rid off) copies. The band played constantly and the name “Let it Burn Records” got heard by more and more kids. FEAR MY THOUGHT’s second album “Vitriol” followed shortly after and doubled the buzz around the band and the label.

The next “big thing” for Let it Burn Records was continental licensing. SAVING THROW, ARMA ANGELUS (whose members are now in RISE AGAINST and FALL OUT BOY), SCARS OF TOMORROW and others were released for Europe. Unfortunatelly most of the bands never came over to tour or split up before they got a chance, so this kind of cooperation never was as close and thrilling as with European bands.

In 2003 we released another crucial debut album. This time it was a new and hot band from Hungary called BRIDGE TO SOLACE which had already gained international attention in a slightly different line up under the name: NEWBORN. BRIDGE TO SOLACE’s music was punk, hardcore and metal alike and it seemed as if the band offered what everyone had been waiting for. “Of bitterness and hope” sold 3000 copies and it’s successor “Kingdom of the Dead” another 2000.

It was until 2006 when we had the next “big album” at Let it Burn Records. FINAL PRAYER’s debut “Right Here Right Now” marked a new musical direction for the label (we hadn’t really released any “tough” hardcore so far) and attracted a whole bunch of new kids who had never heard of the label before. The album went well, just like the career of FINAL PRAYER, who, among very few others, form the spearhead of European Hardcore these days.

In 2007 we only had one release (the biggest failure by the way, we still have around 70% of the first press on the shelve) and everything that we put out since 2008 basically forms our current roster: RED TAPE PARADE, THE CASSIDY SCENARIO, STORM&STRESS, TODAY WE RISE and DEATHSPIRIT.

Our latest signings BLACK FRIDAY ‘29, ZERO MENTALITY, TO KILL, TEAMKILLER and GOLDUST outline very well what Let it Burn Records has become in 2010: One of Europe’s leading hardcore labels.

I am VERY proud of what we have accomplished within these 10 years. Most other labels that started their business around the time we did, called it a day when the music industry started suffering from “digital age cataclysm”. Without sound winy, we also had hard times and still do, but working with such amazing bands and releasing music that we personally go crazy to is one of the best things in the world. As long as this label pays for itself Let it Burn Records will be around delivering high quality wild music. That’s for sure.

If I had to choose the top-5 European hardcore records of all time, BLACK FRIDAY 29s “The Escape” would, without any doubt, be a part of it. This album is so full of spirit and passion, so full of positive energy and youthful ambitions, it’s hard to believe it wasn’t written during the golden era of hardcore, the 1980s, but in 2004. Since then it underlined and shaped the understanding of hardcore of thousands of kids around the globe, lyricwise and musically.

Everyone who has ever seen BLACK FRIDAY 29 play “Kill this Dream”, “Pressure Release”, “Open Letter” or ANY other song from “The Escape” live, knows what I am talking about and most likely shares the same feeling for this album as I do. I’ve seen some of the most impressive singalong-scenes, highest pile-ons and most crazy stagedives to these songs. I’ve seen kids going crazy to this everywhere for 5 years straight now. With “The Escape” BLACK FRIDAY 29 have created something indestructible, something to outlast decades.

I am more than proud to able to rerelease one of my alltime favorite hardcore records on my label.

Today Apple approved the LET IT BURN RECORDS app. Huh? Yes, that’s right. We created an iphone/ipod touch app for LET IT BURN RECORDS with loads of nice features you may need or not. There’s news, tourdates, over 50 songs for free streaming, twitter, (this) blog, pictures, videos, a full discography, general info on the label and lots more to be found in this app and here it comes: it’s for FREE.

Preview and download: LET IT BURN RECORDS app

I am aware of the fact that there’s no real “need” for label-apps yet but being one of the first indie-labels to get this up an running definitely feels nice. I am sure hundreds of labels will follow and soon having an iphone app will be as common as a website, myspace-page or twitter account.

Apple’s keynote is not over for 5 minutes and the WWW immediatelly starts discussing (best case) and bashing (worst case) about the new alpha dog in digital media: the iPad. I spent a couple of hours over my decision whether to write an article about the iPad or not and – most obviously – decided to do it. In case you wonder why, you might have to wait for my last paragraph.

All this buzz about the iPad which is going on right now mainly is about its features/capabilities, its pricing, its overall “meaning” for our workaday life and most of all about its success or failure. You will find loads of blogs about technical details, also about the pricing policy and it’s predicted developement on the market. The issue I want to pick up in this article is the “meaning” of the iPad or – what fits my point more precisely – its “power“.

