{"id":1740,"date":"2010-12-02T00:04:15","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T05:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1740"},"modified":"2010-12-02T00:47:38","modified_gmt":"2010-12-02T05:47:38","slug":"george-fox-2m1-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1740","title":{"rendered":"GEORGE FOX \/ 2M1 RECORDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to<\/em><\/strong>: <\/em>Home <\/em><\/a>\/ <\/em>Exclusive Interviews & Profiles<\/em><\/a> \/ <\/em>Music Producers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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2M1 Records has a number of soundtrack releases in its catalogue, but this month the label will release two high-profile scores on limited CDs: Andy Garfield\u2019s music from\u00a0Frozen<\/strong> (2010), and\u00a0Hatchet<\/strong> (2006) \/\u00a0Hatchet II<\/strong> (2010).<\/em><\/p>\n

In our conversation, Toronto-based co-owner George Fox describes the company\u2019s founding with Oklahoma-based Jeff Johns, the company’s machinations, and the resilience of the compact disc among collectors and audiophile connoisseurs<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Mark R. Hasan<\/em><\/strong>: How did you become involved in soundtrack distribution?<\/em><\/p>\n

George Fox<\/strong>: I knew my business part Jeff Johns for a while online. We both knew industry people, and we shared a love of film scores, and eventually it came up: Maybe we could start a record label.<\/p>\n

We also knew some people who owned other record labels, and they were very supportive of us. We\u2019ve never had any bad relationships with other labels.<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s been helpful, so it seemed like it was something we could definitely work with, and from that, I guess, over a couple of nights of discussion we came up with a name, we came up with our whole model, what we could do differently, and what we would try and improve upon as a label.<\/p>\n

Then obviously came the work \u2013 we actually had to get the scores. It was originally kind of tough because we had no name, and it\u2019s really tough to find a composer and say \u2018Give us the rights to your score.\u2019 Because we didn\u2019t have money, we offered them 50% of our sales.<\/p>\n

We first got\u00a0End of the Line<\/strong> (2006). That turned out to be a moderate success. We sold probably 20 copies, but for a small label\u2019s first release for an unknown movie, it\u2019s a pretty good sale, so that\u2019s kind of where we started.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: I guess that\u2019s the hardest thing after setting up the business plan \u2013 attracting composers \u2013 but you explained you already had a familiarity with the marketplace in addition to contacts.<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: Yeah, we definitely knew people in the industry, more on a personal basis than a business relationship, but we had those connections. Jeff knew these people long before me. He used to do fan sites for composers, and he still builds sites for certain composers now, so that\u2019s how he had a lot of these contacts.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: For the composers themselves, did they approach you, or did you approach them beforehand?<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: We have had composers approach us, but normally we have to seek them out because right now our label is still in a stage where we are generally unknown;
\nin the future, hopefully that will change.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: I noticed that you offer both digital albums as well as physical CDs?<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: Yeah, this is a huge point for us. Digital allows smaller labels like us to exist. Even now, our first 2 CD releases \u2013\u00a0Hatchet<\/strong> (2006) and\u00a0Frozen<\/strong> (2010) – are massive for us to do.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a whole process, whereas with digital it allows us to use very little start-up money and be able to get a product out there and have it accessible to the world, without worrying about fulfillment, credit card processing. Even getting the CDs pressed is a huge ordeal. We\u2019ve had to delay\u00a0Frozen<\/strong> and\u00a0Hatchet<\/strong>, due to pressing issues already, whereas with a digital-only distribution model, there is much less to worry about.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: In the past, there used to be much larger CD runs, even with a standard soundtrack (comedy, horror, etc.), but now, unless it\u2019s a major studio release, 500 to maybe around 2000 copies is the norm, and 500 is no long unusual. From my standpoint as a fan, as a collector and so on, is 500 a fair amount that would sell, in light of the changes in buyer demographics where most people are used to the digital format?<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: 500 for a physical release is a fair amount, especially with the advent of digital, as CDs are normally purchased by score aficionados and not just someone looking for the film score.<\/p>\n

There is a downside to digital however, and that is quality: on iTunes and Amazon, the music is compressed, leading to a degradation in quality (though nothing very noticeable).<\/p>\n

To combat this we\u2019ve set up what I believe is the only score label to offer lossless downloads (in the Flac format) through our own service, which allows people to get the full CD quality, but as a digital release.<\/p>\n

That being said, you still can\u2019t beat what a CD has. You\u2019re not just buying the music; you\u2019re buying the case; you\u2019re buying the collector\u2019s item. It\u2019s not something that digital can replace, so 500 copies is a pretty small number when you\u2019re talking about pop music, but when you\u2019re talking about a score for an independent film, 500 copies starts to sound like a fair amount.<\/p>\n

