Published at 3:45 PM on August 3, 2009

Getting Acquainted with Friends of Friends Music

Getting Acquainted with Friends of Friends Music

With the growing convenience and pervasiveness of digital music (legal and otherwise), one might start to wonder if the fancy spiral compact-disc rack has entered the endangered species list in the realm of hip apartment décor. And with CDs heading to the attic for many listeners, there's come a sharp decline in the physical trace most music consumers experience with the craft that lilts through their laptop speakers and iPod buds. For some folks, vinyl has become the format of choice once again (particularly LPs that come with handy digital-download cards), but for many others, iTunes, eMusic and the like have largely digitized the artistic footprint of the music they hear.

This is all old news, sure. And while it's pretty much impossible to predict the future of music consumption, it's refreshing to hear about the people out there adapting in interesting ways. Friends of Friends (FoF) Music, for instance: a budding Los Angeles-based record label set on filling your closet with custom-designed organic T-shirts, your living room with house plants and your speakers with new tunes. Founded on the belief that a fan's willingness to support the music they love and labels they trust has not diminished along with their willingness to buy music, FoF Music is, in essence, delivering quality merchandise as the main product with the music as a freebie.

"I look at my little brother, who’s 11 or 12 years old. He doesn’t even really know what CDs are, but he’ll buy his favorite band’s T-shirt, no problem," explains Leeor Brown, who helms the label. "The way I looked at it was that there’s still money available in the music industry. The whole doom-and-gloom idea that the industry is suffering is really only being told by people that made a lot of money on a model that existed prior. Right now, it’s such a sliding scale as to what music is worth. That’s why labels are freaking out: because they have no way to say how much their music is worth. So for me, it’s was about trying to give fans a new value." Individual artists like Mos Def and Of Montreal have done similar things with t-shirts and other goodies, but FoF Music is trying to take the tactic to the record-label level.

Brown, who still spends his days plugging bands for Terrorbird Media, has intently observed the views of different stakeholders while working in PR as the music industry has changed. He came to the conclusion that music makers and consumers alike were dissatisfied with MP3s alone; they wanted something concrete. So when Brown, a devout vinyl DJ and listener, decided to start up his own label, he turned to the three main draws that have led him to solid purchases over the years: striking cover art, trusted record labels and recognizable guest appearances. Rarely in his 26 years has he found an unlistenable album following these tactics. So he synthesized them.

"It was about bottling up that feeling of going shopping at a record store and trying to put it into the release," he says. "The release is what tells that whole story all at once." Friends of Friends Vol. 1, the first installation of the label's series of split EPs, comes with album art on an organic T-shirt and a seed paper card (a biodegradable sheet with seeds embedded in it for planting) with the EP's download information printed on it.

"[The seed paper] was really only an extra quarter a piece, so I was like, 'Let’s do that.'  Who wants those shitty credit-card looking download cards?" Brown says, ever-conscious of visual presentation. "And especially If I’m going to do organic shirts and really try to go this waste-free angle, let’s just go all out, you know?"

But it comes at a price: $32 a package, to be exact. That might sound a tad spendy to those already unwilling to pay for music, but if you ask Brown, it's worth it, and actually a bargain when compared to the Sam-Goody mall robbery of recent history. "CDs were the biggest rip-off of all time, really," he says. "Like it's really incredible that this price is based strictly on major labels' economics: the fact that they spent so much money upfront that they had to recoup. By indie labels, we've learned that manufacturing's not that expensive."At the end of the day, for us, it was about changing the whole mindset. Yeah [our model's] a little bit more pricey... And I’m like, 'Look, it you want to buy [the music alone], go buy it on iTunes; it’s five bucks.' This [model] is for the people who really love the project or love the artists." 
 
Brown is confident that the way the project comes together alone will pique people's interest. Here's where the whole "friends of friends" part comes in: The label invites an artist it knows to do one half of a split EP, and that artist then asks a friend to complete the remaining half. In the case of Friends of Friends Vol. 1, released this past March, the process began with Brown enlisting Daedelus, an L.A.-based electronica artist who then invited friend, Jogger, to round out the EP, as well as art duo Kozyndan to design the first organic tee. Sound a little convenient that Brown has a bunch of creative friends on tap? Well, that PR gig of his has certainly helped his start-up operation. But friends helping friends push forth their art is what FoF Music is all about, and something it does with full-disclosure.

"I had to argue that it's not only not a conflict of interest at all, but it's exactly what labels like Dim Mak or Mad Decent have done but without being as upfront about it," Brown says. "The fact of the matter is, I don't think it's a bad thing. For me, it was like, 'Why should we hide this?' These people are buddies. That's what makes this interesting.'"

FoF Music is already prepping Vol. 2, a split between Swiss groups Larytta and Bauchamp due sometime in September. It's also putting together a full-length release for San Antonio, Texas musician Ernest Gonzales for later this year, and scouting out Vol. 3 material. Recently, FoF released Friends of Friends REMIXED, which features artists like Nosaj Thing and Mexicans with Guns putting new spins on Vol. 1 tracks. So far, the project has stayed on the electronic tip, but Brown is keeping his ears open. "I'd love to expand that, but it's one of those things that I came up in and it's what I did for Terrorbird and what I kind of do in my own personal [DJing]," he says. "But seeing that it's a friends of friends label, I have to go with who I know, especially in the early stages."

Which begs the question: What happens when that friend of a friend of a friend recommends something that, well, sucks? "You know, it's tricky. I've been lucky so far," Brown says. "It's definitely a conversation. I don't think that I can say, 'Nah, screw that! I'm not doing it!' But I don't think any of the artists wants to put me in a situation when I'm not super-stoked about what we're doing."

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