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17.01.14 MusicWeek 13
born out by the growing popularity of Disclosure, Duke Dumont and Chris Malinchak on both sides of the Pond. Music Week caught up with Dunmore to discover
why the label may now be set for its second truly golden commercial era - and how the global rebirth of house music could set one of 2014’s most defining trends…
House wasn’t popular in the mainstream just a couple of years ago. What’s changed? Radio became very focused on global [‘EDM’ DJ] superstars, which made it more difficult to penetrate radio. Obviously the investment you have to make when going for mainstream records meant we entrenched ourselves in house music - the main focus of what we do as a label. After a period of time, it made the business very defined. We knew exactly where we were aiming and with social media and the internet our natural audience was able to find us more easily than they were in previous years. As a business we’ve found it much easier to survive by being focussed musically, not necessarily looking for crossover success. We became much more stable financially by doing that, because we understood our market. What’s happened in the past 18 months is that the market has moved towards us - there are a number of records considered house tracks, whether it’s the Chris Malinchak record or the Duke Dumont record or even Disclosure, they’re all obtaining crossover status, and youth culture is all- of-a-sudden identifying with house. [Look Right Through] was just one of those records on the underground that the kids related to and embraced.
Do you worry that the major labels, promoters and other big businesses will increasingly move into your territory now? That’s happened already, certainly in the past 12 months. What we have to do as a label is not get too carried away by the fact we’ve had a crossover success, just continue doing what we’ve been doing. That in turn means there’s a likelihood we’ll source records that have the potential to get radio play and crossover. Some people see the fact that something’s entering the mainstream as a negative, but I always think we should celebrate it. People make music because they want other people to hear it and enjoy it. Having slugged it out in the trenches for seven or eight years, there’s now an opportunity for [house DJs] to be rewarded properly again for making great music.
The ‘EDM’ scene has famously erupted in the US - is it affecting house music and Defected? There’s always an entry point for dance music. Sometimes that’s in the mainstream; once people associate themselves with dance and their tastes mature or look for an alternative, people generally find their way to labels like us and the producers we’re associated with. For me, this was where we were always going to end up after the huge successes of your Guettas and your Aviciis etc. People just become more inquisitive. I can see a very positive four or five years ahead of us.
How do you assess the value of the ‘new industry’? We’re not just a record label, but I don’t believe that the ‘360’ model works because every artist requires different kinds of facilities to maximise their
ABOVE
“Some people see something entering the mainstream as a negative, but I always think we should celebrate it. Having slugged it out in the trenches, there’s now an opportunity for house DJs again” SIMON DUNMORE, DEFECTED
potential. Sometimes we’re able to provide that across the board, but sometimes they’re better off with a certain agent who’s more relevant etc. But now if you have a record that draws 5 million views on YouTube but only sells 5,000 copies, it’s a hit in a different way - and we can use that in a different way to book gigs or get on compilations. It means that you don’t have sell 200,000 singles to have a ‘hit’. There are many more ways that you can define a popular record these days. Music has become much more of a democracy, where people make their own choices, rather than having to listen to radio and relying on playlists that have been quite restrictive over the past decade.
The big question is how you best monetise an audience coming to your music online… I’m not a massive fan of the Spotify model, but it does introduce people to new music, as does YouTube, radio, SoundCloud and other services. We’re reaching a much bigger audience now than at any point in our existence. My experience and that of people I work with, is that Spotify doesn’t stimulate sales. The streaming model obviously works for some people. But if you’re an ardent fan of a genre, act or band, if you get it on Spotify, the chances of you then going to buy the music are greatly diminished. We’re on Spotify but we tend to make the music available after our community has moved on from it - when we’ll get a more passive dance music fan coming across it, who can then hopefully be converted into a fan who’ll buy music.
Dennis Ferrer: One of Defected’s artist roster who could cross over into the mainstream in 2014. Others include DJ/producer Nick Curly. (Far left) Defected founder Simon Dunmore
After Storm Queen, how much focus are you now giving the mainstream and those big chart hits? For us to stop everything we do as a business in order to have a possible hit meant we might jeopardise other areas of what we do. So we approached Ministry, who were really into the record and they absolutely took the opportunity by the scruff of the neck and delivered. It was a really good example of a partnership working together. With us underlining the credibility and them taking it to the mainstream, it was a very effective two- pronged attack. That’s something we’re keen to do into 2014: not to change because we’ve had this commercial success, but due to a belief that the market has moved towards us, keep doing what we’re good at. Opportunities will naturally emerge.
Can you recap the journey of the Storm Queen record to such success? The unique thing about it is that it was released two years ago. It had loads of love [in the clubs] when it was first released, and because of that it’s probably the first true punter record for many a year. There was a time a few years back when records would come out, not be successful and then be given a new lease of life by becoming DJs’ turntable hits on the underground, and then grow. Look Right Through is definitely a record in that mould. Maybe we’re going to see a return to those days where records are allowed to grow and create their own audience rather than being fast-tracked, as they have over the past ten years, and go straight to radio. It will become a good feeding ground for mainstream music.
Can we read anything into the fact that it was Ministry of Sound you partnered with - a rival, but also a fellow independent? Not really. There’s always going to be competition in whatever you do, but we have an excellent relationship with Ministry of Sound. We do our own nights [at the club] six times a year, which are hugely successful - every one in 2013 has been a
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