✨ IC Community Weekly #45: Bandcamp Friday Edition
ft. your Bandcamp Friday deals and our staff picks, Fire Talk's new imprint, a new role at Secretly Distribution, a Kindness charity single, new DJ Nobu, Byland, Ibibio Sound Machine records and more!
Hey and welcome to the latest edition of the IC Community Weekly!
In a week where UMG and TikTok went to war, forcing an IC co-founder to begrudgingly pick a side, the IC community has once again released tons of great music, announced tours, posted jobs, and more.
Keep scrolling for that, but first, some general news from us and the community:
January was the biggest month ever at IC, both in terms of signups and revenue (and probably costs). A record twenty new catalogs signed up to IC during the month. Welcome to royalty accounting heaven everyone.
The Q1 Special continues apace! Sign up in February to get 40% off your first three months. We make no promises the special will be back next year, and do you really want to wait that long to give yourself and your artists peace of mind (at least when it comes to royalties)?!
Fire Talk announced their new Chicago-based imprint Angel Tapes. With an emphasis on emerging talent, the label is set up as a platform for developing artists. Find out more here and be sure to check out Sleeper’s Bell, the Chicago folk duo of lyricist/vocalist Blaine Teppema and guitarist Evan Green who just released their new single Corner on the label.
Our friends at AIM, the UK association of independent music, signed the UK Voluntary Code of Good Practice on Transparency in Music Streaming, a commitment to standards of good practice in relation to music streaming.
👋 If you’re an IC catalog and you’ve got news, releases, or other fun stuff you want us to include, just reply and let us know - this goes out to 2500+ inboxes every week!
🎓 IC LIVE CLASSES: FEBRUARY
Our team is friendly, knowledgeable, and streaming live from NYC, LA, Portland, or Nashville in two different iterations of live classes: a Software Walkthrough, where you can see what all the fuss is about, and an Onboarding Tutorial, where you can see the setup process in action.
The all important February dates for those:
6th: Group Onboarding at 12EST
13th: Group Demo at 12EST
20th: Group Onboarding at 12EST
27th: Group Demo at 12EST
✨ SIGN UP ✨
BANDCAMP FRIDAY
Remember that Bandcamp waives their 15-20% fee today! New owner Songtradr have said they’ve “…not yet made announcements about BC Friday dates beyond February” and are conducting an informal survey on future BC Fridays - if you have opinions to share on this, let them know.
Special releases, events and offers from the community today include:
✨ Fire Talk “dropping some rarities & other fun things” - head over here to see just what
✨ Sahel Sounds have set their whole digital catalog to ‘Name Your Price’ for today only - check them out here
And here’s what we’ve got our eye on here at IC:
💿 Adam wants to pre-order the upcoming Vegyn record The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions on London label PLZ Make It Ruins.
💿 Ari is looking to pick up Gabbeh by Unchained, the guitar-based instrumental project from Nathaniel Davis, which is on Melbourne label A Colourful Storm.
💿 Austin has his eye on Halos of Perception by Melbourne-based composer and performer Lisa Lerkenfeldt, which is on French label (and IC customer) Shelter Press.
💿 Christopher wants to get Souvenirs, the first vocal album by Ethiopian nun, composer and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru on Mississippi Records.
💿 Hunter has his sights set on Big Dreams, the latest record by Dublin singer-songwriter Rachael Lavelle (Rest Energy), which is an Irish Album of the Year nominee for the RTÉ Choice Music Prize being held in March.
JOBS IN THE COMMUNITY
🧑💻 Secretly Distribution are looking to fill a brand new role: Marketing & Campaigns Manager for the Americas. The new hire will sit within their global marketing team and help look after their growing family of distributed artists and labels, liaising with their in-house digital and retail teams to help create marketing campaigns, assist with label timelines and help manage budgets. The role will have a particular focus on LATAM and the successful candidate will have proven knowledge of this territory in particular, as well as strong general awareness of the US and Canadian retail, marketing and digital landscape and Spanish language fluency. Apply here.
NEW RELEASES
ALBUMS
🎧 Earth Libraries released Endless / Boundless, the third studio LP by Birmingham, Alabama-based songwriter Chayse Porter.
🎧 Joyful Noise released Ashes Instrumental, an instrumental version of Heap of Ashes, the most recent full length by Danish musician Sleep Party People.
🎧 Numero Group released We Blame Chicago, a deluxe 5xLP box set that compiles all of the studio albums, singles, EPs, as well as unreleased material, by cult early 2000s math rock meets post-hardcore band 90 Day Men.
SINGLES
🎧 Kindness released فلسطين (Palestine) a song in aid of Palestine Children's Relief Fund, a charity set up in 1991 to address the medical and humanitarian needs of Palestinian youths, who have provided thousands of children life-saving care based on their need, not on religion, gender, nationality or sect. 100% of the proceeds of this release will go to the charity and are being tracked here.
