Record Label Case Study: The Record Machine

Welcome to the second instalment in our Other Record Labels Case Studies. Where we look at inspired record labels in our community, how they’re doing things differently, and what we can learn from them. 

Just last week we did an episode on how email is often overlooked in our industry. There’s something inexplicably intimate about email that forces our brains to prioritize it over regular social media. Think of it this way, it’s very unlikely that we receive important information or calls to action on Twitter or in an Instagram story. Our lawyer or our doctor doesn’t reach out to us via a tweet. It's for this reason that emails register on a different level than a social media post.

And it’s this reality that I think small businesses need to harness. 

But today’s Case Study isn’t about email. I mean, it sort of is, but there’s also a bigger lesson to be learned. 

There’s a record label in our community called The Record Machine. If you go to their website you’ll see that they do a lot of things really well. Great design, clever call to actions, and an overall brand aesthetic that’s really effective.

But let me bring it back to the topic of emails. What I think they really do well is their weekly emails. I can’t remember how I got signed up, but I recently started receiving their Regular Rotation weekly emails (now as a side note, weekly is a bit ambitious, if I were them I would cut it back to monthly or bi-weekly so you don’t burn yourself out too quickly). 

These Regular Rotation emails are gorgeously designed, I’m not sure how they pull it off. The emails look really different from what I’m used to seeing, and quite frankly based on their design and layout alone, they are a pleasure to scroll through.  

Again, I actually don’t want to talk about just email — but what would you expect to be in an email blast from a record label? A welcome message from the owner, some backcatalog titles, a featured new release? 

This is what makes The Record Machine’s weekly emails worthy of a case study. The email newsletter I get from them contains mostly non-label content. There’s TV show reviews, product highlights, playlists that contain other artists than just their own… 

They’ve created a weekly email that I enjoy receiving because it’s not really an ad or a promotion, it’s just relevant recommendations...

Here’s what’s going on in the background. This label has identified a reality that we all need to understand. When you know that someone likes a certain thing, you can start to build a profile of that customer and anticipate what else they’d probably enjoy. It’s not anything nefarious, it’s just how a community works. 

Basically, this just shows that, on a whole, we know that our listeners trust us to curate great art for them. And I love how these emails leverage that reality by recommending TV shows that I was already thinking about watching, or new books that sound right up my alley, and music that compliments their existing roster.

I found these emails to be refreshing because it came off as more of a lifestyle magazine than just self-concerned spam. 

And here's the moral of the story. The Record Machine has tapped into something that most labels and small businesses overlook, which is finding ways to bring value to your audience, without trying to sell them something. 

So here’s our takeaway. Find ways that your record label can bring value to your listeners, your artists, and your community. Look for initiatives that aren’t about you necessarily. Find opportunities to connect with your audience outside of your regular promotions. 

This shows your audience that you are more than just a billboard or a salesperson. This shows them that you’re here to serve them, that you’re willing to nurture the relationship as opposed to trying to sell them something all the time.

Now maybe you’re thinking, I don’t need more things to do, my regular promotions take up all my free time. And I get that, it’s easier said than done. But this mindset doesn’t demand full time initiatives. It’s just a simple shift in thinking.  

Are you doing things that are mostly serving your own needs?

How should you run a business that isn’t aloof to the needs of your community?

Because businesses that are generous and empathetic to their audience are businesses that last a long time. A great record label doesn’t ask for attention; they earn it.