Michael Reinboth
Michael Reinboth established Compost Records in 1993 after bumping into fellow music enthusiast Rainer Trüby at his club night Into Somethin’ in Munich, Germany. What started off as a launch pad for friends’ music grew to become one of the most prominent dance music platforms in Germany, proving that a true sense of funk can be found the world over. Linking the global jazz massive wasn’t exactly a piece of cake, however, as we found out during the 2003 Red Bull Music Academy in Cape Town. Michael Reinboth had to learn the record trade by himself, from scratch. That’s why he advocates making independent record labels a family affair.
Hosted by Heinz Reich There was a certain moment in history when this guy was suddenly to be seen in each and every magazine in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He was declared “minister of entertainment” for a big international cigarette company. How did that happen to you, Michael? Michael Reinboth [laughs] Ah, you start with the shit story! The background of this was similar to the Red Bull thing. This cigarette company was looking for so called ministers: for music and nightlife, which was me, and for fashion, art, science, etc. We started to organize similar events like here in 1988 or something. These events were advertised and sponsored by a cigarette company. We did lectures, we did parties. As minister for music and nightlife, my job was to invest money to sponsor cool parties. The guys in the industry didn’t have a clue of what should be supported or not. So they developed this concept of the ministers. In a way, this was a good thing. On the other hand, it was just advertisement for the cigarette company. Heinz Reich Nowadays, Michael Reinboth stands for the label Compost Records. We would really love to hear some anecdotes of your life. You are 44 years old. Yesterday you told me that you started DJing in a time when DJing was not about packing your record bag and going to a club. How was it back then? Michael Reinboth My first DJ gig was in 1980. Back then, the discotheques had records of their own. Friends of mine, like [DJ] Westbam have exactly the same background. You went to the discotheque and picked up the stuff that was already there. When you start to work as a DJ in a club like this, you don’t have a clue what the collection has to offer. You are suddenly faced with several thousands of records. I wasn’t really happy with this situation so I was the first DJ who brought his own records. They were packed in a plastic box which I had to carry several kilometers. The problem was I didn’t have that many records at home. Therefore I tried to get a job as a music journalist since I wanted to get promo copies from the record companies. Many people in the music industry started with writing about music, as this is a pretty good way to get promos, to get known. So I took my plastic box with records and walked three kilometers with this box to the discotheque and played my own stuff. Heinz Reich Let’s talk about the social status of a DJ at that time. Being a DJ, you sometimes earned less money and surely got less respect than the waiters. Michael Reinboth I played for drinks, I didn’t get money in the first place. The only good thing was that I could buy records for the discotheque. The boss gave me some money and I went to all the shops and bought the records I liked. One day, we had the Oktoberfest in Munich, somebody from the Kashoggi[[ family approached the DJ booth and said, “The music you’re playing is great. We need these records you have here for our discotheque in Dubai.” I played soul, funk and the electro, hip-hop stuff of these days. The good thing was, that I had a list of all the records. I had to keep this list for the bookkeeping of the discotheque. With this book I went to a record store and bought all the stuff on the list. Then I sent all the records to Dubai. They paid me huge amounts of money for that. These were the first big earnings of my DJ career. Another income was selling cassettes, which I recorded when DJing. Heinz Reich And still he is very humble and modest. He told me that he doesn’t consider himself as being a DJ. He says, “What I do is not really mixing records. I’m more a selector.” It seems that many of the people of your generation have this approach to music still. Michael Reinboth Yes, that’s true. This is also a part of Compost’s philosophy. I try to pick up or select interesting records, quality stuff, rather than doing the technical things. I have been DJing for 23 years now, but I have never really dealt with technique. I’m a really bad mixer. My strength is my wide range of music styles, my knowledge about records. So maybe you don't want to call me a DJ, hopefully selector. Much like a Jamaican soundsystem selector. Heinz Reich You’re not only a selector. You are also an incredible collector of records. How many vinyls do you own? Michael Reinboth