above: Alex Roth photo: Klaudia Krupa

Down an unassuming lane in London’s Lambeth neighborhood is IKLECTIK, a self-funded creative platform and contemporary arts venue just southeast of the Thames and across the river from Big Ben.

A couple weeks ago IKLECTIK was dedicated to the launch of Zyla – a new multidisciplinary metalabel founded and curated by composer, guitarist, and producer, Alex Roth. When I arrived, people were gradually drifting inside. The space was painted white, with a vaulted roof and embellished rafters. Speakers surrounded the room and the front wall was covered in projections of visual artist Jacqueline Nicholls’ stark, minimalist glyph drawings. 

Roth was born in Detroit, was raised in London and now calls Kraków home. He just took Zyla through Metalabel’s inaugural Assembly cohort. Metalabel, whose founders include veterans of Kickstarter, Etsy, Ampled and Gxrlschool, introduces a more collaborative, purpose-driven version of the traditional label.

“Zyla exists to provide a space for art that doesn’t comfortably fit anywhere else,” reads the Zyla manifesto. “It grew out of an idea to set up a record label for music that begins life as part of multimedia projects: dance performances, film soundtracks, theatre scores…Zooming out from the music sector, it became clear that all around the world there are artists of every kind working in the shadows. Zyla aims to bring this work to the audience it deserves.”

Transforming labels

To grasp the value of what they’re providing, it’s important to understand the model they’re transforming. Traditional labels – generally associated with music or fashion but found in myriad industries – exist to promote a specific style, locale or perspective. They sign individual acts who represent their ideals, often seeding those individuals with capital in hopes of eventually generating returns on their investment. 

In order to generate returns, the signed entity will have to rely on a fanbase to pay for services, physical paintings, digital streams, etc. In music, where streaming’s paltry payout rate of $0.004 per stream requires a massive following or ancillary sales (such as merch or touring) to generate any kind of meaningful revenue, margins are invariably thin and success stories are few and far between. Though labels purport to increase the likelihood of stardom – or even just a sustainable income – some of the “success” stories we hear aren’t as they might seem.

Producer Steve Albini’s 1993 treatise ‘The Problem with Music’ remains the paragon of the label model’s shortcomings. He shows “just how fucked [artists] are” in no-holds-barred parlance and granular budget sheets. In one common scenario Albini describes a fairly successful band generating millions of dollars for the industry but “the band members have each earned about one-third as much as they would working at a 7-11.”

The music industry is different today, but not necessarily better. Platforms like Patreon, Instagram, and Twitch have developed all the tools creators ostensibly need to earn revenue from their creations – a movement commonly referred to as the creator economy. Yet the support functions labels provide like marketing, administrative work and built-in professional networks have been cut out of the equation. 

An algorithm alternative

Now, in addition to “creating,” creators have to do all the back-office work generally offloaded to labels. Add to that the fact that creator platforms are so flooded with content they require algorithms to filter out the noise and curate to taste. This means creators have to learn the algorithm so they can get more exposure and hopefully convert enough people to fans so they can eek out a living. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Creator platforms tend to be centralized companies that operate on ad revenue, so their algorithms are black boxes that can change without notice. They incentivize quantity over quality, and mainstream over niche. It’s a race to the bottom where creators have to compete against one another for attention and only the gamekeepers know the rules.

Metalabel is suggesting an alternative, one where a group of creators – united by a style or locale or perspective – act as their own label. If the creator economy is creativity in single-player mode, “a metalabel is creativity in multiplayer mode,” and “a model for collaboration, collective world-building, and mutual support,” according to the Metalabel introduction. Through its Assembly program, Metalabel hopes to accelerate the disruption of the exploitative label paradigm. 

It’s encouraging, but the concept may still feel abstract. It demands that we reconceptualize a label narrative that's survived myriad format shifts from LPs to cassettes to CDs and mp3s. And all this must take place within a developing web3 ecosystem that remains enigmatic to most. 

Why are you here?

Back inside the arts collective, the man in the row behind me said he ran a small label and had interest in web3 but wasn’t sure what he’d stumbled into. Leaning forward, mildly perplexed, he asked: "Are you here because you're interested in labels? Or the metaverse? Or…"

Roth then stood to address the crowd of approximately 20 attendees and introduced Zyla and the release of his new EP, Inpouring, co-created with cellist and fellow Zyla member Alice Purton.

