In 1993, my North Carolina-based band formed our own record label, Girth Records. I spent the late 1980s and 1990s playing in various DIY punk bands (most of which you probably never heard of). In many ways, this has been a long-term project. I am currently working on a book about the political implications of global DIY punk. The state of DIY punk is looking pretty damn good these days. People are contributing to the community, spreading the word, and inspiring others to do it themselves. Sure, many of them are hobby labels that may only put out a handful of releases over a few years, but that is the point. Open up any recent issue of MRR, Razorcake, or other zine and you’ll be heartened by the amount of music being generated these days and the ridiculously high number of DIY labels putting it out. Why should we? DIY punk is first and foremost about spreading a form of music (punk) and a message (Do It Yourself). Most label owners don’t measure their success in those terms. So how is the DIY record industry doing these days? I reject the notion that we should judge a DIY record label’s success in terms of profit margin, market share, or even longevity. If that isn’t contrary to the fuck-your-competitor-over mentality of the corporate music industry, I don’t know what is.

Hell, there is a long tradition of punk labels loaning bands money to start their own labels (Crass and Fat Wreck, for example).

While the major record labels are exclusively obsessed with maximizing profit, DIY punk is more interested in getting unique music out to as many people as possible at affordable prices. His logic was pretty suspect though as he used “music industry” standards of success on a culture that generally doesn’t play by accepted rules. He then pointed to the downsizing/collapse of veritable record labels like Touch And Go and Lookout! as evidence these changes were taking their toll on DIY punk as well. He was repeating the usual line that recent changes (such as the rise of digital downloading, iTunes, and file sharing) were destroying the record industry. I was discussing the state of the music industry with a friend not too long ago.

One Punk’s Guide to Starting Your Own DIY Record Label

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