🎧 fabric released the new DJ Nobu track Flares - more on the split it’s taken from below.
🎧 Pack Records released happy ending, the new track by LA-based-Chicago-bred alternative singer-songwriter Jackie Hayes ft. Sophie meiers (Epitaph Records).
🎧 Earth Libraries released She’s Going Out, the new single by Vancouver Island band Neighbourly, which weds the freedom of psychedelia with layers of pop and funk influences.
🎧 Chapter Music released BUG0BEAT by Melbourne Australia’s Cool Sounds, aka pop polymath Danis Lacey, his first new music since 2022 album Like That.
RE-ISSUES
🎧 Polyvinyl announced that Two of Me, the second Momma album (originally released in 2020), is now shipping on limited edition white vinyl as a collaboration between them and Danger Collective Records. The record is a concept album made up of vignettes dealing with morality, youth, and punishment, filled with tragic heroes created by principal songwriters Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman.
PRE-ORDERS
🎧 fabric Originals announced a new upcoming split single release featuring two leading lights of Japan’s rich techno movement, DJ Nobu and Wata Igarashi. The release kicks off their 25th anniversary celebration and can be pre-ordered here.
🎧 nonclassical announced that Girl, the debut portrait album from composer Soosan Lolavar, orchestra Ruthless Jabiru and conductor Kelly Lovelady will be released on March 15th and you can listen to new single Undone now.
🎧 Mother West are on board for the release of the new Byland record, Heavy For A While, which comes out on March 29th. Byland is the moniker and last name of Seattle-based, Albuquerque-raised, cinematic Indie Rock artist, Alie Renee -check out their EPK for more info on them.
📖 Velocity Press announced they’re publishing the second book by esteemed music journalist Ben Murphy. It’s called Ears to the Ground: Adventures in Field Recording & Electronic Music and explores environments in which found sounds have been recorded by artists, taking the reader on a journey through sites like remote bird colonies, neolithic burial grounds and Antarctica. It's due for release on May 10th but pre-order by 14 February to get your name printed in the book and receive it first in April.
🎧 Merge announced that Ibibio Sound Machine are releasing new record Pull the Rope, “their most urgent, enchanting collection to date” on May 3rd. Check out the music video for new single Got to Be Who U Are here.
🎧 Polyvinyl announced that the seventh Good Morning album, Good Morning Seven, is out March 22nd. Their most expansive project to date clocks in at 17 tracks filled with strings, synths, & samples and is written, recorded, engineered, and produced solely by the Australian duo of Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons.
🎧 Kill Rock Stars announced that SOLO, the new record by Seattle-raised, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Joh Chase will be released on April 26th. Check out the official music video for lead single Avalanche.
🎧 KRS also announced that Mikaela Davis and Circles Around The Sun are releasing a new album called After Sunrise, which is out April 5th & available for pre-order now!
🎧 Get Better Records announced that Flung, Oakland-based multi-instrumentalist Kashika Kollaikal, will release her third solo album All Heartbeat on April 5th.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
🖥️ The latest outing of a section where I'll choose a video I love from YouTube’s treasure trove of music videos, live performances and curiosities.
This week: the music video for No No Man by American underground writer, poet and performance artist Steven “Jesse” Bernstein from the tail end of MTV’s golden era. It was put out by Sub Pop to coincide with the posthumously released LP Prison, which featured instrumentation by Washington-based audio engineer and musician Steve Fisk. Uncensored/full version here
SHOWS, TOURS + EVENTS
📖 Velocity Press are hosting two free launch parties for their first book of 2024, Let The Music Play: How R&B Fell In Love With 80s Synths, which came out today. They’re in Edinburgh on February 15th and Glasgow on February 16th.
🚌 Circles Around The Sun (Megaforce Records) & Mikaela Davis (Kill Rock Stars) are heading out on tour together later this month | TICKETS
🎤 Bratmobile (Kill Rock Stars) are taking their iconic songs and joyous punk-rock antics to Warsaw in Brooklyn for their first NYC show in over 20 years (with very special guests Downtown Boys & cumgirl8), as well as playing a Punk Rock Bowling club show with Fea, Neighborhood Brats & label mates Trap Girl on May 26th at the Sand Dollar in Downtown, Las Vegas! | TICKETS
📆 UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS
+ check out the 🎟 Events Directory for more conferences, festivals, record fairs, webinars, etc!
Feb 5th - 7th ‣ Sync Summit (Los Angeles, US + Online)
Feb 6th - 8th ‣ Pollstar Live! (Los Angeles, US)
Feb 8th - 10th ‣ Durango Songwriters Expo (Ventura, US)
Feb 10th ‣ The Brit Awards 2024 (London, UK)
Feb 23rd - 25th ‣ Measure of Music (Online)
Feb 28th - March 1st ‣ Country Radio Seminar (Nashville)
That’s all for this one! Stay safe and we’ll catch you again next week for more of the same.
- Adam & the Infinite Catalog crew