JAIMIE VERNON – HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL INDIE ARTIST

It’s only taken 8 months but I feel comfortable back in the captain’s chair at my record label after having not done it for the past 5 years. Re-issuing old albums will continue to be my bread and butter but I will always keep supporting and promoting independent music. It’s where I started and will always have a special place in my heart. The spirit of original and new music is what drives creativity forward. Nostalgia is full of sign posts but without new music to build and cultivate new paths the road ends and the sign post will read ‘dead end’.

JAIMIE VERNON – AN OPEN LETTER TO MUSICAL NEWBIES

[Jaimie is currently exhausted and unable to form a cogent original thought…so here’s a rerun of a fan favourite blog from 2011]

I used to run a lucrative record label full-time. I now run it occasionally when I find artists who have the desire and drive to help themselves and who only lean on me to sort out mindless applications for grants, pointers on increasing their social media exposure or answering manufacturing queries. I charge a fee to do this because my 30 years of experience deserves more than a ‘let’s go out for lunch so I can pick your brain’ remuneration. It’s like asking a prostitute to give you a happy ending in exchange for a coffee. And, yes, I do equate being in the music business with prostitution.