Hello world! We are Reverse Records, a Dublin-based music startup striving to create deeper, more meaningful music experiences than ever before. In this article we will share our mission, explore what it means and how we are planning to change the world of music for the better. And today, we’re thrilled to embark on this journey together with you.
Music is everywhere around us – and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Whether it’s a melody that brings tears to our eyes, sends shivers down our spines or makes us want to dance with our loved ones, the magic of music has defined humanity for thousands of years. Nowadays music is more accessible than ever before: with the emergence of the internet and music platforms all you need is a smartphone with internet access and you’re well on your way to listen to any piece, anywhere, for free.
However, the rise of free-for-all songs brought a sharp decline in the quality of the music experience itself. We simply press the play button and are flooded with an infinite number of songs, but the depth and magic that surrounds music, the anticipation, the connection and the emotion has not been able to make its way to the internet. Reverse Records is all about making this happen. We believe in crafting unforgettable, long-lasting music experiences in a digital world. We want to forge a future where fans are closer to their favourite musicians, their music and to each other than ever.
The fact that the depth of music has flattened is not only a problem on an emotional level – not having deep experiences to monetize is also an enormous financial headache for the market. Today, an individual artist needs over 3 million listens on Spotify or over 20 million views on YouTube just to make the minimum wage[1]. Besides, on the macro level, the music market in 2019 was worth $20.2 billion USD[2]; this figure is more than seven times smaller than the $152.1 billion USD the video game industry was worth in the same year[3]. Games consistently create long-lasting experiences and are great at monetizing these interactions for the benefit of the market.
At Reverse Records we all come from a video games background. Our three founders have more than 20 years of combined business experience with some of the leading game studios and platforms, like Ubisoft, Twitch TV and Riot Games. Using a strategy that already worked in video games, we believe that we can bring back the depth and magic to music experiences for fans, while helping the industry at the same time. That is why we have chosen our mission to be the following:
Through a mix of innovation and tradition, we bring the world of music closer to the hearts of fans than ever before.
Even though we are tech guys, we don’t intend to reach our goal by building a massive, open platform like Spotify or Patreon. Those are already out there and are great. Instead, we believe in closely managing a few hand-picked music IPs and being part of the creative and publishing processes, just as traditional record labels are. Having said that, we aim to be the most cutting edge record label on the block. Using an arsenal of tech, modern-day publishing methods, gamification, streaming, grassroots community building and a service-based approach, we aim to take our acts and the experiences crafted around them to the next level. In that sense, our company strategy exists between a traditional record label and a music platform – or to say it in video game terms, it is closer to Riot Games and their carefully managed IPs than to Valve with Steam.
In addition to the above, we are of course providing traditional record label services as well. We work with a variety of creatives, artists and producers around the world to bring the vision of our musicians to a whole new level. This ties into a community and fan creations platform – where the boundaries can be blurred, as a fan creates a lyrics video for a song and becomes an official vendor for the next release. We also provide strong online marketing and publishing campaigns for our releases, including targeted social media, influencers and various grassroots marketing initiatives. Finally, we deal with digital and physical distribution as well as rights and royalty management to make sure the songs of our artists are available on all music platforms. At the same time, we ensure that artists receive their share whenever their songs are played around the world using a modern legal and technical framework that is fair to creators and re-creators alike.
At Reverse Records, we strongly believe that there are great opportunities in this digital world for music to create deeper, long-lasting experiences for fans. We will continue to work hard behind the scenes with our first music act to show you all of this in practice and will let you know as soon as we have something exciting ready. In the meantime, we will reach out to you with info on our progress, behind the scenes content, and to take your opinion on board as we improve and grow – so make sure you subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media. You can easily do both using the form and the links below.
We are excited to start our journey and we can’t wait to be walking the walk with you!
[1] Amount of listens for a minimum wage
[2] Music revenue in 2019
[3] Video game industry revenue in 2019
