Enhanced blocSonic Netlabel Profile

Posted on the 03 July 2015 by George De Bruin @SndChaser

blocSonic Netlabel Profile Introduction

Welcome to Netlabel Profiles, the show that explores some of the best and most diverse music on the internet today. On this episode of Netlabel Profiles we visit a sate in America that:

  • Is the only State whose name has on syllable
  • Is the only State that shares it’s border with only one other State
  • Accounts for nearly 90 percent of the US lobster supply, and 99 percent of the blueberries supply
  • Was the location of the first sawmill erected in the U.S.
  • Has been nick-named “Vacationland”
  • Has the smallest registered light house in the U.S.
  • Has a law making it illegal to step out of an airplane while it is in flight
  • Has a longer coastline than the state of California.
  • Is the only state in the U.S. that was ruled by a foreign power for four years (England).

So what country am I talking about? And what netlabel is from this country? More about these topics after we listen to some music from our featured netlabel.

blocSonic Netlabel Profile Profile

That was Painted Words by Mr. & Mrs. Smith from our featured netlabel: blocSonic, based in the State of Maine, in America.

blocSonic has taken a rather different path in becoming a Netlabel, and, as a result has a very different approach than many of the Netlabels we have presented in this series.

Back in 2006 Michael Gregoire was digging around on the internet, listening to a lot “free, digitally released” netlabel music. He decided that he wanted to do something to highlight and promote a lot of the gems he found through his journeys through the ethersphere. This was where the first idea that would become the foundation of blocSonic started: the netBloc compilation series.

Where netBlocs differed from many of the mix-tapes and compilation series that existed at the time was in the packaging and presentation. Each release contained original album art, a PDF file of liner notes, and multiple versions of the audio files (in lossless formats. and lossy formats like MP3). The idea was to set a new standard for other labels to follow, and produce a higher quality product than many of the large record companies release (like the “Now That’s What I Call…” compilations).

The first netBloc release “Vol 1: The Opening Salvo” came out in 2007.

In 2009 Michael Gregoire decided it was time for the next step for blocSonic: start releasing original music. As it would happen, a couple of artists approached blocSonic about releasing some new material, and thus Just Plain Ant’s “Dig Deep” was the first release from the newly minted netlabel. As the original releases continued to grow, blocSonic decided it was time to take another step: Xtended Releases. This would be similar to the deluxe packaging the major labels were releasing: a remastered version of the original release, with a second “disc” filled with alternate takes, or out takes.

In 2010, blocSonic added their maxBloc series: a take on the 12 inch singles that became popular in the 1980’s-1990’s with DJ’s and music collectors. These releases featured remixes and bonus tracks that were not part of the main releases from the artists on the Original series. The addition of the maxBlock series lead to the logical addition of the fortyFive series in 2012, to parallel the old 45 RPM singles that had been popular for many years.

Also introduced in 2012 was the “Intro” series. A compilation series devised to shine a spotlight on lesser known, but highly gifted artists. While the initial release in this series was retracted, the next release: Mr. & Mrs. Smith would prove that the concept of this series was an excellent idea. And finally in 2014, blocSonic added it’s experimental music series: improvBloc. This series highlights artists that are working in experimental improvisation styles of music.

This way of releasing music: through series that parallel the mainstream music industry, with standards that are as high, or in some cases even higher than the mainstream is what sets blocSonic apart from other Netlabels. This has also been advantageous in attracting artists to cross-over from the mainstream labels: like Public Enemy, Chuck D, DJ Spooky, and DMC of Run DMC.

Let’s check out some more tunes from blocSonic on Netlabel Profiles.

blocSonic Netlabel Profile Closing

Thanks for joining us for Netlabel Profiles featuring the blocSonic netlabel. If you enjoyed the music on this show, be sure to check out blocSonic at http://www.blocsonic.com

This show is released under a Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial Share Alike license. All of the music from enough Records is released under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike license.

Be sure to check out the enhanced version of this show on The CerebralRift (http://cerebralrift.org). The posting on The CerebralRift includes:

  • Additional selections from the blocSonic catalog
  • Links to all the music played on this show
  • Links to the references used in preparing the profile of blocSonic
  • Links to the blocSonic website, and social media sites
  • A printed transcript of this profile
  • And an exclusive printed interview with blocSonic’s Michael Gregoire.

Thanks for joining us for Netlabel Profiles. This is your host SndChaser signing off, and wishing you the best of free listening!

blocSonic Netlabel Profile References

blocSonic Contacts

Label blocSonic

Contact Name Michael Gregoire

Web Contact http://www.blocsonic.com/contact

Website http://www.blocsonic.com/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blocsonic

Twitter @blocsonic

SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/blocsonic

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/blocsonic

FMA http://freemusicarchive.org/label/blocSonic/

blocSonic Interview

1. Please introduce yourself. 

My name is Mike Gregoire, founder of blocSonic.com. By day I hold down a full-time web design job for a company in Maine and freelance web/print design work. The free time I have is balanced between married life and blocSonic.

2. How did you decide that you wanted to run a netlabel? (Did anyone or anything inspire you to do this?)

I’ve always been a music fanatic, so whenever I can, I find some way to work that love of music into my life. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to do freelance design work designing albums for Public Enemy, Chuck D’s label SLAMjamz and other independent artists.

