If you think you want to work with us, read our about page to see what kind of music we want to release. Then if you are still interested send an email to AR@LostBallardRecords.com and tell us when you will be playing in Ballard next. Any venue in Ballard including an open mic or busking at the Sunday market will work. We just want to hear you perform.
My name is Brian Trinen. I own the label, and I'm a musician in Ballard. I have lived, played music, performed, and recorded music in Ballard for decades with a number of different small local bands and as a solo artist. I likely will have the first release on this Label. I'm the guinea pig in that respect. But the goal is not releasing and promoting my own music, the goal is to work with a number of other artists and musicians, and help develop a community of musicians, and music fan, and sell some records along the way. For now, besides being the first artist on the label (I signed a contract with the label with the same terms any other artist will) I'm also the whole team at Lost Ballard Records . Well me, and an art and graphic design freelancer I'm working with are the whole team. Right now, I'm the one deciding who the label will work with. I say “we” a lot when speaking about the label, and when I do I'm referring to myself and the Record Label I own. I am not the Record Label, I'm just the guy running it and financing it.
If you read the “About Us” section on this site, you can see what we want to do with this label. With that in mind, if you are an artist who fits the bill – you perform in Ballard, and play original songs, traditional folk music, or other all acoustic music that you sing and/or perform on acoustic instruments – we might want to work with you.
Before you jump into the idea of working with us or any other record label, think about if a label is even the right fit for you. Does a label have anything to offer that you can't or won't do for yourself? Because among other things a record label may do, one thing it will always do is take some of the money from your music sales. Maybe a label has something to offer that makes that revenue share worth it for you, but maybe you feel that what a label can do isn't worth that revenue share.
Back in the times when CDs were the prime music media format, it was difficult and expensive for a musician to record, mix, and master their work, and then to produce CDs to sell. Even harder was finding a marketplace where an independent artist could sell them. As someone who still has a box of CDs left over from 2004, I'm here to tell ya, it was tough to move them, and I would have loved having the help of a label. Even independent local record stores at that time were usually reluctant to take in inventory from local artists – even on consignment, and the distributors flat out wouldn't work with indie artists.
Today all that has changed and anyone can buy some relatively inexpensive gear to record music at home. Anyone can sign up with a digital distributor like CD Baby, Tunecore, Distrokid, or a dozen others, and get their music out in the world on streaming and download services (they might never make 5 cents but the music will be out there). Anyone can get a release up on Bandcamp, and Bandcamp is super artist friendly. In fact I'll say that Bandcamp is probably the very best way for artists to build a fan base for their recordings all on their own. I buy whole albums directly from artists on Bandcamp, and when I do they get paid. A ton of musicians do this and are busy right now trying to build their music career and running it as a business all by themselves. You can do it too! You don't need me or anyone else telling you how. DIY! Stick it to the labels!
If you are a musician and artist who loves the music, loves creating, loves performing, and loves recording but you find the business, distribution, marketing, and legal sides of all this: boring, tiresome, a total pain in the ass, or just too mysterious and Byzantine to waste you creative energy on, then a label might be a good choice. The label's job in all of this is to do the business, accounting, distribution, legal, and marketing stuff so your music will actually makes some sales. If you want the all music parts, but not all that irritating desk-job stuff that labels do then you should be considering working with a label. Another thing a label can offer that many people find tough to do for themselves is developing a marketing plan, and actually pitching you and your music to the reviewers, editors, and playlist curators who can help get you heard by a wider audience. It's a lot easier for me to talk up other people's music for them than it is to promote myself.
If you think you might want to work with Lost Ballard Records, the best way is to send us an email here at AR@LostBallardRecords.com and let us know the next time you will be performing in Ballard.
Don't have any shows coming up? No problem, Conor Byrne Coop (https://www.conorbyrnepub.com/#/events) has an open mic every Sunday that you can perform at, and I will come down to see you play and hear your music, and we can talk there. If you have never played that open mic before, they are likely to give you a chance at an earlier slot and announce that it's your first time, and the whole room will probably welcome you warmly. It's a great local music community that you could be a part of. While I'm here I'll also say that Conor Byrne is a community owned coop that you could join. Check them out they are cool folks: https://www.conorbyrnecoop.org/.