“Everything you hear tonight is being released on the label,” Roth said. “That includes traditional formats and new formats – specifically NFTs (non-fungible tokens). If you don’t know what they are, ask me after the show,” he said to laughter.

Roth projected a QR code on the wall that took scanners to a tweet, which offered access to “the token-gated pre-sale page for all [Zyla’s] Scene 1 NFT drops.” To some that process may sound like a foreign language. It may introduce so much friction that people won’t actually participate. But for many reasons, it’s worth exploring.

Artists participating in each ‘Scene’ – a period of releases oriented around a theme – form an “ad hoc collective” based on “collaboration, mutual support and shared success.” Zyla uses the blockchain to split earned revenue, where 80 percent goes to the artist – compared to a standard 50/50 (or less) split in a traditional label setup – and 20 percent is split equally between Zyla’s treasury (to support future releases) and all of the artists within that particular Scene. In this model, every transaction is transparent, creators get the lion’s share of the pie, and artists are incentivized to support one another even when they’re not directly involved in a piece of art itself. That’s powerful.

Read more: Russell Sheffield and the Arc of History, From The Beatles and Trident Studios to Creating Songbits and NFT-based Fractional Song Ownership

As a fan, this approach advantages me as well. I scanned the QR code and left my public ethereum address in the tweet’s comments, which gave me access to mint my membership pass. That pass will be my ticket to the Scene’s forthcoming NFT drops. 

When the NFTs become available, I can purchase them, which will support Zyla’s artists while giving me shared equity in their success. The price of the NFTs should theoretically increase if the artists gain fame, and as an NFT holder, I’m incentivized to support the ascension. 

NFTs can also grant dynamic utility in the artists’ communities – things like early event access, direct connection with the artists and fans and other perks. It’s a model that can more effectively cultivate niche communities than traditional labels. That shift is significant, especially for experimental artists that are often left at the periphery. 

The audience at IKLECTIK was presented four works over the course of the night: two films, an animated rendering of a poem, and a slow-burning live performance by Roth and Purton – the evening’s highlight. Purton commenced the work with a sustained open tone on her cello, ultimately breaking the monotony by altering her string cadence and techniques, using pizzicato while gradually introducing dissonance and overtones. For 15 minutes, the two artists engaged in a rich dialogue of varied textures, drone-like sequences, and spoken word.

The man in the row behind me left in the middle of the piece, perhaps not part of the audience Zyla is trying to reach. But that’s also the point – web3 isn’t one size fits all. By enabling niche artists and using decentralization, more of the onus of discovery will fall on the fan. An algorithm isn’t likely to automatically plunk us into our comfort zones the way we’ve grown accustomed to in web2 platforms like Instagram and Spotify. Sometimes we’ll stumble upon shows and it won’t be our thing. But if variety is the spice of life the question becomes, ‘what have we been missing out on in our feedback loops?’ The answer is, so much.

Alex Roth and Alice Purton perform at IKLECTIK photo: MacEagon Voyce

In today’s creator economy, experimental artists are doubly screwed. Algorithms skew toward the mainstream, which makes social traction difficult. Traditional labels hedge risk by prioritizing creators with high social followings, which tend to elude the avant-garde. Artists like Alex Roth are nearly forced to perform outsized effort – and do so without conventional support systems. So he’s blazing a different trail and inspiring others like him to join the ride.

Aside from Roth, all of the artists from Scene 1 were completely new to web3. He introduced them to contract splits and helped them set up their digital wallets. It required them to take “a leap of faith,” he told me, but the prospect of what he was building was enough to cross the divide. 

“By focusing on under-represented kinds of music and art,” continues the manifesto. “Zyla will play a crucial role in on-boarding artists working outside the mainstream and improving their discoverability, contributing to a more diverse NFT ecosystem.” 

Zyla and Metalabel are normalizing a new reality where niche communities have agency to subvert a culture of homogeneity. They’re providing a new language for aligned individuals to form shared meaning and generate value through a spirit of mutualism. Across both physical and digital spaces, Zyla is helping experimental artists shift into multiplayer mode so they no longer have to play a rigged game all alone.