Even if the iPad presented yesterday is not the non-plus-ultra multimedia-device (infact there’s some important things missing: a camera, flash-support, maybe usb-ports and sd-card-slot, the often requested multitasking ability, etc.) it’s overall “meaning” and “power” is unfathomable! It’s nothing less than a digital revolution.

When you saw Steve Jobs sittng on his couch last night, holding the iPad in his hands it was crystal clear that this is the way we all are going to live out our digital lifestyle for the next 3-5 years (or maybe even beyond that). This is the way we’re gonna surf the internet, read books and magazines, check emails, watch movies, share photos, play games and do a little office work along the way. This is the future and it’s going to take place on our couches, yippee-ki-yay!!

It may not be THIS iPad generation (the SDK already reveals some great features for future generations), maybe it’s not even a neverending “Apple only” victory like the iPhone (Infact the competitors have learned a lot from their past mistakes. The first “iPad-killer” was released even 3 months before the iPad itself) but three things are unquestioned:

• this is the way to go
• everyone will follow
• and once again Apple was the company who set the agenda

So why is the iPad relevant at all for a blog that is circuiting around music in general and detail. Well if you had read my postings about musicDNA, iTunesLP, the death of the CD and the argument over haptics, you would know!

Similar to the infamous iTunesLP audioformat that includes videos, pictures and multimedia additions (besides the standard audio files and coverartwork), a new file format entitled MusiDNA has entered the battlefield of digital downloads versus physical sound carriers. Norwegian developer Dagfinn Bach, wo was responsible for the creation of the “Mp3″-format, introduced MusicDNA at music business conference MIDEM in France.

Besides videos, lyrics and extended artwork, MusicDNA is capable of carrying blog-information that can be continously updated everytime the user/file-owner goes online. A file size up to 32GB is possible.

MusicDNA is said to be released in late summer 2010. Leading recordlabels have already shown large interest and iTunesLP-inventors Apple will definitely keep an eye open, too.

Once again the USA give us a hint of how we’re gonna discover new music in the future. Browsing Myspace for hours and hours, skipping from a band’s friends, to their friend’s bands friends and so on is one option but in most cases there’s no real “discovery” in that.

In the US there’s quite a lot small music portals/communities which have specialized on the promotion of young, yet unknown bands. ‘Bottom up”, so to say… Since the idea is as genius as it is simple there’s no further explaination needed, so I am just gonna introduce you to the most important platforms:

1.)  Pandora
Most of you might have heard of this website already. That’s the scary tool that analyses your taste of music and introduces you to bands that you ought to like. Big fun, loads of band information and soon available on your car stereo!

2.) iLike
A very flexible music discovery tool that can easily be connected with facebook (most facebook-band-pages use the iLike-plugin as an audioplayer), myspace, twitter, etc. 30 second clips of all tracks are available along with shitloads of free mp3 downloads. Can also be added as a widget to your iTunes installation.

3.) TheSixtyOne
“democratizes music culture”… Right, this means the FANS are able to rate and comment on all tracks bands make available on TheSixtyone and not a paid or corrupted editorial staff. The website hast just recently been redesigned and fueled with a long list of great features that makes it almost irresistable. Great concept, great realization, great music!

4.) Last.fm
This is the only music discovery website which is already established in Europe, too. In difference to Pandora it  suggests artists that you might like but not because of musical attributes but based on other fans’ listening preferences. Also for show-announcements last.fm becomes more and more essential.

5.) Midomi
Midomi works similar to Shazaam that everyone should know by now from embarrassing tv-spots. The only difference is that Midomi also recognizes whistling and singing instead of only a song playing on the radio. Crazy, huh? iPhone app, android, nokia and windows apps available, too.

6. Hypemachine
Hypemachine understands itself as “blog aggregator”. The intro of the well structured website says: “every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love — and it all ends up here.” . There’s LOADS of free music and an iPhone app is in the works.

7.) JamLegend
The last one for today is the most fun one. Jam Legend basically is the “everybody’s version” of Guitar Hero and Rockband. You can play songs by more than 350 artists (a lot of heavy music by the way) using the website’s interface our your own controller. Its a constantly growing community with great competitions and rankings while the best part is: It’s all for free.

As I mentioned above most of these services are only available/big in the US at the moment but I am sure you are geek enough to find a way to log in anyway. If not you might have to wait for another couple of months / years but at least you’re “prepared” now.

Q: “What is it, that makes digital music inferior to physical sound carriers in your opinion?”
A: “Well, you know… I’m a haptic person, I need something to hold in my hands and stuff.”