So if you want to talk about working with this label, send an email, let me know what night you are playing, and come prepared to play a couple of your best songs (or tunes – I'm lookin at you Irish Trad folks) simply, with just you and your acoustic instrument of choice (Guitar, bouzouki, piano, clarinet, we're partial to accordions, fiddle, concertina, bassoon, tin whistle – you get it , acoustic instruments). If you are not a solo artist but part of a whole band full of acoustic instruments, that can work for our label too.
If you have a show someplace that is not in Ballard, that's great, congratulations on your show. Break a leg. But really, we only scout new artists in Ballard – it's in the name and that's our schtick – so come to Ballard and perform at the open mic, or get booked for a full show at Conor Byrne, at the Sunset, up at a bar in Stumbletown, or as an opening act at the Tractor if you can manage that – or even just get a license to busk outdoors at the farmer's market on Sunday and I'll come down for that!
For More Established Artists
If you have a headlining show at the Tractor and you are playing for a good crowd – wow, super cool gig. I am gonna say we are not yet the well-resourced label that can help an artist who is already doing great. Marketing from pretty big locally to even bigger is an expensive endeavor, and it requires the attention of a full paid team. We hope to get there over a few years, but right now, you can probably find a better fit for your act. We're about helping an artist go from playing a small shows live – or even just open mics -- to developing a growing base of fans who buy their recorded music and merch. Maybe we can help an artist like this get to the point where they are headlining the Tractor – who knows?
What kind of deals do we make with Artists?
We are a 50/50 profit split label. If we make money, you made the same amount of money. We don't win if you don't win. Practically this means that after expenses for a given release are covered, all the revenue is split evenly between the Label and the artist(s) involved in the release. We believe artists should own their own music and own their own masters, and the deals we make reflect that. Artists grant the label an exclusive license to use the master recording to sell, stream, and market copies of the music for the length of the contract (5-7 years depending on the deal). After that, we can keep working together by renewing or renegotiating the deal. On the other hand, at the end of the contract the artist can take all their music back and go on to sell it in other ways without Lost Ballard Records. At the end of any contract we will be happy to help any artist leaving our roster get all the music and metadata and art they need organized and ready to migrate to another label, or to self-distribution. We got into this because we want to help artists make their music available and get it heard, and if you find a better way, we're good with that and wish you well at the end.
Who pays for recording?
We can do this one of two ways. If you have no money to spend on recording and can't record at home, we can do it one of one ways. We have a good home studio with great digital gear (18-tracks in on an expanded UA Apollo system, a ton of great plugins, a few outboard preamps, decent mics, a quiet room and a nice sounding live room to record in. We can record, mix, and master a whole album inexpensively costing us only our time. In that case we work out a drastically reduced rate recording cost for the artist which would get paid out of the music sales before anyone gets to start splitting profits.
The other way is if an artist already has recordings we want to release, or if they want to make recordings at their own expense in a fancy studio of their choice. In those cases we can do more of a straight licensing deal in which the only expenses coming out up front are the marketing, distribution, and – if there are CDs, cassettes, or vinyl – physical production costs. All those costs are covered by the label up front. If we sell don't sell enough music, we lose that money.
We can do either way, but recording here is super cheap if you are on the label, because the label wants you to succeed and wants to make that investment in you. Right now Lost Ballard Records is not looking at paying advances for recording costs beyond our time recording here in our little studio. We're saving our money for marketing and production.
So Many More Questions!
There is a lot more than all that to discuss if we decided to work with you – a bunch really, specifics, details, publishing, synch licensing, merch, mechanical royalties, Art and design, videos, promotions, marketing plans, promises and assurances to be made by each of us. It's a lot.
First, before we get into any more of it, before anyone makes any promises, how about you just play a couple songs live down in Ballard, and I'll listen. At the very least I'll give you honest feedback in the spirit of helping you get where you want to go. At the very most, I'll become your newest biggest fan, and we can start talking about how we might work together.