Style: Interview Portrait

12rec Netlabel: So much achieved. So much left to do!

Extraordinary: See how music gets wrapped into beautiful and handmade cover-artwork!

I can imagine quite a lot of people ask themselves: Why do these guys spend so much time to build a project like 12rec.? They earn nothing with it! Are these folks right? What would be your answer? What's the benefit of running a Netlabel?

Sven: You have to be a true bred lover of music to keep things going - next to a demanding money job... We get to hear so much wonderful music, talented artists from around the world become your friends, listeners send thank-you emails, these kind of things.

Sim: The point that there is no profit involved also means some kind of freedom for us. Especially as a label far from mainstream it makes decisions so much easier not to have to think about revenue when planning new releases. We totally can let us lead by our taste and the appreciation for the artist and his work without worrying how many copies we will sell. To us it´s a very convenient situation not to care too much for broad popularity in our work as a Netlabel.

Sven: Discover new music, meet new people, DO something. I feel fine to be able to go to London, Tokyo, New York or Montreal and find a bed at someone I exchanged only emails with before. That's it.

Simon, you travel a lot through Germany, visiting conferences where Creative Commons-projects and ideas about these licenses are discussed. Why do you think as a Netlabel-head, that the Creative Commons is so important? What are positive and negative effects of the Creative Commons? Are there any loopholes?

Sim: The Creative Commons licences are not that much of a revolution or an anti-copyright thing than many people think. To me it's more of a logic and natural development of the way we deal with intellectual property in the digital age. In times where the distribution of creative works is no longer a privilege of a few elitist publishing companies, a copyright law that was basically created in times where publishing meant printing letters on paper with huge machines is no longer appropriate - especially for the legion of kids who create stuff just for the sake of being creative! Some people might disagree, but not every producer of intellectual property thinks in dimensions of ‘creative industries'.

For a Netlabel like 12rec., the CC licences are a very comfortable and easy way to let people know that they will not be sued for copying music but still have the security that the works will not be used in a way that is not okay for the artists. And the musicians get the chance to reach a way bigger audience than by selling some self produced CDs at concerts. As Sven said before, releasing under CC is also some kind of a political statement. Many people have never heard of CC and are not even aware of those Free Culture issues. When we can make some people think about such topics as a side effect of delivering great music, well, that sounds quite worthwhile to me.

On the last page of our interview we finally celebrate with 12rec their incredible 50th release, the "so much achieved. so much left to do."-compilation. Get your hands on one of the rare CDs!

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