Parkgolf and other netlabel acts are seeing more success offline
Tokyo's first netlabel parties were filled with nods to internet culture. You'd see customers ordering their drinks via Twitter, robotic hands clapping in time to DJ sets, and people live-streaming themselves from the dancefloor. It's not certain whether any of that paraphernalia will appear at ...
Netlabel Maltine mulls a move to the majors
Music runs online in 2016. Songs become smash hits via YouTube, while global superstars command attention by giving exclusives to streaming services. Looking back at a time when web-only artists were novel seems absurd now. "Around 2010, I think the internet music scene really existed ...
'Jack' event declares: ‘Let there be J-pop!’
Over the past two years, Simon Whybray's monthly club night and online mix series “Jack” (stylized in all caps) has featured high-energy songs from around the globe, including a healthy dose of J-pop. It's surprising, then, when he reveals his gateway into Japanese music ...
Ten years on, Maltine sticks to its guns on free music
Tomohiro Konuta sometimes imagines an alternate world where he's not running a music label. "In high school, I enjoyed studying philosophy and modern thinking, and focused on that in university," he says. "There was a time I thought I could become a philosopher." Instead, Konuta (better ...
Datafruits brings netlabel talent to a wider audience
It was a bit of good timing for Tony Miller when two underground music scenes he liked intersected in 2011. "I was becoming increasingly interested in the U.K.'s pirate radio scene, and I thought I could use my Web engineering skills to make something similar. ...
