![\"fat-cat.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/fat-cat.jpg\")
<\/span>Anna Bond has been co-label manager of FatCat USA<\/a> for two years. She has worked in the music industry in NYC for just over five years, and has spent time in artist management and retail in addition to record labels. The only things she likes more than records are vegetables.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Can
\nyou please tell the scores of Life’s a Pitch readers about the
\nclassical imprint on the label? First, what is an “imprint”? What was
\nthe reasoning behind creating it?<\/b><\/p>\n
130701<\/a> was created in Do you think record labels have become This Lots The <\/b>Sales How many rock\/electronica critics are women? How many managers? Publicists?<\/p>\n <\/b>I’m How many FatCat has several women on Yes, the music world is quite This On the same token, It’s <\/b>Nah, they What press is considered the Holy Grail for your Pitchfork is a big one, but I don’t Now Rock sites do a lot of mp3 download Have I It seems like years since I’ve posted an interview here, which, I assure you, is my fault and not my subjects’. The good news is, we have an exquisite line-up for the next few Fridays. For those of you just joining us now, on Fridays I’ll (try to) post an interview with someone far more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-90","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\norder for FatCat to release modern composition records that didn’t fit
\nwith the aesthetic of FatCat proper. Artists released on the label
\ninclude Max Richter, Sylvain Chaveau, Set Fire To Flames, and Hauschka.
\n“Imprint” means different things, technically, depending on where you
\nare, but for FatCat, it’s simply a genre marker – the same folks work
\non promoting and selling the records as for all FatCat releases. At a
\nmajor, an imprint might be a subsidiary label with an entirely separate
\nstaff and office.<\/p>\n
\nliterally-labels? For example, if pianist Max Richter<\/a> was on Decca<\/a>, he
\nwould be classical, but because he’s on FatCat, he’s “indie”?
\nConversely (or, similarly, depending on how you look at it), when an
\nartist on a classical label does anything in another genre sphere, they
\nare immediately labeled as (and often criticized for being) “crossover”.<\/b><\/p>\n
\nis a tough question. To an extent, I think the answer is yes. Some
\nmusic buyers notice and even follow labels, but I think the importance
\nis more in the industry realm – retail, press, and radio, who will all
\ninfluence the way an artist is perceived by the music-buying public,
\nare more likely to know different labels and their rosters, and
\ntherefore have notions of what to expect from them. Labels who become
\nclosely identified with one very specific type of music, like Americana
\nor heavy rock, may have a tough time shaking those preconceptions, and
\nreleases outside their mold may suffer.<\/p>\n
How do you submit
\nan artist like Max Richter to iTunes? To record stores? Are we dealing
\nwith different genre labels for those different platforms?<\/b><\/p>\n
\nof record stores don’t have classical sections, or if they do, they
\ndon’t carry modern composers – just your Carmina Burana, all the big
\nguns, La Boheme, and the holiday stuff, because that’s all that will
\nsell in a lot of markets – so we use our wiggle room as an “indie” or
\nrock label to classify Max Richter as “rock” for retail solicitations,
\nso that those stores who don’t buy classical don’t ignore the record.
\nOnce store buyers do read our solicitation materials, they’ll know what
\nthe music is, but in order to get them to that point, we can’t be under
\nthe classical heading. And honestly, that’s an appropriate genre
\nclassification for a lot of the buyers of his music: sure, avant-garde
\nheads will pick up the CD, but a lot of our sales will be to folks who
\nare also looking for Sufjan Stevens, Yeasayer, or Godspeed.<\/p>\n
\ndigital realm, on the other hand, presents its own challenges and
\nopportunities. Placement on sites like iTunes and eMusic is very
\ncompetitive for rock releases, especially for crowded fall release
\ndates, but less so for classical, so in the digital realm, we find it
\nmore advantageous to group it with classical releases, where we have a
\nmuch greater chance of featured new-release placement – and a greater
\nchance of reaching curious fans of classical music. With digital, we
\ndon’t have to worry about a retailer choosing not to carry the release
\ndue to its genre classification.<\/p>\n
Are indie record sales
\nas bad as classical record sales? Do you think the whole industry will
\nactually croak? When? Exact date and time, please.<\/p>\n
\noverall have obviously decreased, but there are pockets of hope
\neverywhere, especially with vinyl and special packaging. I think the
\nmusic industry will continue to change radically – to the extent that
\nit may be unrecognizable to many in, say, ten years – but it’s hard for
\nme to believe it will dissolve entirely. That could be wishful
\nthinking, though.<\/p>\n
\nnot sure exactly, but I’d estimate roughly that no more than 25% of the
\nwriters we send to are women. I have long noticed that women are
\ndisproportionately represented as managers and publicists vs. in other
\nareas of the industry, which I can’t help but attribute to our
\nacculturation as nourishers and communicators.