Bull-Shit! I am so intangibly sick to death of hearing the same old argument over and over again. YES the CD is an obsolete medium. And YES artworks and lyrics are an essential part of almost every album. But cross your heart: How many times do you actually go to your CD shelf, pick out the album you want to listen to, throw it in your stereo, sit down and hold the booklet in your hands? That’s right…

EVERYONE uses iTunes (or one of its few noteworthy peers) and has a mobile mp3-player. That’s the way we consume music in 2010. The funny thing is, that even though we are talking about “11111s” and “00000s” all the thought, passion and hard work bands put into creating a great album consisting of all three, music, lyrics and artwork, is still momentous and most of all available.

Notwithstanding I am one of those old school digital immigrants, my CD rack has been collecting dust for years now. I own over 1000 CDs, basically all my favorite music, but I would rather buy an album a 2nd time in iTunes before I listen to its physical equivalent. I know I am not alone and I allege that the time we spend with our digital music library by far exceeds the time we are actually listening to physical CDs. People spend hours and hours to organize, rate, rename or update their media libraries. And guess what, they love it! They stare at their “cover flow” and feel proud of the great record collection they grow.

iTunes is the new CD shelf. The cover-flow is the new visual AND haptic (most mp3 players support “skipping” through your cd collection with two fingers or other multi-touch gestures). And almost every songtext that has ever been written is available on the internet. But this is just the beginning. Think of iTunes LP, the new album-format that not only includes mp3s and a cover image but also videos, pictures, multimedia content and interative gimmicks of your favorite band. Think of large multitouch displays in your living room. Think of new multitouch gestures that allow you to skim through a virtual booklet. Think of animated album covers that uncloses an artist like Jake Bannon a complete new dimension of expressing his band CONVERGE. Or think of a “mood” button that shuts down the lights in your living room, projects an animated cover on your wall and allows you to dive deeper into your favorite album than you have ever dreamed of. Some of these ideas might still sound very futuristic but others are just a stone’s throw away and might decorate YOUR living room in a few months already.

See, I run a record label and I still print my releases on CDs. I know that there is a market for physical sound carriers left and my urge is not to devaluate or diss compact discs. I just want to call up all those Luddites who have not recognized yet that the digital age of music consumption has already reached their own personal lives years ago. Wake up! And check your habits… and haptics.

40% of all record sales in the USA in 2009 were digital… Another 2-4 years and we might have the same numbers at European music markets as well. Note to self: rethink distribution and marketing strategies.

For more information check blog.nielsen.com

When I started this blog it was kinda blurry who (or if someone at all) would read this brain damage. In the meantime I got a lot of  feedback from all kinds of people in emails and person that they read this crap and (in most cases) feel somehow enriched afterwards. However, the funny thing is that noone really dares to comment on my blog posts! C’mon folks, this is a BLOG it is MEANT to interact! Feel free to disagree, discuss, complete, question and bash. The more turbulence this blog produces the better. Do it! Now!

no worries, LET IT BURN is neither gonna stop, nor slow down. I just have the feeling that the end of the year also marks the end of the way this label used to work over the past 9 years. Let me explain…

LET IT BURN RECORDS always used to be some crazy mixture of diy and professionality. I never had the feeling that one excludes the other. We traded records with small labels from the Czech Republic and at the same time we bought ad-space in big magazines. We set up contracts for bands and at the same time helped them out quick and dirty when they were in trouble. We sold albums for 12,00 Euro and we sold them for 5,00 Euro. All in all a pretty ambivalent label management.

Especially during the past 2 years the label was forced to make a decision. Basically, there were three options:
1.) Call it a day like so many other record labels did
2.) Narrow all label activity down to straight up hobby-level with 1 or 2 friendship releases per year
3.) Become even more professional and try to stay alive

Since the label is still around and our release-schedule still is packed, it’s not hard to guess what choice we made. However the sole fact of working professional is not gonna save anyone’s ass. As a record label owner you also have to be extremely flexible and innovative. A tough call in an industry that is desperately trying to sell a worn-out product which has passed it’s boom years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, we still LOVE to put out records, work with bands, press people and other partners… It’s just so annoying that noone really knows how to effectively run a label-business on an independent-level these days. A straight up blindflight…

Anyway, 2010 is coming and we’ve already scheduled a lot of cool stuff for the new year. We really appreciate everyone’s support, no matter if you buy cds, go to our bands’ shows, buy their merch or spread the word. We don’t take any of this for granted, never will. Thanks!

Have a good start in 2010!