When did you start working in the music industry?
Wow, that’s a pretty long story! Let’s see, I started deejaying at 14, had a vinyl & audio store with a friend, worked as an A&R at Basic Beat Recordings, got a degree in Marketing and ended up as the A&R of XSV’s dance department. After a while I decided it was time for me to move on and I joined ID&T.

At ID&T Music I focused on building the company’s name in ‘dance’ music. It was quite a struggle at first as we were mostly known for our Thunderdome (hardcore) releases and events. But after signing artists like ATB, Cygnus X, Rank 1 and Marco V things started falling into place.

It was in 2004 that I talked with owner Duncan Stutterheim about the future of ID&T Music. We came to the conclusion that our ideas were quite different as Duncan wanted to focus on radio and events where I wanted to focus on music. That’s when we decided that I would take over the music activities of ID&T and at that moment Be Yourself Music was born.

What drives you to work in the music industry? What inspires you?
I just love music in general. The virus for electronic music really caught me when I started listening to bands like D.A.F, Front 242 and Kraftwerk when I was around the age of 10. Their music was inspiring to me and from that point on I was hooked. Around that period the first House releases came in from the U.S. and this led to me trying to be a deejay, haha! After playing at several clubs and parties for several years, I got bored of the whole ‘deejay world of egos’ and began to wonder what the ‘other’ side of music would be like.

What is it that sets your label apart from others?
Well, some people say that Be Yourself is about variety, innovation and quality. But quite frankly I just sign the tracks that I think are fat. Everybody knows how to do the standard trick, right? I simply try to stimulate our artists to go the extra mile, to put in that extra work that makes it stand out from the rest.

How would you describe the music that you release?
Good music that feels right to me. Naturally a track also needs to fit our field of expertise and must have a certain sales potential. In other words, we need to be able to do a good job with a track. In the end we, the artist and the label, want the best possible result. And although we have 4 labels (In Charge, Big & Dirty, High Contrast and Dirty Soul) we try not to think in styles or sounds. Of course we need the sub labels to categorize our releases, but when does something become trance or house?

How many releases do you have in a year?
That depends, but when looking at all labels we have about 50 releases per year. For example, In Charge has about 7 releases per year and I decide together with Marco V which tracks we put out on this label. We still press vinyl of all our releases and have to be careful with the costs of sleeves and artwork. But as long as it’s not costing us money and as long as there’s demand I will keep offering our releases on vinyl. Of course the download market is growing fast and we are focussing on this format as well! Mp3 or wav is just a new format next to CD or vinyl and we basically want to offer all our releases on as much formats as possible.

How do you promote these releases?
Basically we adapt the promotion to the release. First of all, a track needs to end up with the right people at the right time. That’s why we usually start with an mp3 mailing to a very small selection of deejays. These jocks (let’s call ‘em the big boys) get our tracks months before the official release date. Because our mailings are very exclusive I know exactly who receives and plays the promos. In this way I can build a nice buzz and the bigger the buzz… well, the more records you sell. Of course we also have other ways of promoting our music and we do a lot with our artists’ websites, newsletters and special offers on various download portals.

How many demos do you receive in one week?
Ehm, usually we get around 75 demos per week. A year ago we received half of the demos via snail mail on cd, but times have clearly changed. Right now over 80% of the demos are sent to us by e-mail.

What happens to the demos that you receive?
Although things can get very busy at the office I do try to listen to everything. I mean, every artist started out with a demo and I believe that talent should get the chance to be heard. We are always looking for new talent.

Why did you join I-dance?
I really like the initiative. It’s a platform for those who want to improve their skills in producing. There are a lot of guys out there who are still afraid to send their music to labels and only ask their friends for feedback. I-dance is a good place to receive constructive comments and to get in touch with the right A&Rs and record labels at the right time.

How has I-dance helped you so far?
We just signed a track of Cliff Coenraad & Thomas Hagenbeek for our In Charge label through I-dance. The cool thing was that Marco V heard the track the same day I received it via I-dance. We instantly liked the track and both wanted to sign it to the label. It’s good to see that there are guys with potential on I-dance!

What’s the use of signing with a label these days?
Some artists say ‘Hell, I’ll do it myself’. That’s fine by me but it means that you have to do everything yourself. I mean, even if you would sell your music via downloads only you would still have to promote it worldwide. A label already has the network, connections, distribution channels and structure that are needed for a good promotion and distribution. It knows the business and can use its expertise to build you as an artist, while you focus on making music and deejaying. A record label (a good and serious record label that is) can help you a lot with your career. It’s quite difficult for an artist to get his tracks on every download portal by himself and a label already has all the contacts. A label can give you that extra push in building your artist profile. Short success is easy to achieve but taking that extra step to stand out from the rest… that’s the trick. There are always artists who made it on their own but in the end the majority of these artists also got help from labels.

What do you think about the future of the music industry?
There will always be a need for music. People all around love music and ever since music became available on the web people have been consuming more music than before. The great advantage of the web is that you can easily get your music and that it gives you much more options to find new music. The downside is that it resulted in an exploding growth of new labels which led to a devaluation of the quality in music. Of course there have been great discoveries of new artists which would have taken longer without the web, but in general things resulted in an increase of quantity and a decrease of quality.

I am positive about the future of dance music and music in general. Many people say ‘recorded music is dead’, but frankly it is not. People who say this clearly have no idea of what’s going on. Ok, the last few years there were more illegal than legal downloads. But when the music people are looking for is not available they simply seek elsewhere. There will always be people who are not willing to buy music, but they have been around ever since there is music!

As for the future of dance music: it will and has to grow up now. It’s has been a single market for years, which isn’t a bad thing, but artist now need to be able to deliver an album in the end. Take artists like Daft Punk, Prodigy, Basement Jaxx, Tiësto, Chemical Brothers, Faithless and Paul van Dyk. Like ‘em or not, their profile grew in a way because they delivered an album. The US for example is a market where you are considered a serious artist when you have dropped a full album.

As for record companies, they will continue to grow into label-, management- and event organising companies. This basically means picking up an artist to do the whole package. I believe internet will become the main source for music. Vinyl will stay around for a while, but only on a small level for the fans and merely as a collectable item. Many changes will happen in the way people will listen and consume music in the coming years, but this is a good thing! You have to be able to listen to your music and be able to have access to your music any time you want and wherever you are.

Where do you want your label to be in 5 years from now?
I want to keep building our artists until they become album selling artists. You know, like The Prodigy and Junkie XL, more album-focused. I don’t necessarily want to get bigger, I just want to do cool things and have worldwide success with my artists. We have already started to organise complete deejay tours around albums. In this way the music creates bookings, which in turn creates more music sales and, well, more music sales creates more bookings and more success.

What would you say to artists who want to make it to the next level?
Be critical towards your own work and understand that it’s not easy to be successful. There are a lot of setbacks, even if you already released a record. Improve your skills and compare your work to tracks that have been released. Mix your own music with existing tracks and see if your production stands tall. Keep going and don’t give up!