By Josh Bennett
This year at the official 2012 Grammy Awards nominations, something happened that had the “old” music industry scratching their heads while delighting the “new” industry — popular American dance music artist Sonny Moore, aka Skrillex, was nominated for five awards, including the coveted “Best New Artist” title, alongside Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, The Band Perry, and J. Cole. No major press outlet predicted this with their preliminary “rumored” nominee lists. It even caught the dance industry by surprise, which perhaps didn’t realize the amount of support Skrillex had within the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS)—the voting body that determines Grammy nominees and winners.
Why is the nomination of Skrillex such big news? Because he rose to such a high status with very little support from a label. Sonny grew up in Los Angeles, where he had his first musical success as the frontman of punk rock band From First to Last. The band enjoyed moderate recognition from the alternative community, but in 2007, Sonny left the group to focus on his Skrillex solo project. It took three years for him to finally release his debut EP, “My Name Is Skrillex,” but the real item of note is that he released the EP on the Internet only as a free download through his MySpace page (though the official download link can now be found on his Facebook page). “My Name Is Skrillex” became a huge success, and sparked one of the speediest rises to mainstream popularity in the history of popular music. Sonny attributes this success to the “free music” concept; in an interview with LessThan3.com, when asked about reason behind the success of the EP, Sonny stated: “What really helped was releasing my EP for free. Give something away that is very special to you—that shows where your heart is.”
Many naysayers of this grassroots rise to fame cite the fact that Skrillex currently is signed to a deal with Big Beat Records, a hip hop-turned-dance imprint under Atlantic Records. These claims are unfounded, however, because what many fail to realize is that Sonny was already selling out important US venues before the Big Beat contract was even finalized. His Facebook fanbase was close to 100,000 and growing exponentially before Big Beat released one note of Sonny’s music, and the effectiveness of Big Beat in advancing his career outside of his close online connection with his fanbase is debatable. Skrillex is currently sitting at a cool 2.5 million Facebook fans and anything Sonny posts gets upwards of 10,000+ “likes” and 1000+ comments. Big Beat’s page, on the other hand, has around 2,200 fans, and their last Skrillex-related post received three “likes.” Additionally, Sonny continues to release the majority of his new music through “free” means outside of Big Beat, with Big Beat mostly stepping in to repackage Skrillex music that he already made popular himself with a few extra remixes. It is probable that the most significant thing Big Beat has done for Sonny’s career, ironically, was make him eligible to be nominated for a Grammy.
Sonny’s path to success through the means of social media and free giveaways must have current industry heads shaking in their boots. If your music is good, and you can find the right online audience, why do you even need a label at all? His main genre, dubstep, has been called the “most talked about” genre of 2011. Sonny has even started his own label, OWSLA, which has already had several highly successful releases, and is 100% independent of the standard label system. He is selling out international tours, and chances are the fifteen year olds in your life who may have been punk-heads in another generation are big fans of him. All of this because he gave away his music for free (and, of course, the music was good). This has inspired a whole new generation of young musicians seeking to find a voice in the confusing world of the current music industry to employ similar methods, and it’s working. And the majors are still scratching their heads, frantically trying to figure out what to do. Perhaps they don’t want to accept the answer staring them in their faces—restructure and rethink the fundamentals of their business strategy, or start selling off their assets a la EMI. Being at the top of a crumbling system is hard, and how these executives choose to respond in the near future will determine what they care more about—maintaining the status quo, or giving a voice to a new generation of artists.
Josh Bennett is the editor of LessThan3.com. He received a B.A. in Music from Wake Forest University and moved to New York City upon graduating in 2008. Josh is also a recording artist who has recently had singles signed to Armin van Buuren’s Armada Music, one of the largest and most prestigious dance labels in the world.
Skrillex and the “Free” Generation
0By Josh Bennett
This year at the official 2012 Grammy Awards nominations, something happened that had the “old” music industry scratching their heads while delighting the “new” industry — popular American dance music artist Sonny Moore, aka Skrillex, was nominated for five awards, including the coveted “Best New Artist” title, alongside Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, The Band Perry, and J. Cole. No major press outlet predicted this with their preliminary “rumored” nominee lists. It even caught the dance industry by surprise, which perhaps didn’t realize the amount of support Skrillex had within the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS)—the voting body that determines Grammy nominees and winners.
Why is the nomination of Skrillex such big news? Because he rose to such a high status with very little support from a label. Sonny grew up in Los Angeles, where he had his first musical success as the frontman of punk rock band From First to Last. The band enjoyed moderate recognition from the alternative community, but in 2007, Sonny left the group to focus on his Skrillex solo project. It took three years for him to finally release his debut EP, “My Name Is Skrillex,” but the real item of note is that he released the EP on the Internet only as a free download through his MySpace page (though the official download link can now be found on his Facebook page). “My Name Is Skrillex” became a huge success, and sparked one of the speediest rises to mainstream popularity in the history of popular music. Sonny attributes this success to the “free music” concept; in an interview with LessThan3.com, when asked about reason behind the success of the EP, Sonny stated: “What really helped was releasing my EP for free. Give something away that is very special to you—that shows where your heart is.”
Many naysayers of this grassroots rise to fame cite the fact that Skrillex currently is signed to a deal with Big Beat Records, a hip hop-turned-dance imprint under Atlantic Records. These claims are unfounded, however, because what many fail to realize is that Sonny was already selling out important US venues before the Big Beat contract was even finalized. His Facebook fanbase was close to 100,000 and growing exponentially before Big Beat released one note of Sonny’s music, and the effectiveness of Big Beat in advancing his career outside of his close online connection with his fanbase is debatable. Skrillex is currently sitting at a cool 2.5 million Facebook fans and anything Sonny posts gets upwards of 10,000+ “likes” and 1000+ comments. Big Beat’s page, on the other hand, has around 2,200 fans, and their last Skrillex-related post received three “likes.” Additionally, Sonny continues to release the majority of his new music through “free” means outside of Big Beat, with Big Beat mostly stepping in to repackage Skrillex music that he already made popular himself with a few extra remixes. It is probable that the most significant thing Big Beat has done for Sonny’s career, ironically, was make him eligible to be nominated for a Grammy.
Sonny’s path to success through the means of social media and free giveaways must have current industry heads shaking in their boots. If your music is good, and you can find the right online audience, why do you even need a label at all? His main genre, dubstep, has been called the “most talked about” genre of 2011. Sonny has even started his own label, OWSLA, which has already had several highly successful releases, and is 100% independent of the standard label system. He is selling out international tours, and chances are the fifteen year olds in your life who may have been punk-heads in another generation are big fans of him. All of this because he gave away his music for free (and, of course, the music was good). This has inspired a whole new generation of young musicians seeking to find a voice in the confusing world of the current music industry to employ similar methods, and it’s working. And the majors are still scratching their heads, frantically trying to figure out what to do. Perhaps they don’t want to accept the answer staring them in their faces—restructure and rethink the fundamentals of their business strategy, or start selling off their assets a la EMI. Being at the top of a crumbling system is hard, and how these executives choose to respond in the near future will determine what they care more about—maintaining the status quo, or giving a voice to a new generation of artists.
Josh Bennett is the editor of LessThan3.com. He received a B.A. in Music from Wake Forest University and moved to New York City upon graduating in 2008. Josh is also a recording artist who has recently had singles signed to Armin van Buuren’s Armada Music, one of the largest and most prestigious dance labels in the world.
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