<\/p>\n
\nwomen artists are on FatCat? The indie rock industry seems very
\nmale-dominated to me, but then again, so does the classical music
\nindustry. And…life in general.<\/b><\/p>\n
\nthe active roster, including two of our highest-profile artists, Vashti
\nBunyan (she is on FatCat in the UK only) and Nina Nastasia. Also Silje
\nNes, members of M\u00fam, Welcome, and Vetiver (again, Vetiver is on FatCat
\nin the UK only)… once you include the inactive roster and the split
\nseries, there are lots more. But there are definitely more male
\nartists, by a wide margin.<\/p>\n
\nmale-dominated, but so is pretty much everything except like,
\nelementary school education and social work. My theory about this would
\ntake pages to expound, but I think one reason most popular bands are
\nmale is because the most passionate music followers are male.<\/p>\n
\nis not because men are innately more passionate about music than women,
\nbut because women are pressured to cast aside hobbies and passions like
\nrecord-collecting or insatiable music-listening earlier than men are,
\nin favor of practical responsibilities like, say, getting one’s career
\nsorted before it’s time to have babies. <\/p>\n
\nit’s likely that these pressures also discourage musical women from
\npursuing the slow grind toward making music as a career.<\/p>\n
\nhard to make this claim without sounding flippant or reductive, but
\nit’s certainly been my experience, and that of my close women friends,
\nboth in and out of the music industry.<\/p>\n
Between you and me
\nand whomever’s reading, do you ever leak albums? Like, send them to
\nbloggers from a secret Gmail account or whatever?<\/p>\n
\nleak soon enough on their own. Though I have noticed that the lag
\nbetween mailing and leak, even for relatively high-profile releases,
\nhas increased. Maybe leaking for leaking’s sake has gotten old? I’m not
\nsure.<\/p>\n
\nalbums? Pitchfork<\/a>? Why does everyone keep saying Pitchfork is over? I’d
\nreally like to know…<\/b><\/p>\n
\nthink there is a Holy Grail. It’s a combination of attention across the
\nboard from print and online press. For a couple of years – 2004-2005
\nmaybe? – Pitchfork was a massive sales driver, with the ability to
\nlaunch careers seemingly out of nowhere. But the record had to appeal
\nto enough people who sought it out after the Pitchfork review to become
\na real phenomenon like the Arcade Fire or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah –
\nI’m pretty sure William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops didn’t sell
\n100K after getting Pitchfork’s Best New Music, and I know that Max
\nRichter didn’t. Though both releases undoubtedly received more
\nattention due to the Pitchfork review than they otherwise would have.<\/p>\n
\nthere are simply so many review sites, mp3 blogs – so many sources for
\nreading about music – that it’s impossible for one site to have as much
\nimpact anymore. Getting a high Pitchfork rating is still a boon in
\nterms of press attention and sales, but it’s definitely not going to
\nguarantee success, especially for artists who are more left-field.<\/p>\n
Our
\nfriends at Sequenza21<\/a> offered three free Max Richter track downloads<\/a>,
\nbut, to my knowledge, that was one of the first times a classical blog
\nhas ever done that. Do the blogs you usually work with offer free
\ndownloads all the time? How does giving away product for free like that
\naffect album sales?<\/b><\/p>\n
\ngiveaways and streaming audio samples – it’s standard at this point. We
\ngenerally offer one or two mp3 download giveaway tracks for each
\nrecord, and we consider the attention drawn to the music by these early
\npreviews an upside greater than any downside in terms of sales. <\/p>\n
\nyou found an online equivalent to flipping through CDs\/records\/tapes in
\nbins at record stores, or do you think that’s irreplaceable?<\/b><\/p>\n
\nam going to be totally honest with you: I can count on the fingers of
\none hand how many albums I have ever downloaded. I’m a dinosaur. I work
\nat computers – why would I want to shop for records at one? I love
\nrecord stores, possibly to a fault in terms of my marketing
\nperspective, and definitely to a fault in terms of my wallet. There is
\nno substitute for walking into a friendly place, checking out the new
\nrelease rack, looking at employee suggestions, asking the person behind
\nthe counter what’s good and new…I know it’s not how everyone prefers
\nto shop for music, but to me, it’s absolutely irreplaceable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"