Luke Jamieson Interview - Building A Brand
Meet Luke Jamieson, co-founder of Adelaide electronic label, Global League. Although Global League is new to the scene the label has been making headway through developing artists and building a recognisable image within the electronic scene. We had a chat to Luke about his history with music, running an independent label, plus more!
Futuremag Music: Hey Luke, how’s life the universe and everything?
Luke Jamieson: Life is great, I can’t really speak on behalf of the universe and everything, but our label, music and artists are all going great!
Futuremag Music: Jumping into it, can you talk us through your relationship with music over the years? How do you see the music industry developing in the future?
Luke Jamieson: My dad was always playing 60s & 70s rock’n’roll and dancing around the lounge room when I was growing up, so that was my first introduction to the powers of music! I guess that lead to me learning trumpet and piano in primary school, which I sadly gave away in high school in favour of sport. I always stayed interested in music though – I remember making mix tapes on my cassette recorder by waiting for the songs I liked to come on the radio! I was an avid festival goer for many years and in my early 30s I got into music production and met a bunch of great artists through that course which I still work with today, who are either releasing on, or working with me at the label.
I see the music industry developing in so many ways, there are so many things happening now and no one knows what’s next. Is it block-chain when people can pay artists direct with no label or distributor taking a cut? Will it be easy enough for non-crypto music consumers to enjoy? I think music will be earning artists income from every play soon and hopefully collected much quicker and easier than the current ways royalty collection occurs so artists have a timely and regular income to support their careers, that is my hope for the future.
Futuremag Music: Can you give some insight to running an independent label such as Global League? What are some highlights since the label’s inception? What is the future direction and plans?
Luke Jamieson: Yeah sure, it’s pretty hectic! Our aim for 2018 was to release a track a week – which we nearly got to. As a start up in the early days (beginning of this year) we didn’t have enough submissions to do a release a week, but it picked up later in the year, I think we’ll tick just over 30 since January. For us that means, contracts, getting the artists ready for release, working with DSPs and play listers, creating video and artwork assets and all the other usual stuff, week in week out, it’s all systems go 7 days a week!
Some highlights for us would be M4SONIC and Kayla Roses track ‘Gone for Good’ appearing on New Music Friday in Norway and of course new comers V O E who released their debut track to zero fans on June 29th this year who have now just passed 100,000 streams!
The future is grow our community and share more undiscovered music with them, next year we’ll be looking to hit that target of a track per week – hopefully more and look to put together a radio show, online TV show and three monthly compilation albums. We want to build a legion of loyal fans that love our artists and what we do.
Futuremag Music: What are some tips and tricks for those who wish to enter the industry? How important is collaboration within the music scene?
Luke Jamieson: We’re still finding our feet and learning as we go, but my tips would be to always make sure you’re learning and growing, never sign anything that restricts yourself or your music from flexibility and options and make sure you get a legal professional to read over your contracts.
Remember to always be promoting your brand and your music – so many artists do one tweet and think that their promo is done, and wonder why they’re not top of the charts! We know it’s bloody hard as a small independent artist or label to get any traction, but with persistence and consistency and a bit of help from your friends, it will start to happen. Just got to keep chipping away!
Futuremag Music: A funny one to wrap it up. If Luke Jamieson or Global League were a cocktail, what would be in it to best describe yourself and your music?
Luke Jamieson: Haha well, let’s focus on the label for this one shall we? I know this isn’t a cocktail as such, but I’d have to say Global League a bit like Café Patrón – it has moments where it’s dark and mysterious, times when it makes you want to party, it makes you feel a lot of things, gives you a decent boost of energy and is best shared with friends!