When the guys from Catalan records first contacted us, I must admit I didn’t believe their claims. Music for free? from a record company? Surely not. Well, it’s true. This young start-up has decided to buck the trends and give consumers what they’ve always wanted – free music downloads. I sat down recently to chat with the F.C. Barcelona-inspired Tom to get the low down.
Music Feeds: Who are Catalan Records? Who’s on the team?
Tom: We are an independent record company that encourage file sharing. Consisting of Tom (myself) and Paul, a couple of dreamers
MF: I like to consider myself a dreamer too, so you’re in good company. What prompted you to start Catalan Records? Was there a particular niche in the market you’re aiming for?
T: Well, the internet is the best channel of distribution in the world, so we thought we’d make good use of it. We like CDs, but they are quickly becoming outdated.
MF: That’s true. It’s lamentably a dying medium. So will Catalan always provide music to the fans for free?
T: Yes. We get most of our music for free, so it would be hypocritical to then try to sell music to others. We just have to find a balance between that, and putting food on the table. Something we will experiment with.
MF: I know what you mean there. It’s not always easy to make money in the independent music scene. Where do you see the company going in the next year? What are you hoping to achieve?
T: We hope to be turning people away from gigs. We are really excited about the music, Airbridge are great. We have a guy named Jack Thomas recording soon, we think he is one of the best songwriters in the country and we can’t wait to get the music out there.
MF: Well, I can’t say I’m too keen on the idea of discouraging fans to go to gigs, but I can see where you’re going with that. Is there anything in the pipeline as far as physical releases from Catalan?
T: At the moment, nothing. It costs a lot to put a record out. We think its money best spent elsewhere. Possibly in the future, we’ll wait and see.
MF: Tell us a bit about Airbridge. How did they get involved with you guys?
T: They’re friends of Paul. We saw them live, thought they were fantastic, remind us of Arcade Fire but nobody knows who they are. They met at high school in Canberra.
MF: So where do our readers go if they want to find out more about Catalan records?
T: Please visit the site www.catalanrecords.com. Download, share, sign the mailing list and we will keep you updated with our happenings.
Music Feeds will keep you posted on the latest releases from Catalan when they come to hand. Stay tuned.