Plus, let\u2019s face it, these other score labels don\u2019t have a lot of money, so they can\u2019t press 5000 in their first run and just hope they can sell them; they have to be sure that they can sell these copies, and we have to be, too, so it\u2019s why you\u2019re seeing the numbers getting smaller and smaller.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: I guess in that respect CDs have become like vinyl; they\u2019re regarded as an audiophile format.<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: It is. It\u2019s the collector\u2019s piece.\u00a0Frozen<\/strong> and\u00a0Hatchet<\/strong> are prime items for a digital release, but the reason why I want to do physical is because there\u2019s lots of fans, and those fans want collector\u2019s items, and that\u2019s something we can offer above and beyond just the score material in a CD-quality format.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: Are there significant rights issues unique to digital albums, or are the rights easier to negotiate in order to distribute an album online, so that anyone around the world can buy the album with no extra fees?<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: We haven\u2019t reached that size where we have to worry about those rights. Most of the time if a studio requests, we do a blanket license for both physical and digital, in case we ever went back to a back catalogue item and decide to do a fully pressed physical release for it. It gives us the most coverage over things.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: One thing I\u2019ve enjoyed from digital releases – and the comparative label would be Sweden\u2019s\u00a0MovieScore Media – is that digital opens the door for a lot of composers. Whether they\u2019ve been working for a couple of years or 20 years, their stuff can finally get distribution so people can listen to music from countries who\u2019ve perhaps been ignored by the major labels because of disinterest, or the distribution channels were virtually non-existent, or too complex.<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: I completely agree. After we\u2019ve approached composers, we\u2019ve seen them come to us asking, \u2018How can you press a release like this?\u2019 and we tell them about our digital release, and they\u2019re almost always incredibly enthusiastic and on board because it allows their work to get out there; it allows them to get noticed; it allows directors looking around to see the samples on Amazon and get them more work; and it gets a composer\u2019s name out there.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: In terms of your catalogue, the albums are available from your website, iTunes, and Amazon?<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: We have relationships with iTunes and Amazon, and both of those work great. It\u2019s very low cost and not much work to put albums on both online stores. It\u2019s something we like to do to get our name out there. We also sell through our site, both MP3 320, and the aforementioned FLAC copies.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: And are there any composers that you admire, and whose work you\u2019d like to represent, if not composers that have influenced your own interest in film music?<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: I would love to work with Ennio Morricone somehow; I doubt it\u2019s going to happen, but that would be a dream gig. I\u2019ve actually been admiring\u00a0Bear McCreary for a while, and his work onBattlestar Galactica<\/strong> has really influenced me. It\u2019s a very New Age style of composing. That being said, I\u2019d love to work with him on a live album with the\u00a0Battlestar Galactica<\/strong> orchestra \u2013 another one of those dream projects.<\/p>\n

I just have to mention Hans Zimmer because he\u2019s what brought film scores into modern popularity; they\u2019re blockbuster scores, and they sell very well, and he\u2019s a household name, really. That being said, I really don’t think I can single out a few composers.<\/p>\n

I mean, there are the big ones that everyone knows, but more and more I\u2019m listening to composers you might have never heard of and have a huge amount of talent; those are the guys I also want to work with. Their work hasn’t been represented so far, so hopefully 2M1 can do that.<\/p>\n

MRH<\/em><\/strong>: And\u00a0Frozen<\/strong> and the\u00a0Hatchet<\/strong> scores will only be available on CD?<\/em><\/p>\n

GF<\/strong>: For now. Once we sell out of 500 CDs for each title, we will probably open the door for digital releases, but for now, for our first physical release, we\u2019re trying to do something special.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hoping once Hatchet and Frozen start selling, we\u2019ll have enough money to do another physical release and see where we can expand to, and what rights we can buy.<\/p>\n

In mid-December\u00a0Frozen<\/strong> will hopefully hit our online store, and you will probably be able to buy it through select online retailers, and all copies will be signed by composer Andy Garfield and possibly writer\/director Adam Green.<\/p>\n

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KQEK.com would like to thank 2M1 Records’ George Fox and Jeff Johns for their generous time.<\/em><\/p>\n

Visit 2M1 Records’ official\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

All images remain the property of their copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

This interview \u00a9 2010 by Mark R. Hasan<\/em><\/p>\n

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Related links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Film \/ DVD: \u00a0End of the Line<\/a> <\/strong>(2007) —\u00a0Frozen<\/a><\/strong> <\/a>(2010) —\u00a0Hatchet <\/a><\/strong>(2006)<\/p>\n

Interviews: \u00a0Composer\u00a0Bear McCreary<\/a> <\/strong>(2009) — Soundtrack Producer \/ MovieScore Media’s Mikael Carlsson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n


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Return to<\/em><\/strong>: <\/em>Home <\/em><\/a>\/ <\/em>Exclusive Interviews & Profiles<\/em><\/a> \/ <\/em>Music Producers<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2M1 Records has a number of soundtrack releases in its catalogue, but this month the label will release two high-profile scores on limited CDs: Andy Garfield\u2019s music from Frozen (2010), and Hatchet (2006) \/ Hatchet II (2010).<\/p>\n

In our conversation, Toronto-based co-owner George Fox describes the company\u2019s founding with Oklahoma-based Jeff Johns, the company’s machinations, and the resilience of the compact disc among collectors and audiophile connoisseurs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[185,184,62,4212],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-s4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1767,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions\/1767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}