Blue Note Records, the most storied label in jazz, has plans to partner with ArtistShare, a pioneering crowd-funding platform, for a hybrid called Blue Note/ArtistShare. The joint venture suggests one tactical response to the pressures now facing the record business, especially in and around the jazz field.
The new arrangement â€" orchestrated by Brian Camelio, the founder of ArtistShare; Bruce Lundvall, chairman emeritus of Blue Note; and Don Was, Blue Note’s president â€" will essentially serve as a low-risk development arm of the label. Blue Note will help select the artists, and apply its imprimatur and promotional resources to each finished album. But the costs of recording will be shouldered by fans, in the standard mode of ArtistShare projects. Musicians will retain full ownership of their master recordings.
“Young artists worldwide are making fresh musical statements left and right, but are forced to do their own marketing campaigns, too, often when their main focus should be their creative output,†Mr. Lundvall said in a statement released on Wednesday. While Blue Note/ArtistShare has the potential to lighten that burden, it still leaves the artist in charge of his or her own fundraising efforts.
But in ArtistShare, which Mr. Camelio formed a decade ago, there’s an admirable track record â€" one that predates Kickstarter, by far the best-known brand in crowd-funding. (There have been some recent legal entanglements between the two companies.)
The composer-bandleader Maria Schneider, who just released her third album through ArtistShare, has been its emblematic success story, winning widespread acclaim and multiple Grammy awards. Among the other prominent jazz musicians using ArtistShare are the pianist Billy Childs and the guitarist Jim Hall. But experienced, established figures like these will expressly not be the focus of Blue Note/ArtistShare.
Instead, its emphasis will be on up-and-comers, something for which Blue Note has historically prided itself. The label recently released well-received albums by the singer José James and the pianist Robert Glasper; among its forthcoming releases is a debut effort by the bassist Derrick Hodge, due out on Aug. 6.