Back in 2006 I discovered the fantastic world of netlabels and Creative Commons licensed music. I began digging through a vast amount of netlabel audio, trying to discover the hidden gems. I found that I had to listen to a large quantity of music in order to find some that I personally dug. To help me find the good stuff more quickly, I looked for tastemakers (blogs, compilations, review sites) in the netlabel world and there really weren’t any. There was no choice but to dig.

That got me thinking. I figured that I couldn’t be the only one who was intrigued by netlabels, yet fatigued by the amount of digging one had to do to find new favorites. I decided to try my hand at being a tastemaker and begin a compilation series that would spotlight exactly what I personally would have liked to find. So in January 2007, I launched blocSonic and the netBloc compilation series with “netBloc Vol. 1: The Opening Salvo” (http://www.blocsonic.com/releases/show/netbloc-volume-1-the-opening-salvo). The intent from the beginning was to set a benchmark for other netlabels to follow. I focused on quality and kept each compilation’s track count to 10-14 tracks. Each is available in multiple audio formats – lossless FLAC, 320kbs MP3, 192kbs MP3 and Ogg Vorbis comes with complete, high-resolution album art and an extensive liner-notes PDF. At the time, I don’t recall any netlabel distributing in FLAC format, so early on, our netBloc series was the only place that had lossless versions of the included tracks.

Beginning in 2009, blocSonic expanded to release it’s own original releases in various formats.

3. Why did you decide to release your works under a Creative Commons license?

Prior to first discovering netlabels, I listened to a lot of music in the mashup/bootleg/bastard pop scene. That whole scene comes of out of a sort of political attitude that thumbs it’s nose at Copyright law and its increasing use to protect intellectual property of big business’. So when I discovered the netlabel culture and its embracing of Creative Commons licensing, it made sense to me. Frankly though, I couldn’t have launched the netBloc series had I not embraced CC licenses, considering that 99.999% of included music is CC licensed.

4. How much time do you spend on running your netlabel?

Too much Well, just enough, actually… I have to somehow fit in the day job, the freelance work and family life, also. Somehow it all balances out and I even manage to have time to exercise and go cycling.

5. Have there been any projects (ie netlabel related, but not necessarily about a release, like maybe you set up a concert / festival / etc.) that are especially memorable to you?

Yeah, we recently had two Rock N Roll Hall of Fame members (Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Run-DMC’s DMC) make guest appearances on The Impossebulls’ recent album “Everything Has Changed; Nothing Is Different” (http://www.blocsonic.com/releases/show/everything-has-changed-nothing-is-different).

6. Is there a long-term goal for your label?

To continue to deliver great music to listeners who prefer to not be spoon fed their music and to do so in unique ways. Perhaps finding ways to both give back to the CC community and also earn some income for our roster.

7. Are you involved in anything else other than producing music? (IE, videos, CD’s, wallpapers, t-shirts, etc.)

At the moment, we have the occasional videos, but that’s completely dependent on our artists making them happen. We also have plans on implementing physical distribution in various formats as well as launching a merchandise store.

8. Any cool stories about projects / releases? (IE, they got used in someone else’s movie / video, or something similar.)

We regularly license music for use in various online videos. We have also had music by CM aka Creative included in an Australian extreme sports film called Smitten (http://smittenthemovie.bigcartel.com/).

9. What is your take on the future of music? (IE, do you think streaming will be more important than downloads, do you think the major labels will go bankrupt, do you think more people are turning to netlabels than traditional music sources, etc.)

I hope that the current major music industry will go the way of the Dodo. Of course, I expect that won’t happen. However, I imagine that it’ll increasingly depend on its back catalog to keep afloat. I think that a new, affordable infrastructure is needed for independent artists to get their creations out to the world, bypassing the mainstream. If this happens, I think the future “industry” will sneakily sprout all around the current one and eventually overtake it, in influence.

10. Any upcoming projects / releases / events you would like to mention?

We’re getting ready to launch our new website, which will be the first significant site upgrade since 2009. To coincide with that launch we’re also participating in Netlabel Day. As part of our participation in that event, for the first time, we’ll be releasing multiple releases on the same day. This was something that we could have previously done, however, the new site allows to prominently promote multiple releases on the home page, which is something that was lacking on the old site.

After the launch of the new site and Netlabel Day, we have other plans for the remainder of the year, but those will have to remain top secret, for now.

Playlist

Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Painted Words

Cheese N Pot-C: Liquor Store (No Trix Mixx)

Ant The Symbol: Temporarilyours

CM aka Creative: Cast All Doubts

Cassette Tape Bandits: Number 1 Good Time Rap Song

Nic Bommarito: Elle va au Japon

Serhio Efremis: Improvisation for kalimba

VYVCH: She’s not home

The Scallions: Fusion (Promo edit)

Kersey Williams: Taxidermy

Andrew Cosentino: Stephon Marbury

The Impossebulls: Strictly Hiphop

Mported Flows: That’s How It Goes (Featuring Tah Phrum Duh Bush & LOWdown)

Liam Stewart: Bird Of Prey (Album Version)

Dr. Mindflip: Workin’

The Honorable Sleaze Time Is Of the Essence

Seriho Efremis Elli Q Vocalise 2

Stewart & Scarfe I Was Awake

D3Zs Let The Music Play