I'm very happy to announce Narl Records!
Narl Records is a publishing and streaming platform that aims to be the go to place for musicians to distribute their work.
What's In a Name
Narl stands for "Not A Record Label". And that really drives the product. It's not about Narl. It's about the artists. The artists are in control of their songs from start to finish.
The Problem
When uploading songs to a traditional streaming platform that platform hosts and distributes the songs to their users. And this works most of the time. But those platforms can reject releases, take them down after the fact, and make artists jump through hoops to upload in the first place. And even when fans discover and listen to an artist they hardly see any of that revenue.
If an artist wants to provide music directly to their fans they have to take on that technical overhead of hosting and distributing.
The Solution
What if sharing your music was as simple as handing somebody a harddrive? And what if that harddrive lived in the cloud and could be accessed by anyone?
At a very very high level that's what the AT Protocol (aka atproto) is. It is a network where people can share "data" (posts, pictures, music!, etc) with eachother, while keeping control of that data. Meaning no central authority that can delete your data.
Narl leverages this network to empower artists to publish their songs and share them freely directly to their fans.
Using the atproto network means that work published through Narl doesn't go away if Narl does. Everything is still accessible by the rest of the atproto network.
Why Music Should Be Freely Available
I keep saying "free" and I mean that. Data published to the atproto is freely available for anyone view on the network. Songs and releases cannot be put behind a paywall, but that is by design.
The vast majority of streaming revenue already isn't seen by the artist; it goes back to the platform itself and predatory record labels (disclaimer: there are some good record labels).
I believe that when music is available for free it tears down barriers for discovery. And as more fans discover an artist they will be able to support the artist is more sustainable and direct ways; live ticket sales, merch, phsycial media (CDs, vinyl, cassettes are coming back now too!), fan clubs.
Fans want to support artists they enjoy, let's find ways that actually work for the artists.
Inspiration
I've taken so much inspiration from Quote Unquote Records, Cheekface, and all artists who already self-publish.
It's a lot of work to self-publish, I hope Narl Records can make that process easier.
Current State & Next Steps
Narl Records is in a closed alpha. This alpha is focused on the non-atproto portion of the platform; member management, roles and permissions, UI/UX polish, etc.. And as such will NOT be publishing to the atproto network.
If you want an alpha invite and are reading this you likely know me in some capacity, reach out for an invite!
Once the alpha is in a good enough state it will open to a broader beta that enables publishing to the atproto network!! Keep an eye on narlrecords.com