A music company based in Witney, Oxford, set a trend that is now a model for how record companies promote their rosters of artists. The creative freedom for artists this provides is reflected in the diversity of musical styles entering the mainstream and influencing established musicians such as Rita Ora who draws from Dancehall, which has Caribbean origins.

The independent artists signed to Matchbox Recordings range from all over the world, bringing their musical origins with them and incorporating it into original commercial pop songs. Styles promoted by Matchbox include Bhangra, RnB, hip-hop, rap, blues, salsa, soul and reggae, all clearly discernible in the top 40 charts.

International Concern

Matchbox Recordings has a client list spanning 80s pop legends, American Internet sensations, famous rock bands and artists who are unknown in the UK while topping the charts in their places of origin. Artists signed to Matchbox originate from India, Africa, the Caribbean, east and southern Europe and the USA since YouTube has made music sales an international concern.

The founder of Matchbox Recordings, Dale Olivier, 40, originates from South Africa, the country that recognised the talent of Sixto Rodrigues who was the subject of underground music biopic Searching For Sugarman. Matchbox Recordings’ main domains are the UK and Africa, where Dale has enjoyed a high musical profile.

In the 1990s, Dale was promoting bands around London to find ways to provide talented musicians with a launch pad into their music careers, such as compilation CDs and other promotions over and above the usual live band night such as new music compilation CDs.

Accumulated

While his own music career continued in his band Fur-Lined, Dale had accumulated strong music industry contacts and so he set up an ‘iPool’, a place where radio and club DJs and other music professionals could source new songs from signed acts before their official release dates. There are now several websites that do this.

Dale says how artists who are chasing fame often have the wrong attitude and don’t make it, therefore he is: ‘ecstatic that after all these years we have become known as the “original artist and label services company”.’

While the public relations industry fluctuates with the seasons, particularly summer, traditionally the “silly season” when throwaway, poolside songs about ridiculous swimwear likely to emerge, Matchbox Recordings offers potential pop sensations with a variety of ways to grab the public’s attention including public appearances, radio, international club play and appearing in music editorial online and in print.

Urban Artist

Recent artists who have signed up for Matchbox Recordings’ services include DJ Rags who has worked with Fatman Scoop and Snoop Dogg, Keenan Cahill who has had half a billion YouTube hits, Mitch Harris from rock band Napalm Death and Emma Blakk, an urban artist from an East End council estate who was snapped up by Radio 1Xtra and played London’s coolest underground gigs.

High profile but not mainstream are the Henry Girls, a contemporary folk trio who are darlings of the Irish media and playing at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Other brand new acts have teamed up through Matchbox Recordings with producers and emerging live DJ talent such as Pink Pandas who remixed When You Do by Paul Leion and multiplied its plays in nightclubs across Europe.

Many music professionals want to spot the next big thing but who knows where that will spring from such as the craze for Gangnam Style from Korean DJ Psy. Anyone could write the next hit song that Radio One will want to play first. When that song is arranged, produced, recorded and available at least in audio on YouTube, it could be a good time to get in touch with Matchbox Recordings.