01/18/10
Text: Nik Mercer
In 2007, along with Peter Rojas (Gizmodo, Engadget), Elliot Aronow founded one of the most important music Web sites the Internet era has seen: RCRD LBL. The robust music hub, which boasts both a strong presence in the U.S. and abroad, aimed to take the best characteristics of the music blogs that had been popping up like springtime daffodils (DRM-free audio, personalized discourse) and merge them with the for-profit professionalism (and legal soundness) of traditional taste-maker record labels like Factory Records in the 1980s, Rough Trade at its peak, and Sub-Pop starting in the 90s.
Shortly before we went on break for the winter holidays, we sat down with Aronow (pictured) at a cozy NoLiTa café to rap about his company (he currently serves as creative director), his past experiences and how they set the stage for RCRD LBL's founding, and the struggles the music industry is facing at present and what his Web site is doing to change the complex and convoluted landscape for the better.
Let's start by talking about your MySpace collaboration. Then we'll go back to the very beginning.
We started up a program with MySpace called The RCRD Of the Day, where we'll be upstreaming music we get from RCRD LBL. We're debuting stuff on the MySpace homepage as well as myspace.com/rcrdlbl. It's exciting for us because it [brings us] a new audience. We're taking what we're already good at and exposing it to new people.
When you think of MySpace music you think of MySpace bands―
I think of it as a service where pretty much every band in the world has a page, so if you want to check something out, you can do so in just two seconds. Us bringing a little curatorial sense to that is good... ultimately, there's only so many bands you want to hear every day. We're trying to reign it in to the Illuminati of [what's out there].
I don't know what percentage of the population would be classified as audiophiles, but it's probably small―like one percent or five percent or something. Even before the Internet that was sort of the case. I used to subscribe to CMJ―I don't know if you read it too―
I was more of a fanzine guy. I was really into HeartattaCk, which Steve Aoki used to write for... it was this super sincere D.C./West Coast hardcore scene thing. I wasn't really into the college rock thing. But anyway―continue.
I'm really encyclopedic with my music knowledge.
Okay, so you'd assume that ESG's "Moody" is a record everyone knows about.
I guess. Maybe.
Right... and that's just not really how the world works. That's why this MySpace thing is so fun. Because guys like you and me, we spend so much time really deep in the DJ and band worlds, and, like, once you drive 50 miles away from Chicago or New York or any of those major cities, you see where things are actually at. That's why this is exciting. We've been able to put up the occasional Nora Jones remix and it's no big deal. No one's going to take away our credibility because we're still putting up weird, obscure German techno 12"s. It's funny because it shows you inter-personal and small things can seem. Records that are played out, most people haven't even heard of.
Right―"played out" for a DJ would mean he's heard it too many times in one week whereas for a normal consumer it would mean they've heard it too many times in a summer. I get tired of stuff way faster that, say, my girlfriend, and she barely has a grasp on New Order.
I think the term is "over it." [Laughs.]
Ugh―I'm so over it.
Yeah, and their first records were so much better. (Just wanted to give you a good sound bite there.)
Okay, so maybe now would be a good time to go back to the beginning. What was the genesis?
Well, when I moved to New York in 2002, I met a gentleman named Peter Rojas, who was the founding editor of Gizmodo and Engadget, which were really two of the most successful blogs to come out of the first era of blogging. Pre-YouTube. Pre-Facebook. Very proto. I was hanging out on Ludlow St. and I was wearing this pin on my lapel for this old San Diego hardcore band and Peter was like, Oh! Are you into that stuff!? Peter and I became fast friends... we'd hang out and buy clothes and bro out.
In 2004 I was working for Gnarls Barkley―right when the project started―as their behind-the-curtains online marketing guy. This is going to sound funny, but back then, before people were really using MySpace, we built this Gnarls Barkley page. All these 16-year-old girls would [message me] and ask if "Mr. Gnarls" could come and play their sweet 16. Crazy shit. Through that, I got to know Downtown Records. Josh Deutsch, the CEO, called me up and... he was interested in trying out some Internet stuff. Pete and I were kicking around this idea [for a music Web site], which acknowledged that most people don't want to pay for music and [therefore would necessitate] our finding a way to let brands and advertisers make it possible for us to give away music for free. We knew a lot about music but nothing about the music business, which is why partnering with Downtown was perfect. Like, before I started RCRD LBL, I didn't know what publishing was.
