First published on March 29th, 2020

Our first blog. Why start now?

This company has come a long way. Started as a drunken idea between Dydy Haynes and Minky Très-vain way back when in 2012, we’ve now grown into a company whose eye is on the ball, who’s looking to expand, grow, and prosper, and who’s looking to satisfy the artistic goals that our artists have set for themselves. Be it musicians - until now, the only artists we have worked with -, writers, models, visual artists, and all those who come in between, we have and always will strive to grow their projects in the direction that they see themselves going in, whilst maximising their profits without encroaching on their integrity. This is why this company exists, and this is what we will continue to do.

Since our Phase 2 Project in 2017 - which saw us update our website, stylistic image, logo, and outlook - we have managed to put together a fantastic team of people who were and are willing to give us their precious time in order to grow this family. None of us are salaried. Instead, we are all paid based on the success of each individual project. The more we work and succeed, the more reward we reap. This deters complacency. This breads community. We are all in this together.

The next step of our growth was our rebrand in 2019. The success of this went far beyond our initial expectations. It saw us gain more traction on social media - an area which we are still looking to improve upon as every day goes by, and is an area that we have no doubt will be key to our growth and success in the future -, and saw us turn our first ever profit on a tour with Brain Ape’s recent tour of the UK in late 2019. This is not to be under appreciated, as our artists take their work seriously, and deserve to be paid accordingly.

Where does that leave us now?

The reason for this blog, and all subsequent blogs, is to keep you up to date on the goings-on of this company. With the company not being a part of people’s daily lives - we all have day jobs and that is perfectly understandable. Until we turn a continuous profit large enough to support us all, this will be our reality. And that is okay. It is how it’s going to be for the foreseeable future, and if anything it enriches us. Let us never forget that this is a passion project. No matter the money, let us never lose that passion - most of you are very unaware of the daily work that is going on behind the scenes, and most of our work is behind the scenes! If it’s not advertising campaigns, music production, film production, or legal documentation, it’s meetings and discussions which are never seen above surface.

So with that, let’s go through the many projects that this company is undertaking in order to take our artists further:

Firstly; we had an Annual General Meeting back in January of this year, to which not only our shareholders were invited but also our artists. Transparency is key to our integrity, and that is something we wish never to lose. The meeting went very well, and some key suggestions were made.

Secondly; we have had a mass overall in our financial structure. This is so that we utilise the money that we have, as we are fully aware that none of us are millionaires (if only), as best we can so as to maximise the potential of every penny.

Finally; we have been working towards our next big release. Our last was Brain Ape’s Auslander back in 2017, and that record did more for this company than we could ever have predicted, and turned the then unstructured passion project into a legitimate business that has the potential to grow into something financially profitable. Our next will be Chanty Très-vain’s upcoming debut studio album titled Autrefois. Its release date is currently set for the 8th of May this year, with the final pre-release single being planned for the 13th of next month.

A lot of work has been put into the record and its promotional run, and we’re confident that it will be a fantastic addition to our growing repertoire.

Where are we heading?

Upon completion of our current projects, many of which will take up our spring and more than likely the majority of our summer, we are also looking at the following follow up projects:

Firstly; we will be looking to expand our current promotional material to include all past and present artists on the label. This includes small promotional videos, interviews with all of our artists, and the like! A lot of our catalogue is back-catalogue of artists who are no longer performing or writing material, and there’s nothing wrong with that in the slightest. Many of the world’s successful companies are able to profit off of back-catalogue, and I see us being no different - albeit with a proportional profit margin based on current exposure (none of us have the fan-base of The Beatles, after all).

Secondly; as has been done within recent years, we will continue to utilise each and every new social platform to its fullest potential in order to bring more exposure to our artists. We have, in fact, just expanded into Tik Tok which is a fantastic new social platform predominantly used by a market who aren’t yet on Instagram or Facebook. Whilst keeping a strong sense of integrity - which to us is our number one priority - and not exploiting anyone, we hope to grow the fan-base for all of our artists on both these new, emerging platform, and on the existing platforms which run our industry. Needless to say that Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and now Tik Tok, are all high up on our priority list in order to maximise our family’s recognition. Our artists work hard, and deserve the exposure.

Thirdly; our graphic supervisor, Nacho Vilanova, will be continuously looking for ways in which to improve our website and overall branding. We are, in fact, currently looking for ideas for a new colour to represent our brand. Since 2017 we have been using the colour red, but we feel that we have outgrown it and it no longer stands out as a bold statement or identity. Please send in your suggestions! This colour will be used to promote the company on all fronts, and we feel strongly that it’s of the highest importance that we find a colour that everyone feels represents our family and brand.

Fourthly; we are looking to expand our family. We want to do this carefully, as we only have a finite amount of time and wish not to rob our current artists of our attention. But steady expansion is one of the pillars of success.

The reason we registered our company as Scratch Rock LTD and not Scratch Rock Records LTD was so that we can use the company as an umbrella and expand into other artistic endeavours. Scratch Rock Records is but the beginning. It’s no secret that both Sol Alex Albret and Dom Bolton currently work in the film industry. This would be a fantastic area to expand into, given the chance. Imagine the possibilities for our musicians’ works. We feel strongly that, once again, as long as we keep in mind our original goal as a company and preserve our integrity, we can expand and grow our family so as to all benefit from it. If any of you have any creative projects, in any field at all, that you’d like us to consider for the company, please don’t hesitate to put them forward!

Finally; we will keep our eye on the ball at all times. For too many years we were trying to run the company as though it were a record company from the 1990s, but the state of the industry does not allow those companies to thrive. Our biggest accomplishment with our Phase 2 Project was coming to that realisation, and updating how to promote and run our company. It’s realisations like admitting to ourselves that the market for CDs and DVDs does not exist anymore for artists of our size, and instead we should focus on Spotify, Apple Music, and Instagram, that will carry our family forward towards prosperity whilst preserving our integrity (keeping our eye on the vinyl resurgence, though. We think we’d all be very happy to move into that market). Whether a lot of our music be hark backs or not - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with retro. In a lot of places, there are very strong niche markets for it - we will forever strive to keep our business up to date and relevant. This is what will make the difference, and set us out from our competitors.