A South African man living in Kidlington launched a music promotion company, which set the template for how record companies work with artists since the Internet revolutionised how people hear and buy new music.

Over the two decades since its inception as Streamline Records in the 1990s, Matchbox Recordings has added an array of specialists and innovative new music services to its team to promote the various artists who engage its services.

These include studios, producers, pluggers, journalists and club names such as Mikey Gallagher, resident DJ for Ministry of Sound tours and Hed Kandi in North America.

The founder of Matchbox Recordings, Dale Olivier, 40, originates from South Africa, the country that recognised the talent of Sixto Rodrigues, discovered living humbly in Detroit USA, who was the subject of underground music biopic Searching For Sugarman.

High profile

Matchbox Recordings’ main domains are the UK and Africa, where Dale has enjoyed a high musical profile with his band Fur-Lined, who have been featured on Radio One and reviewed in NME.

Dale says: “It’s amazing to see the shift music since the digital age began in the 90’s, when we first started out and based our model on the basic principle of independent music; sharing costs and revenue with the artists. We came against some fierce criticism from some artists, the Musician’s Union, music press and other labels for charging artists for services. This has now become the main model of the new music industry.”

With an ever-increasing number of songs in the charts credited to DJs and producers rather than singers and songwriters, Dale realised that the right people hearing and supporting a new song could mean that artist’s career breaking through into the mainstream.

Coverage

Thanks to Facebook, Dale has reconnected with people from his musical past such as a journalist and fellow music promoter, Sophie Sweatman, 43, who got some press coverage for his record company in the 1990s. Now living and working from home in Falmouth, Cornwall, Sophie will spruce up musicians’ biographies and press information to make Matchbox Recordings’ press releases stand out from the work of rival companies by writing objective editorial features instead of sales copy. Sophie went to school in Oxfordshire and now teaches PR skills at the Visionary Music School in Truro.

Although the role of artist and requisition (A&R) people in record companies who frequent live venues, scout for talent, haggle for the hottest new acts and guide signed artists to make the best recording and song choices is being made redundant by direct routes to market for music artists through digital retailers such as iTunes, Matchbox Recordings is still selective about what acts to represent.

Artists wishing to take the independent route to the record buying public would benefit most from Matchbox Recordings’ services by ensuring they have realistic expectations of the fluctuating moods of the music mainstream and an understanding of what factors increase your chances of gripping record buyers.

Willingness to perform

One of the biggest misconceptions shared by many unknown musicians seems to stem from the idea that becoming a famous musician is down to luck instead of the reality; hard work, willingness to perform, genuine passion for music instead of fame and money, ability to work with others and to find those people who can move your career forward.

There are many different music professionals who want to spot the next big thing, so if you have written a song that could be a hit, it is a good time to start asking for advice on how to turn that song into something Radio One will want to play before anyone else has heard it. When that song is arranged, produced, recorded and available in at least audio on YouTube, it could be a good time to get in touch with Matchbox Recordings.