It all began back in 2006 with an idea to promote musical gems discovered in the then burgeoning netlabel scene. After a few months of planning, coding & designing, I launched blocSonic with the debut release of the netBloc compilation series.
A couple years later, after having been featured in a netBloc, Ant The Symbol fka Just Plain Ant asked if I’d be interested in releasing an album. I was honestly surprised by that. At the time my intention hadn’t been to run blocSonic as a “music label”. It was a hobby started as a way to help other music fans discover great music by netlabels doing their own thing. However… almost instantly as I considered it… I realized how much I loved the idea of running a label. Throughout my life, no matter what kind of creative endeavor or project I took on, I tried to find a way to connect it to music. Plus, as a professional graphic designer, what could be better than being the primary designer for a label?!?
Little did I know, that decision in late 2008 would set the wheels in motion for the future. After a few years of organic growth, continuing to release original music and expanding the digital release format selection, blocSonic found itself in a right place, right time situation. Opportunity knocked on multiple fronts… the stage was set for another organic transformation.
In 2017, a decade after the debut netBloc, another idea began to take shape. An idea shaped by myself and partners… Chris Cory (owner of the eclectic Mind’s Ear Records), Shawn Franklin (audio mastering and restoration guru, co-founding member of The Scallions), David “C-Doc” Snyder (Filmmaker, member of The Impossebulls and overall music producer extraordinaire) and Douglas Whitfield (co-founder of the Music Manumit podcast).
The idea took form as we asked ourselves some key questions. What if blocSonic could take our attention to detail and quality to physical releases? What if we could build a successful hybrid music business? What if we could sell music licensed under a Creative Commons license and still provide free mp3 and FLAC audio downloads? What if we could give artists a platform and label that treats a “music deal” like a partnership? No advances that later leave the artist indebted to the label when those costs later have to be recouped. No “percentage point” schemes where the artist earns fractions of pennies on the dollar for each copy sold. Instead… production costs are recouped and then the label and artist split profits down the middle… 50/50.
In 2019, we began to answer those questions and more. We did so along with our sister label Mind’s Ear Records as blocGLOBAL. In addition, through a key partnership with Traffic Entertainment Group we moved into retail distribution to get the music you love into the stores you love. That’s right, your favorite netlabel in your favorite physical stores.
We kicked things off as a hybrid with our debut physical release, which was also a Record Store Day exclusive! That release was original Faith No More singer Chuck Mosley’s Joe Haze Session #2, a 7" containing two intimate acoustic cover songs… unfortunately his final recordings. On Side A, a cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U and Side B, a cover of Faith No More’s Take This Bottle, interestingly, a Mike Patton era song.
After the Record Store Day release, we went on to release something a bit more eclectic to help reinforce the fact that we’re a record label that does things differently. What we released was a limited run cassette by UK experimental act Renaldo & The Loaf. A deluxe 40th Anniversary Edition of their D.I.Y. debut release Play Struvé & Sneff.
So from here on out, this Old Orchard Beach, Maine based record label / netlabel has everything to prove and it will do so in ways other independent music labels haven’t.
Listen. Get to know us.
Want more information? Want to release music via blocGLOBAL (blocSonic / Mind’s Ear Records)? Contact us… we’d love to hear from you!