BEST. BAND. EVER.

Still basking in the warmth of yesterday’s post about the recorded music industry (see: The record labels I never knew I loved), I wanted to parlay the goodwill into a day of ‘giving back’.

After years of ‘borrowing’ music from record labels, I felt like the least I could do - aside from spending money - was to gift them each with my precious email address. After all, there’s still no more effective way to market online than via email.

Based on the list of labels from yesterday’s post, I set forth on a journey to sew my email seeds. Such a noble pursuit, I thought!

As I visited the first label’s website, I noticed… what’s that? There’s no newsletter? Oh wait, there it is… BURIED AT THE FOOTER OF THE PAGE BEHIND A ‘CONTACT’ LINK. And so began the rage blackout.

Here are some of the more common CRM offences:

1. No email list available at all

2. Not possible to sign up for email online (required emailing the label)

3. Sign up box impossible to find on homepage / dreadful UI

4. Gargantuan forms requiring too much data

5. No email confirmation post-sign up

6. Horrific formatting of confirmation emails (when they exist - see point #5)

7. No content / offers / anything included in confirmation emails

8. No impetus (e.g. offers, discounts) for sign up

There I was, ready-willing-and-able to give away my most precious online asset - my email address - and the entire experience has left a sour taste.

For some fans, this could be the first interaction with a label - outside of purchasing music by their artists. The experience could and should have run something like this:

• Fan visits your website, sees clear newsletter sign up area
• There’s clear impetus to join - ‘sign up now and receive a 10-track sampler’
• Fan receives email confirmation of sign up, along with mp3 download link 
• As a cherry-on-top, the email also provides 10% discount to online store

At a time when sales and fans’ attention spans are shrinking, it’s so sad to see these opportunities go to waste.

Update (6/12): The charming newsletter from Bella Union arrived this morning, replete with great links and news. Rage is quelled… for now.

To my detriment, I’ve paid scant attention to the importance of record labels in my life of music fandom. For all intents and purposes, I’ve not given two shits as to whom released my favourite records; just that they were released. What an ungrateful shit I am.

If you asked me with gun-to-head about my favourite-ever labels, I’d be hard-pressed to go beyond Domino (whom I loved in the mid-Noughties for releasing Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys) and Kompakt (whom I feigned over during my ‘minimal phase’).

The recent release of Domino Drip - a subscription-based download service by Domino as powered by drip.fm - got me feeling all nostalgic-like for my days listening to releases by the label. So, it’s with a belly full of goodwill that I’m pondering: how many other labels do I owe a great deal of gratitude?

Below is an approximation of the frequency with which record labels released albums by artists in my Top 100 Last.fm Library. NB: I’ve only included labels whom appear > 1 time. I did this by hand, so throw me a fricken bone.

Thankfully, one of my two ‘favourite’ labels - Domino - appears towards the pointy end of the chart. NB. I suspect that the non-appearance of Kompakt derives from the bulk of my ‘minimal phase’ taking place before joining Last.fm.

What is also immediately apparent is that I’ve got a bunch of ‘favourite’ labels - almost all of which I’d not previously appreciated.

• 4AD: Ariel Pink, Gang Gang Dance, Deerhunter, Cass McCombs
• Sub Pop: Shearwater, Fleet Foxes, Beach House
• Merge: Arcade Fire, Destroyer, The Clientele
• Fat Possum: Andrew Bird, Smith Westerns, The Walkmen
• Jagjaguwar: Bon Iver, Besnard Lakes, Sharon Van Etten
• Matador: Thurston Moore, Interpol, Kurt Vile
• Nonesuch: Wilco, Amadou & Mariam, The Black Keys

And this isn’t even the start of it. Taking time to learn more about the smaller labels whom released the first EPs / singles of my favourite bands is for another blog post all together (apologies, my Excel and Wikipedia skills are maxed out for one night).

Suffice it to say, by delving deeper into the labels behind your favourite artists you’ll uncover a whole world of new music.

Wow, was I just complimentary to the recorded music business? It must be summer or something…