Originally posted on I Just Wanna Be a Better Man, but super relevant here:
Few nights ago I came across at quite a sad piece of news, namely that Feedback Loop Label is preparing its very last release before it's shut down. If you are not familiar this project, it was/still is a netlabel currated by Leonardo Rosado, one of the most active and dedicated artists I've come across in the last few years. If you are also unfamiliar with the concept of netlabels I highly encourage you to do some research, and then finish reading this post. In short and by default netlabels are mostly non-profit initiatives, and as such they are very likely to end up like this. In the case with Feedback Loop, this is surely a loss, because Leonardo is really passionate about music and FBL had always meant quality despite its short life. And quality is not a usual thing when we're talking about putting music online, as it's a process that pretty much anyone could do.
However, this whole thing reminded, that me few years ago I was also involved in a netlabel. If you're somehow familiar with me, my work or surrounding you probably have heard about ODP. It was started when I was only 17. The concept of ODP was to promote mainly Bulgarian underground music (predominantly electronic) in harsher genres such as dark ambient, noise, power noise, gabber etc. This experience introduced me to a big number of local and foreign artists (I am pretty certain I got to know Leonardo because of what I was trying to do with ODP back in the day). But at a point I felt my efforts became worthless. Nowadays all music can be found online and for free, especially when it's put out only digitally. That's why I felt I was no longer needed as the medium between an artist and its eventual listeners. That's why after printing ODP's first and only physical release, the CDr compilation 'hear / share' in 50 copies, I put out only one more digital release (also one of the best) and decided to call it a day. Since then, from time to time I've been considering getting back to releasing other people's music in a similar form, but I haven't yet really figured out how to make it more special, because nowadays no one needs 'more of the same' as it is more of a 'do your best' age that we're living in.
The first handmade logo I did for odp in 2005, fun times
Our official page is long closed and gone, but if you are interested in what we were doing back in 2005-2010 you can check the best stuff from the ODP catalog in Archive.org, or just browse our blog. The coolest thing is that some of the releases we put back in the day are still being played, if we are to trust the Last.fm stats. By the way, I'm pretty sure that Abandonment have at least one copy of our last release, so if you are feeling sentimental you can grab it.
By the way Leonardo is still running heart and soul publisher, a physical label whose releases are always a great mixture of arts. And I, being a part of Amek, am still self-releasing music (for now mostly solo works or collaborations, but this may change in the future). Anyhow, there's always more to come.
