CCB Magazine

The music market has been facing gigantic changes for a long time. Do musicians still need a major label today? That was the topic at this year's WISE festival. Global music distributor FUGA, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and has a branch in Berlin, discussed on a panel the future of the majors and the many small ones in the course of the great transformation - FUGA offers music companies and labels a complete B2B distribution service and replaces a large part of the label work. Is this the future? We talked about it with FUGA’s Benelux General Manager, Anneke Stulp.

INTERVIEW  Josephine Lass

CCB Magazine: Hello Anneke, please tell us briefly who you are and how you came to FUGA?

Anneke Stulp: I'm Anneke Stulp and I've been working in the music industry for almost ten years. My first job in the business was in the marketing department at Sony Music, where I worked for five years. At some point I left Sony and started managing musicians myself, including a band that was planning a revival after a ten-year break. We decided to do everything without a major label, and then I heard about FUGA. FUGA made it possible for us to fill in any gaps of knowledge and to take advantage of distribution opportunities that we couldn't access on our own. Following the band project, I stayed on. Today, as General Manager, I am mainly responsible for all labels and distributors in Belgium and Luxembourg.

CCB Magazine:What exactly is FUGA? What is its business model?

Anneke Stulp:We are a global B2B distribution company for digital and physical products. Our core business is music distribution, which means we make sure that our customers' music is played on all relevant streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Usually labels take care of this, but here we take over. And we don't just take care of music distribution, we also take care of the marketing, licensing issues and provide a detailed data analysis of streams and consumers. In addition, we provide a customized CMS at the request of our clients, in which all of the above can be accessed. The special feature of this CMS is the autonomy it gives our clients. Videos, audio files, images or other promotional material can be made accessible to all relevant channels with just a few clicks.

We are a global B2B distribution company for digital and physical products. Our core business is music distribution. We are about supporting those who don't have or don't want to have an independent or big label.

CCB Magazine:Who are your clients?

Anneke Stulp:We mainly work with indie labels. In the opposite direction, we also cooperate with streaming platforms by networking and using our software to play out our clients' music. In order to make FUGA grow, we have started to manage more and more companies in the music industry. In addition, we have had a branch in Berlin since May 2022 and have been a speaker at events such as this year's WISE festival. In the Netherlands, we are already a very established company and work with the biggest indie labels.

CCB Magazine:For a long time, there was no way around a major label - starting with the big major labels of the 1950s like Decca, Capital and Columbia Records. Nowadays, there are only the big three - Warner, Sony and Universal, which in turn house many small sub-labels. The early 2000s also saw the emergence of the big music download portals and major streaming giants such as Spotify, Soundcloud and Apple Music, which dominate the market today. Does FUGA want to be an alternative to this?

Anneke Stulp:In a way, yes. We compete with the major labels. However, we don't sign individual artists, that doesn't fit our business model. For us, it's about supporting those who don't have or don't want to have an independent or major label. But there is always at least one person between us and the artist, for example a manager. Also, a team of us checks the data. And we actively fight fraud and try to hold the players accountable. Our approach is to cater to a wide range of needs and give our clients sovereignty in all business decisions.

CCB Magazine: When you sign a contract with a label, the label usually does the distribution work. The label usually earns 80 percent of the share and the artists gets 20 percent, unless your name is Udo Lindenberg. How are FUGA's fees made up?

Anneke Stulp:That depends on what both parties to the contract have negotiated as an appropriate share. We don't have a rate card for this, there is no one size fits all. However, our all-in service package, which includes digital, physical and marketing measures, is always based on the revenue share. If our client, for example an indie label, already has good contacts with a streaming service but then wants to use our software, we have fixed prices for the platform functions, but again there are many different setup options.

CCB Magazine: A big problem in the music industry is that musicians earn too little from streaming services. But the streaming services have a huge influence on the visibility of newcomers in popular Spotify playlists like "Hot Right Now". Do you have a communication strategy with streaming giants to help musicians gain visibility? If so, what does it look like?

Anneke Stulp:We have valuable partnerships with streaming services worldwide who we collaborate with to ensure our clients and their artists have access to global marketing for distribution. Our marketing teams also work closely with these platforms to share and highlight new music for playlist opportunities. But streaming platforms are just one part of the industry, there should also be a focus on building out live visibility, socials, relationships with media partners and more. All of these parts complement and bolster one another and lead to a successful campaign strategy. To get the best out of your release, make sure you plan your campaign strategy ahead of time and avoid dropping music too quickly.

Nobody forces you to sign with a gun to your head. The artists have it in their own hands to a certain extent.

CCB Magazine: The question of the panel at this year's WISE Festival was: "Do artists still need labels?" There are more and more musicians who do without a label and finance themselves through crowdfunding, for example. What does the label of the future or a future without labels look like?

Anneke Stulp:Being on a label or working independently has advantages and disadvantages on both sides. First of all, the major labels are not so different in their structures from the indie labels anymore. Certainly, there were and are unfair artist contracts. But nobody forces you to sign with a gun to your head. The artists have it in their own hands to a certain extent. You can inform yourself before you sign  - or talk to a lawyer. It's important to have a team or a manager who understands your art and will take it forward. This can work with a label, but also elsewhere.