Cooperative Music is a collective of independent record labels, founded in 2005 to release their music and develop their artists around Europe. The labels who currently form Cooperative Music are Bella Union, City Slang, Deltasonic, Downtown, Fiction, Heavenly, Memphis Industries, Moshi Moshi Records, Rabid Records, V2 and Wichita Recordings. Cooperative Music currently has offices in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Benelux and Scandinavia and releases music from all of these labels in other territories through various licensees.

What’s goin’ on in Cooperative Music’s world right now?

It’s now been a year since we started building the new Coop network after the V2 takeover, and we actually started seeing the results of this hard work! A crazy year, but full of good news: We managed to keep our independence and work even closer with our partners, and have just signed exciting new labels/artists.

Could you let us know a bit more about the labels and artists involved in Coop?

Coop “historically” regroups labels such as Bella Union (Fleet Foxes, Midlake,…), City Slang (Calexico, Lambchop, Nada Surf,…), Memphis Industries (The Go! Team, El Perro Del Mar,…), Moshi Moshi (Au Revoir Simone, The Wave Pictures,…), Rabid (The Knife), and Wichita (Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco, The Dodos,…).
Some more labels have recently joined the Coop world: We have started working with Deltasonic (The Rascals), Downtown (Eagles Of Death Metal, Spank Rock), Fiction (Macabees, Filthy Dukes), Heavenly (Pete Grenwood, The Little Ones), World’s Fair (The Dandy Warhols) and of course V2 that is now also part of our catalogue with artists such as the Cold War Kids, The Black Keys, Ra Ra Riot, The Rakes, and so on.

It seems that the indie business is concentrating more and more with “empires” like Beggars, Pias and Coop? How do you see this evolution (revolution)?

Rather than building empires, I think indie labels are trying to join forces. That’s what we are doing for our labels, providing them an international network, with adapted promo and marketing strategies in every territory. Our model is pretty similar to Beggars’ except that we don’t own the labels we’re working with! But both of us are regrouping strong A&R’s through our labels and defending their catalogues everywhere in Europe.
Pias has just released the new Oasis record, Radiohead signed to XL/Beggars, and we are releasing the new Bloc Party, Travis or Eagles Of Death Metal albums. It looks like time is great for indie labels! More & more major artists realize they should release their music through smaller structures, or even their own structures.

What are you currently listening to?

Lately we’ve been listening a lot to the new TV On The Radio record, but also British band Fuck Buttons, and of course Bloc Party, Cold War Kids, Fleet Foxes…!

How important is the internet for Coop?

We are 3 people in the French office, one of us is totally dedicated to internet. For a structure like ours, it’s very important as it’s the best way to create links with the fans of our catalogue, know who they are, give them precious info, etc. It’s also the best way to be reactive: No need to wait for traditional medias when you can instantly show a video, or play exclusive songs on the net to thousands of people.

Where do you see this whole internet thing going?

Bloc Party has decided last summer to sell the digital version of their album on their website 2 months before its physical release. It was always frustrating for them to have to wait so long to share songs once they are recorded. So this was the perfect solution. And as the buzz is great on the album, it only helps us preparing the physical release.
We are actually thinking more & more about making albums available digitally on usual platforms at the same time as we service promos to journalists, far upfront the physical release. Rather than being repressive, as anyway all albums leak on the net before release, it gives the opportunity to everyone to dowload legally!

You are releasing a lot of albums in a difficult moment in the music industry: how do you see the future of this industry? What are your answers to this crisis?

It might be a difficult moment for the music industry, but not for the music, which never been so present, in TV ads, stores, films, etc. We never had that many synchs, which means that people are still curious and want to hear new music but are not used to pay for music anymore.
We are quitely releasing a lot of albums these days, and some of them are very successful (Fleet Foxes, Calexico, Cold War Kids,…). It doesn’t mean we are selling millions of one record, but that we are selling enough of different records to be profitable. Also our business is based on 14 territories, not just one. I think we are not suffering as much as the majors as we are in a niche market. It is the Long Tail principle!