Many of the best indie labels are run by people who know what it's like to the be the artist themselves, and that is certainly the case with Smacks Records. Here, Mr. LeN talks about why he started Smacks, how the label is different from some of the others out there, how he deals with competing with bigger labels with deeper pockets and his own plans for the future.
Question: You’ve released music with other labels in the past – what made you want to start your own?
Answer: The industry was changing and I kind of wanted to innovate business-wise how things were done. When I started the label, even my contracts when I was still pressing up hard copies of stuff, my contracts were different then how any major or even any indie label were. The thing that scares most artists is exclusivity – feeling like they’re trapped. So, I opened up my contracts to say, you know, if a better deal comes along, feel free to explore it. You know, what ended up happening was even when someone did offer some of my artists better deals, it made them now examine it. Because now no one takes anything at face value – because it's like if this guy is willing to go ahead and let me explore it, I don’t have to feel rushed to get the money or anything. You know what I’m saying? So now it gave artists a chance to really explore how things are done. That, and I hated when I would call a label and I couldn’t get through to anybody. That, and you know, little simple things like, I keep an open book policy for all my artists. If you have a question about your money, a question about publishing, anything – when you call, I’m gonna answer. If you want to see it, it’s all written out right here for you. I’ll send you the email a thousand times if I need to – sit down and explain it to you. So, it was little things like that – I wanted to tweak the way labels were run.
Do you run the label by yourself?
No, for awhile my wife was helping me – she was doing the marketing. I have another assistant, his name is Phil, he does all the radio and helps out with the booking and things like that.
Do you think your approach comes from working as an artist yourself and out of frustration you had with your deals in the past?
You know, I can’t really say that it was frustration. You know, while it was frustrating, it was really like “grrrr” – it was like, I saw things that could be done better. But that’s where being an artist helps. Without the artists, there is no business. And if you can’t make an artist feel at home, then it’s hard for that artist to create.
As a small label, what are the biggest challenges you face?
Ah…competing with Universal. Everyone has more money than you. Once I separate my personal money from the business money, I find that like, my business doesn’t have a lot of money, which is why than even earlier than most labels did, we went all digital.
How do you cope with promotion and that sort of thing – touring and things – when other labels have more money than you do?
You know that old saying, “work smarter, not harder”? We would do little things like, we started chain letters where you could win something if you sent out a chain letter, so it was basically advertising someone’s record. Recently, we came off of, what I was doing was putting out a song a week for 30 weeks – we just ended that like last week. It’s little things that get people’s attention. You also find out who’s watching and who’s paying attention because they’ll take your ideas. A lot of things we’ve done, I’ve seen other people do. They just have more money and are a little more visible.
What has been your most successful campaign like that?
Actually, the 30 in 30 – the one a week project. We did it all through the one store – Amalgam Digital – but it got sent around to a lot of DJs. On the indie side, most artists just need to be heard. While we definitely appreciate sales, unless you’re actually saying the name of the person – you know, and people are interested in it – that’s how you get your show. When you get your show, that’s how you sell your merch, and that’s how your get your money. So, because we were putting out a song a week, it enabled us to steal a chunk of time - when DJs have their mix shows, they’d be like, “ok, we’re gonna play the last six weeks of the one a week.”
Do you do all of your radio promotion – or promotion in general – in house, or do you hire out?
There have been a couple of times we have hired out. We respect the music. But after awhile, you know, while it’s good, if there’s no real money being generated back, paying $1500 a month or whatever it takes to keep the promotion people on your project, if none of that is coming back, you’re just hemorrhaging money.
What kind of radio stations have you had the most success with? I know radio is so hard to get into.
Uh, college radio. College radio and internet radio. And more recently, satellite.
On your own show (Mr. Len is a host on XM's Spitkicker Radio Show) – do you get to play your own?
Yeah, and because I’m a DJ, you know I’ll do the 89.9 show and I’ll play my songs and put them on XM.
How do you find your artists?
I basically walk out on my porch and say “can you rap?” There’s always a connection between me and my artists. Bullymouth, that group, I actually put that group together. Kice…Of Course was an artist from Elizabeth (New Jersey) that we met through the guy who used to manage men in college. Mentalcase would rhyme with Kice and the more I heard him, the more I was like, wow, I’d be pretty stupid not to work with this guy. So, there’s always like – everyone is basically from New Jersey or I’ve met them through some mutual friends.
