#87 Young Poet Records - Label Of The Month

This month, we‘re featuring Young Poet Records, a label that was only formed in 2018 but already boasts an impressive roster, including Carmody, Emma McGrath (both of whom have featured on our Laid Bare Sessions series - go check!) and Conor Albert, as well as our current Artist of the Month, Alice Auer. We spoke to Young Poet’s co-founder Hugh Worskett about how they formed the label, what's coming up and their vision for the future…

When did the first idea of creating the label come about?

In my work as a producer, I became more and more frustrated at the lack of opportunities for newer artists to develop. No artist arrives fully formed – it takes time to develop and nurture real artistry and it’s a very specific commercial entity that can enable that. Major labels these days tend to only get involved when the hard work has been done, and their favoured “spend towards success” approach has lost relevance in the streaming era, partly because it saddles an artist with a shit load of debt before they’ve even got going. The direct distribution model is inherently short-termist and a numbers game. It only works for the distributor when deployed on a mass scale and that means artists often don’t get enough care and attention. It’s a “see what sticks” approach. Young Poet Records was always designed as an alternative to both of these. We take a long-term perspective regarding our artists’ careers, enabled through our expertise in creative process and artistic development whilst utilising transparent deal structures and a strategic approach to releases.

• How would you describe the style and vision of your Label?

We work hard for our artists and our deals are designed to ensure ultimately the artist benefits more than anyone else. Building a label from a different knowledge base compared to our more established competitors means there is far less “unlearning” to do in a rapidly evolving marketplace. In terms of our signing philosophy, we’re in the business of genuine artist propositions. We’re signing artists with singular creative voices who we believe are capable of standing apart from the majority of music released. Our job is to enable that.

• Where do you find hungry and ambitious artists?

Mainly through our networks, often online and occasionally through a gig. Part of our job is to uncover gems before others do, so a lot of our focus is on intercepting artists when they’re still in their gestation phase.

• What is the release of which you are most proud of? Who would you most like to collaborate with?

We’re a broad church roster-wise so each release has its own specific qualities and circumstances which makes them hard to compare. But a few personal highlights for me include how far we were able to take WOOZE on their debut EP as the label’s very first signing, Conor Albert’s journey from his debut aged 17 through to hundreds of thousands of social media followers and millions of streams, and enabling Carmody to release such a deeply personal and important artistic statement as her My Jupiter EP.

• If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?

Songwriter renumeration needs looking at – whichever way you approach it the fact songwriting is no longer a financially viable career option, even for people writing global hits, is wrong. More broadly, DSPs’ appetite for growth is devaluing music. We risk attributing artistic expression with a commodity status. Of course some music is disposable and is designed to be so, but we can’t treat all releases like that. We’ve got to make the case for music having an intrinsic cultural (and therefore financial) value. This will happen naturally to some extent as DSPs look to extract value from what they’ve built, but it’s also very much up to labels such as ourselves to increase the perceived value of music amongst consumers. We can do that by prioritising quality, by indulging and driving fandom and by actively working to avoid a race to the bottom.

• What’s next for you?

We’ve just moved into a different era for the label – a Young Poet Mk 2 if you like - so there’s a lot in the works. We have an incredible release schedule for 2021 with some extraordinary artists. Watch this space.