“Everybody has to stop trying to get rich. The MTV/CD era was an anomaly, a temporary monsoon, an earthquake, here for a moment and already gone. Raising ticket prices to make up for lost recording revenue is like Exxon Mobil raising prices to compensate for the proliferation of the Prius. Things change, own it. Money is for bankers. For corporate titans. Musicians are neither. If you’re not satisfied with the adulation and the sex, get into a different line of business.”
-Bob Lefsetz, [The Lefsetz Letter]
We are currently living in the music post-apocalypse, a fractured landscape devoid of its once vast wellsprings of album sales and merchandising opportunities. In this Mad Maxian wasteland, creative people struggle endlessly to merely subsist. Success is no longer measured in terms of fame, but by whether an artist can keep the lights on and food in their belly. The major industries of the apocalypse are now playing the victim — cannibalizing their audience for “stealing” music. Music corporations must hemorrhage millions of dollars into a single song in order to buy their way into radio, TV, films and ultimately, your mind. The industry destroyed the creatives and is not yet done ravaging you with its pre-manufactured drivel.
This is their distopian world, and we reject it. We don’t need private jets. We don’t need lavish parties. We don’t need expense accounts. We need control of our art. We need your ears. We need to ‘do it ourselves.’ Nophi Recordings is the embodiment of those needs. We are a very small, very tightly-knit oasis of artists working together to create and support our art in the post-apocalyptic economy. Most of us still work day jobs — some of us work more than one — but, for 12 years we have championed the people that make good music and work tirelessly to find success at it. We are proactive people who refuse to partake in the medicine show that is the music industry. We own our own careers and swim above the snake oil. We are unafraid and unwavering in dedication.
Nophi is not a record label. We will not “develop” you. We will not pay you an advance. We frown upon V.I.P. mentalities and jargon-talkers. We work by sitting around a dining room table, as we have for the last 12 years, hand-making our products. We use local “mom and pop” service providers whenever possible. We raise funds by throwing parties and making limited-run items. We re-invest every cent we make to slowly and steadily improve our abilities as artists and small business people. We believe that the future of music is built around tight-knit communities of artists forming cottage industries to provide unique experiences. In many places, it is already happening: a sonic rebellion brought about by too many years of pre-fab music hegemony. To put it lightly, independent artists are mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!
