- New Amsterdam Records
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New Amsterdam Records logo
New Amsterdam Records is a New York City based record label. It was formed in 2008 by Judd Greenstein, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and William Brittelle to promote classically-trained musicians who fall in between traditional genre boundaries. Often abbreviated as NewAm, the organization has been hailed as a central force in creating the "indie classical" scene.[1] Since its inception, New Amsterdam Records has released 17 records and 3 co-distributed albums (by massey and So Percussion).
Contents
Background
New Amsterdam Records was founded to support the developing genre of music coming from people with great educations in composition who were also influenced by pop and jazz music and did not fit into the music industry binary of classical or pop.[2] NewAm has been described favorably by Seth Colter Walls in Newsweek as breaking down genre boundaries, "making a nice little tradition out of breaking tradition," and striking a healthy balance between old traditions (such as classical and jazz) and contemporary music."[3]
In an interview with mental _floss magazine, founder Judd Greenstein explains that they look for artists "whose work is a reflection of truly integrated musical influences. In other words, we don’t want classical-goes-rock or electronic-music-with-some-violins – we want music where people are being as personal and honest as they can be, while opening themselves up fully to all the music that they love."[4]
Business model
New Amsterdam Records is modeled like a non-profit, calling themselves a "pro-artist" label, where the majority of proceeds go directly to the artist, and New Amsterdam works mainly as a promoter/publicist. As outlined in their Artist Agreement, which they post online as a public document:[5]
- The artist retains full ownership of all material on their album, including the master recording itself.
- The gross proceeds New Amsterdam receives from album sales are split 80/20 until the artists' costs are recouped, at which point the split moves permanently to 50/50.
- Proceeds from live performances that are booked/presented by New Amsterdam, including ticket revenues, artists' fees, and CD/merch sales, are split 80/20 in favor of the artist, as are proceeds from grants submitted through the label. New Amsterdam gets nothing from shows that are booked/presented by the artists themselves or from grants submitted separately from our organization.
They are distributed by Naxos Records in North America.
Critical reception
Justin Davidson, music critic for New York magazine, says, "They're part of this generation of people who get out of music school with all of these incredible skills, and all of this culture, and all of this creativity — fully aware that nobody is going to hand them a career. There's no superstructure of an established music industry that is going to pay any attention to these people, because they're not even paying attention to the much more established, mainstream conductors and violinists and orchestras. The ability to get noticed by having some record executive take an interest in you and record you — you know, that's really practically a thing of the past. If you want to make recordings, you've really got to do it yourself."[6]
NewAm have been compared to Bang on a Can, who also built their own label, community, and performance circuit, in a similar manner, 20 years ago. The difference, however, between the two is that Bang on a Can shared a common musical aesthetic - minimalism - whereas NewAm is more of a musical umbrella. NemAm's artists have become increasingly popular among a broad public while Bang on a Can's primary supporters continue to be larger, more established cultural institutions. "The interesting thing about this group of people, and New Amsterdam, is the real lack of interest in anything that you could call aesthetic categories, or rules about what does and doesn't belong in their sphere of influence," Justin Davidson says.[7]
Selected Discography
Release Date Artist Album November 16, 2010 Janus I am (not) November 16, 2010 Newspeak Sweet Light Crude October 26, 2010 Sarah Kirkland Snider Penelope September 28, 2010 Victoire Cathedral City June 29, 2010 William Brittelle Television Landscape May 25, 2010 Matt Marks The Little Death: Vol. 1 May 25, 2010 Corey Dargel Someone Will Take Care of Me January 26, 2010 itsnotyouitsme Fallen monuments January 26, 2010 Sam Sadigursky words project iii: miniatures May 19, 2009 Nadia Sirota First things first May 12, 2009 Darcy James Argue's Secret Society Infernal Machines January 27, 2009 QQQ Unpacking the Trailer... January 27, 2009 Andrew McKenna Lee Gravity and Air September 9, 2008 Sam Sadigursky Words Project II October 28, 2008 Corey Dargel Other People's Love Songs August 29, 2008 Ted Hearne Katrina Ballads June 6, 2008 Build Build May 1, 2008 William Brittelle Mohair Time Warp January 8, 2008 itsnotyouitsme walled gardens January 8, 2008 NOW Ensemble NOW May 26, 2007 Sam Sadigursky The Words Project February 1, 2007 Jody Redhage All Summer in a Day References
- ^ Jack S, "New Amsterdam Records Unveils New Releases, Live Premiere and Free MP3s", March 5, 2010, "http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/115649-new-amsterdam-records-unveils-new-releases-live-premiere-and-free-mp3s.html," accessed July 7, 2010
- ^ Joseph Dalton, "On Record - An Overview of the State of Contemporary Music Recording (Part 1): Still Spinning", June 8, 2009, "http://www.newmusicbox.com/article.nmbx?id=6057," accessed July 7, 2010
- ^ Seth Colter Walls, "Jazz Standards That Aren’t'", April 25, 2009, "http://www.newsweek.com/2009/04/24/jazz-standards-that-aren-t.html," accessed July 7, 2010
- ^ David K. Israel, "How to Start a Record Label, with New Amsterdam Records", May 5, 2009, "http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25190," accessed July 7, 2010
- ^ "New Amsterdam Records Artist Agreement'", "http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgrq58h3_54f742rh5r," accessed July 7, 2010
- ^ Tom Vitale, "NPR's All Things Considered, 'A New Label for Music's New Blood'", May 29, 2008, "http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90951497," accessed June 30, 2010
- ^ Tom Vitale, "NPR's All Things Considered, 'A New Label for Music's New Blood'", May 29, 2008, "http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90951497," accessed June 30, 2010
External links
Categories:- American record labels
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