VAPE TAPES TALKS ABOUT HIS VAPORWAVE LABEL – INTERVIEW

Full show notes: http://musicsthehangup.com/blog/vape-tapes-talks-about-his-vaporwave-label-interview-video/

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Introduction

Why this label?
Now normally I’m more aware of the people I interview. I usually like their music a lot, I’ve followed them for a bit and I think their personality could shine on an interview. Vape Tapes on the other hand, he reached out to me.

I wasn’t sure of the idea of interviewing Vape Tapes as I didn’t know much about them and because of a big fact! They are a Vaporwave Label, one that wasn’t much established but they had physical releases and the kid running it was very eager to come on the show. So I finally caved and this was the out come. Luckily this gave us a chance to learn more about the early stages of starting a vaporwave label. 

SHOW NOTES

The artists of Vape Tapes

As some of you might know Vape Tapes, they released albums on vinyl and cassette for artists such as Nostalgic Depressoin, Cardian松の木, Saint Peanut and V A P O R S O F T W O R K S 蒸気ソフト. Well that’s all at the moment but last week we did get confirmation that Melonade will be releasing his self titled, Melonade, on cassette soon with Vape Tapes. (Which BTW, we recently interviewed Future Funk artist Melonade)

So maybe the label is new but they’re growing and those early stages there’s a lot of learning to do, so I thought this was the idea time to pick the brain of the owner to teach us how to start our own label.

So why start a label?

He came into the scene with one goal in mind, help smaller artists get on physical media. A theme I’ve seen with other label but after seeing サクラSAKURA-LEE unsuccessfully fund a quates funding, he knew his label could be useful for all artist. Even if it is small runs.

So why start one yourself? You love the music, you want to see those small artist on physical media, you want to make friends with the artists… these are all options or questions maybe to ask yourself before starting. Luckily the entry of barrier is low and pretty cost effective you go down the DIY approach. 

Be DIY first!

Cassettes are cheap, dubbing to cassettes is practically free after you get your own cassette player. Little known fact, most people were pirating music in the 80s straight off the radio on to cassette, it’s been done for years and now we’re doing it again in the vaporwave scene. It’s simple, easy and get’s music out there off the internet and in the hands of fans.

For those who are interested in how to dub a cassette, here’s a little youtube video I found that can help explain the process.

DIY approach is easy for cassette but then coming to vinyl, it becomes a little more difficult, we’ll talk about how to do that later.

Ok, I made cassette but they’re not selling

Well before you make this mistake, here’s a tip from Vape Tapes. Do pre-orders! 

In the early days of running your label, you’re probably going to have a small audience if you’re artists are small too. Now if you convince more well known artists, ask them to promote the selling of the cassette, heck ask me to promote it. I do it every day with over 100 artists (probably, idk got to check).

If pre-orders are not your thing, you can also do small runs. I’ve seen in the scene very successful sales from label who do 10, 20 even 30 run cassette because the idea of limited

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