Bassdrive Tunes, the record label offshoot of Bassdrive.com, have teamed up with Cygnus Music, the digital music distribution service, to distribute their entire back catalogue, along with their new releases. We wanted to find out more about the reasons behind this, and what it means for both parties. So, we went straight to Callide from Cyngus, and Dvus from Bassdrive for the scoop on two big players coming together.

 

Tell us how and why Cygnus and Bassdrive came to work together?

Callide: I’ve listened to Bassdrive for as long as I can remember as well as meeting the guys over at Sun and Bass in Sardinia. A few months back I visited their online store to find loads of great music by high quality producers and decided to write a proposal to them to see what they thought. It was clear Bassdrive has a unique fan base and that the exclusivity of their online store was key to developing their audience, I proposed that they kept the exclusivity and then 4 weeks after their online store release date, we would distribute their releases to digital stores worldwide. I also wanted to build a strong working relationship with the brand which could go on to explore new partnerships in music, and after a number of phone calls to Dvus in the States we welcomed ‘Bassdrive Tunes’ to Cygnus Music and plan a long lasting partnership with them.

 

Dvus: After the launch of the label and making our tunes available only on an exclusive basis at our own site about 3 years ago, we felt it was time to expand our reach by utilizing distribution service to make our tunes available beyond our fan base. Speaking with several label managers and owners, Cygnus was often recommended with many compliments. Coincidentally, I received an email from Callide with a very attractive proposal that was impossible to refuse. After a few phone conversations and email exchanges, I became very impressed with Cygnus' professionalism and their promotional methods. It became a no-brainer decision to hook up with them to take our label to the next level. We are very excited about the new relationship and looking forward to working closely with them on various projects to continue setting the highest standards in drum&bass.

 

 

What would you say both parties bring to the table?

Callide: Many of us at Cygnus Music have owned record labels, produced music, promoted releases, mastered tracks, even put on events and between us we have over 60 years of combined industry knowledge in the music scene. The company has been built entirely through word of mouth and we now have well over 200 labels on our books specialising in drum & bass and many other forms of dance and urban music. We distribute releases to over 50 stores around the world as well as offer additional services such as PR, artwork design, music videos, advertising and mastering to name a few. We’ll be able to get their music to all the right places, and have many other areas of expertise to help Bassdrive build on their massive presence in the scene. We also have a great understanding of the area which Bassdrive represents having distributed releases from the likes of Lynx, Spectrasoul, Marcus Intalex and Random Movement, with labels here such as Deep Soul Music, Rubik Records, Nu Directions, Artist Recordings and E-Motion to name a few.

 

The 1st release touches down this week.- tell us about this.
Dvus: BDT001 features very talented producer M25 and a stellar remix by The Square on the flip. BDT002 is a pair of great tunes from Paul SG based in Austria. When we launched the label, we felt it was important to provide variety of choices since we were making our tunes available only on our site. So, we decided to start with 10 releases off the bat. We also wanted to provide an outlet for global artists to get their music out to the masses. All three producers on our first two releases are accomplished musicians producing quality tunes for quite some time. These two releases were instrumental in getting the label off the ground properly and helped in setting the momentum for our label's future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s unique about Bassdrive in a world full of internet radio stations?
 Dvus: Bassdrive Worldwide drum & bass Radio has been active for around 12 years and people have come to know us as a source of upfront music from all corners of the globe, our fan base is literally thousands of drum & bass heads on a daily basis. As purpose of radio is to provide exposure to the artists and labels and since they directly benefit from getting their tunes heard on the air, we tend to be the first place they send the tunes. This results in us being about 6 months to a year ahead of most outlets. This is a great benefit to everyone involved helping them to get their tunes out to be picked by various labels as well as providing an outlet for labels to promote their forthcoming releases. We are also just about the only place left where talented DJs can break out and make a name for themselves without being a producer which is becoming more and more rare these days.

 

 

 

 

Tell us about the Bassdrive Tunes catalogue, and what have we got to look forward to?

Dvus: Again, since we receive tunes from all over the world, we feature great works from various global talent. We also have the ability to have a larger range of styles than most labels due to not being as stylistically restricted to fit the "sound of the label" because of the myriad of subgenres within drum & bass that get aired. If it's a great tune and it deserves to be shared with the masses, you will see it in our catalogue.

 

 

 

Which outlets are the tracks going to be available from?
Dvus: Everywhere! (Callide: please help with this one... ;) ).

Callide: Literally every corner of the music scene including all the major stores like iTunes, Beatport, Juno, Amazon, TrackitDown and Digital Tunes, to genre specialist stores such as Drum & Bass Arena, Chemical Records, RedEye Records and Nu Urban, and even to outlets such as Xbox, Virgin, Tesco, Spotify, Myspace, Blackberry and Google Music!

 

What are the future plans for the joint venture?
Callide: Cygnus Music is currently developing a number of new business initiatives which will be beneficial to Bassdrive and all the labels with us. We are currently exploring advertising opportunities between Cygnus and Bassdrive which will not only help raise the profile of both companies, but offer greater exposure to related labels here too. We’ll be keeping the Bassdrive presenters stocked up with our latest promos through our company FATdrop account, and our PR team will be helping to promote each Bassdrive release. When Bassdrive launches its world tour we would be behind them all the way helping to promote their brand and their great music. Here’s the PR business page which was just recently set up www.facebook.com/CMPRdnb

Dvus: I think the cross promotional opportunities are virtually endless. BassdriveTunes is backed by a great vehicle to expose our music: Bassdrive Radio. It also provides multiple opportunities for Cygnus to get their name out to more labels and entities needing to promote their work. We are very excited to be working with an organization that are on top of their game and look forward to moving forward for years to come. Full speed ahead!

 

 

Related Links:

• Kmag On Bassdrive Radio
• Bassdrive Sessions Miami 2011
• Callide Interview
• Methodus (Bassdrive) Guest Mix
• Callide Guest Mix

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