Netlabel
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A netlabel, also called online label, web label or mp3 label, distributes its music in digital audio formats (mainly MP3 or Ogg) online. Netlabels often work like traditional record labels to produce and promote music projects (such as albums or compilations). Most employ guerrilla marketing to promote their work. Few netlabels earn money for participants.
The primary difference between netlabels and record labels is that netlabels emphasize free downloads, as opposed to physical publishing (CD, vinyl or DVD). Often, the music is released under licenses that encourage sharing, such as the Creative Commons Licenses. Artists typically retain the copyright.
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History
Online music groups date back almost as far as the history of personal computers, and share close ties with the demoscene, and video games. Early music groups released music in MOD formats, typically as part of a music disk, which often included a MOD player, accompanied by visual effects and textual information.
Netlabels began to branch out from the tracker scene when the MP3 file format became popular in the late 1990's, but most are still dedicated to electronic music and related genres.
See also
Notable netlabels
Additional links
- The ARTS Radio (http://www.acid.org/radio/arts-ep09.mp3) (MP3) contains an interview with Simon Carless, maintainer of the netlabel archive on the Internet Archive and leader of the popular netlabel group Monotonik.
Netlabel catalogues and lists
- Netlabel Catalogue (http://www.phlow.de/netlabels/) - List of Netlabels sorted by music-genre with self-definitions from each label and rss feeds for current releases and new netlabel-releases in general
- Netlabel Yellowpages (http://numia.scene.org/) - Comprehensive, directory-style listing of netlabels and their relevant links.
- Rowolo Netlabellist (http://www.rowolo.de/labels/) - List ordered by alphabet and genre
- Internet Archive Netlabels Collection (http://www.archive.org/audio/netlabels.php) - Large hosted collection of Netlabel files
- Scene.org (ftp) (ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/) - Huge hosted collection of Netlabel-Releases and Music-Group-Releases
- groups.yahoo.com/group/net_label_releases Yahoo group for netlabel-releases
- www.madridmusic.com/netlabels/principal.php Database of NetLabels in spanish
- Free Software Magazine's article (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/free_issues/issue_04/netlabels/) Article on Free Software Magazine about Netlabels (May 2005)
- http://www.hippocamp.net is a netlabel and community based in manchester, uk.