You don’t have to be an economics major to understand that starting any type of music company these days is a risky decision, especially if your company is a record label. Still, year after year dozens of people dip their toes in the waters of small business with hopes of sharing the music they care about with the world at large. Few labels ever find the audience needed to financially support the artists on their roster, but those who are able to help artists of all ages gain the exposure needed to make or keep their dreams a full-time career. Those labels are heroes in our book, and today we’re happy to share some insight into one of the more exciting companies to rise through the underground in recent years.
Cyber Tracks is the latest business venture from Jen Abeyta and her husband Aaron, better known as El Hefe in legendary California punk back NOFX. The label launched in early 2016 with punk legends Unwritten Law already on their roster, and in the months since Cyber Tracks has quickly become one of the most talked about indie labels in alternative music. The reason for this is not only the couple’s history in music, but also their clear desire to do everything possible to empower the artist on their label. Instead of making decisions for their bands, Cyber Tracks works with artists to craft a career that will lead to success and longevity for everyone involved, and it seems like nothing can stop them from continuing to grow in the months and years ahead.
Recently, Jen found some time in her busy schedule to speak with us about the decision to launch Cyber Tracks, as well as what fans of the label can expect from them in the future. You can read highlight from our conversation below.
Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Jen. We’ve seen several Cyber Tracks releases promoted through Haulix since launch. I remember seeing the Unwritten Law acoustic record on our system earlier this year. Can you give us a quick history behind the label and why you and your husband decided to launch it?
Cyber Tracks just fell into our lap. We started off very slowly with the idea to just release the bands that my husband was producing, and somehow I just started peddling faster and faster as opportunities began coming our way. Now, here we are, I never expected to go this far with it.
There are some who would say the idea of launching a new record label in 2016 is a bad idea. Between slumping sales and low streaming royalty rates, making ends meet appears to be harder than ever before. Is the industry in as much trouble as it seems?
Launching a label nowadays isn’t necessarily a bad idea, if you can figure how to navigate around the difficulties and challenges. As long as you can adapt to the digital changes and creatively craft a unique business plan that fits with today’s evolving music industry, you should be able to survive and have a somewhat profitable business. Nothing is impossible, you just have to be smarter than the industry. Think outside the box.
The motto “for artists, by artists” is catchy. I cannot believe no one has used it in the past. How much knowledge did you have of the ins and outs of running a label before launching Cyber Tracks?
My husband actually came up with that motto. FUBU had something similar. I think that having knowledge of record labels is important when starting a similar company, but for us, we wanted to do something very different and unique. I don’t really believe in the politics and structure of the majors. So much of it can be confusing and intimidating when it comes to all the different royalty structures for mechanicals, writing, publishing, etc …and the 360 deals! We wanted to simplify all that, so we created a simple structure to split everything down the middle with the band, only pertaining to album sales and anything master ownership. We cut out mechanicals on our releases, however we do still have to pay the original writers on anything that was written by someone else. My husband has over 30 years under his belt dealing with both major and indie labels. We also enlisted help from the Margate guys who all work at Universal records.
What would you say is the biggest lesson you have learned from running Cyber Tracks so far? Is there anything you thought you understood going in, only to later realize you were wrong?
Regardless of all the warnings I had received from everyone about the impossibilities to sell albums, I still felt that it can’t be ‘that’ hard to move units. Boy was I wrong, it’s tough nowadays. So, I follow our sales stats weekly and constantly focus on weak sales areas and work harder to boost those numbers as much as possible.
What types of artists do you hope to have on the Cyber Tracks roster? There are a few legacy acts that have helped get the label off the ground, but are you looking for emerging artists as well? Is there a particular sound you hope to focus on?
There’s no particular sound that we want to lean towards. If my husband and I love the music, we will whole-heartedly be behind the release. Foremost, we want to work with artists who want to be part of our team and our family. It’s important to us to like the artists on a personal level, not just the music we are putting out.
Speaking of new acts, what do you think are the key things that artists need to do in order to establish themselves in the modern music industry?
Tour tour tour! In my opinion, the best thing a new artist (or any un-established artist) can do is to land support tours. The more people you can play in front of each night, the more you are getting your name and music out there and can promote your band and album. Also, keep in mind that although people don’t purchase music much anymore, they do still spend their money on concert tickets. Most artists don’t make much in royalties, but they survive off of touring, that’s where the money is at.
A lot of bands think signing to a label is the key to success. We know that isn’t the truth, as I am sure you do, so tell us – what are the advantages to joining a label like Cyber Tracks?
Signing to a label is not the “key to success,” there are a lot of factors involved, all the weight can’t be put on the label. However, a huge benefit would be that we cover the costs to record and release an album, and also distribute it worldwide. Any band can go on CD Baby or Tunecore, to obtain digital distribution, but I have yet to find a physical distribution company that would take on a band (with no label). In addition, being on a label, bands also obtain the ability to support one another and build relationships with other bands on the label.
Do you have goals as a label? Beyond the obvious hopes for success and helping bands, of course.
My main priority is to release good music and try to refresh and revive a stagnant music industry. Sure there are a lot of good releases every year, but it’s far and few. Back in the day, I’d constantly come across new releases that would become my favorite new album that I couldn’t get enough of …this doesn’t happen much anymore though. I find myself desperately seeking a new release that I can obsess on for a while, but never seem to really find many options anymore. I want to fix this drought. Of course I want to be able to profit off my investment and be able to pay my artists a royalty, but the most important underlying goal to me is to release good music that people love.
I know you created the cover art for Unwritten Law’s recent acoustic release. Can you speak to the motivation behind that design?
The new Unwritten Law album art was 100% Scott Russo’s vision. I just helped deliver his requests and I put it all together for him. We met at Casa Vega for dinner one night to discuss artwork, and Scott showed up with an old gatefold style Pink Floyd album jacket. He proceeds to start drawing and scribbling all over the outside and inside of the jacket while he described his mental vision of it to me. It was a major challenge, but I think I pulled off close-to how he had envisioned it.
Speaking of your artistic leaning, can we expect more cover art from you on future Cyber Tracks releases?
It was very challenging for me to design album artwork from the ground up. I literally spent 8-10 hours a day, for almost two months, on the Unwritten Law album. It was a lot of work, and I’m better off focusing my time and energy into the actual release. Minimally, I always add additional art to every release (barcodes, copyright and publishing lingo, cyber tracks logos, etc), and finalize it for print, for all my bands.