It can be so confusing.
And I had to know about it to start the site. I mean, before RCRD LBL, I knew the terms, but I had no idea how anyone got paid to do anything.
So Peter and I―two kids who grew up on labels like Rough Trade and Warp and Factory―[set out] to make this thing with a really powerful identity. Today you'd call that your brand, but back then it was just [about creating] something fresh and cool.
We asked ourselves "what are blogs really good at?" and figured it's their ability to have a very authentic and trusted voice. Then we asked ourselves "what are labels really good at?" and it's [similar]―it's about being trusted―but it's more [decidedly about loyalty]. Like, when I was buying records, it wouldn't matter what I bought as long as I liked the label. I bought everything on Factory―even the stuff that sucked.
I think a lot of labels tend to be quite monolithic... so even if you like what they put out, they don't allow for a channel of communication like blogs do. It's not like conversing with a friend.
That was kind of the goal [of RCRD LBL]. Since shows like 120 Minutes weren't on the air anymore and mainstream alternative media (Spin was losing its edge), I was wondering how kids were finding out about stuff! And whether you were an 18-year-old [audiophile] in college or a 35-year-old guy who's into music but doesn't want to be "that guy" anymore, I found that everyone was congregating around blogs. It seemed like a very natural format. You go every day... there're always new songs... you can download and listen to everything... So it seemed as though instead of people building stuff out and expecting [and audience] to follow, people were throwing stuff out there every day.
With RCRD LBL, we figure that... most people just want, like, five things that are relevant and cool on a daily basis.
Was the founding of RCRD LBL at all a response to what was going on with music blogs at the time? Like, if you go to The Hype Machine and search for Hot Chip, a billion blogs will pop up, all of which are making available "Take It In." There's absolutely no point to being one of those billions since they're all putting out the exact same thing. In that case, voice doesn't really matter―maybe one guy writes a little better and another guy a little worse―because it's all pretty much equivalent since you're providing readers with something they can find at a myriad other sites. Was being reactionary to that part of your founding mission?
Not at all. We just wanted to do something that was better. I think what drew both Peter and I to blogging was 'zines. Like, weirdo people, putting their ideas on the Internet for a small but very devoted following. Peter took that idea with Engadget and... built it into something that millions of people started liking. And, like, 99.9% of blogs don't make any money... people make them because they're into it. We just wanted to start something that was thoughtful and well put-together and a product of our sensibilities.
Also, it's [a fallacy] to think that the blogosphere is [partitioned]. That people [only] like Stereogum or Pitchfork or Brooklyn Vegan or Interview magazine's cover story or whatever. [Liking one] doesn't mean you can't like others.
One of the things that draws me to the sites I frequent is the difference between, like, the teacher in a class and the friend in a class. So, like, the Pitchforks of the world, they have this teacher/curator sort of roll, which isn't what you'd be getting from interactions with a friend. With blogs, everything's random and authors use templates that Google has already made and nothing has to be done according to any schedule. You guys, though, right the line. You have deadlines―
Well, we're running a business! We have relationships with all the labels we do business with. That was one of the difficult things about getting it off the ground. We knew we wanted to make it legal―and we had to make it legal for legal reasons [laughs]. I think we succeeded, though. We've shown labels, and even major labels, that you can work within the blog space―you don't have to be a major media channel. There's a lot of people that are just fans of bands and want to check out music. There's certainly a way to market a record to people without making them feel like they're criminals.
Going back to your original question, though... I think of us more as a download site with cool editorial around everything as opposed to a blog. I do think that "blog" has a―
Grass roots vibe to it.
Yeah! Like, I think back to what Stereogum was a few years ago: Scott [Lapatine], in his bedroom, writing a ton of stuff. Because we don't do newsy stuff or review record―we only put up [MP3's] we like―I think of it as a free, cool iTunes.