Oh my god, I’ve never counted them. Roughly 60,000 or 70,000. That’s not too surprising when you have been collecting records for more than 20 years. And I get sent many promos, of course. And the shit ones I don't keep. If I’d kept them, it would be probably double. Heinz Reich After your career as a journalist you became mainly a DJ. Who were the most interesting people you met as a DJ? Michael Reinboth During the ’80s I did various parties in Munich, like Soulful Shack and the Into Somethin’ club night. Into Somethin’ has been running for 12 years now. We invited people like Gilles Peterson or Seiji, sitting over there, Joe Claussell or Kyoto Jazz Massive. At these parties, I also met a lot of people who’ve been producing music. There I became friends with many of the original Compost artists – Rainer Trüby, Fauna Flash or Beanfield. So all this happened within these club nights. Heinz Reich The meaning of the word “compost” stands for a place where you throw away those parts of your waste that can be re-inserted into the circle of nature. Why did you choose Compost as the name for your record label? Michael Reinboth My first premise was to find a name, which has not been used already by another band or label. I thought that I had found such a word with compost. But some years later I should learn that there was already a fusion funk band from the '70s called Compost. But I didn’t know them back then. I liked the syllables of the word compost – com and post. Com as in dot-com, very modern. Post means to send something, moreover you can read the syllable post like in post-structuralism or post-modern. I considered these elements modern. And from a friend I heard, that there’s an American witch circles, positive witches, they were calling themselves Compost. It comes from the Middle Ages; people feared that a compost heap might explode because of the chemical interactions inside. I thought, “Wow, that’s a good name for a label that is blending the ingredients of jazz, soul, electro and techno, using samples. If these ingredients interacted in a way that they might explode, it would be magic.” Heinz Reich Which records on Compost were the most successful ones in commercial terms? Michael Reinboth At the beginning, this was the Future Sound of Jazz compilation series. Rainer Trüby’s Brazil compilation Glücklich, Brazil fusion music was also very successful. These compilations brought us a bit more money in that we could invest in other projects. The biggest success came years later with Jazzanova. Trüby Trio did also very well. The success of Jazzanova made it possible to sign new acts like Koop from Sweden, who proved to be another highlight in our label history. And they’re still selling in good quantities even in these hard times. Today, we have a catalog of more than 160 releases and 20 artists. Heinz Reich How is a record label to be started and run? Michael Reinboth The first step is to find a name for your label, of course. You should search the internet in order to find out if a domain is still free. If you should run into a label from the ’70s with the same name, you better stay away from that. They might approach you after 30 years and claim that this label name is theirs. The registration of your label name will cost you roughly 500 Euro in Germany. If you want to register the name for the whole of Europe, it will cost you in between 5,000 and 10,000 Euro. This registration will be valid for ten years. You can choose various categories for your registration. It’s wise to register your label name for merchandise as well. Telecommunication and media consulting are other categories. The next step will be to find a distributor for your label. This might sound silly, but it’s true. It happened that friends proudly showed me the test pressings of their first record. I said, “Sounds great, so what is your plan?” They asked me to help them because they couldn’t find a distributor. The music industry is currently in a recession, so it’s very hard to get a distribution deal. But it is very important to talk to a distributor before you start anything else. Present your demo and the idea of your label and see if there’s a strong interest from the distributor’s side. If that’s the case, you can start negotiating a contract and eventually sign it. Don’t press the quantity of records you or the artists have in mind. This figure should be defined by the distributor. Talk to your distributor and find out how many records they can sell. Your distributor will pre-sell your record to the shops and chains in their domestic country and to their partner distributors in foreign territories. No distributor is able to collect orders directly from retailers in foreign countries. Audience Member Imagine this scenario: You have good tracks and talented artists whose names are not known at all. You believe in these tracks, as the response is excellent. But there is no distribution. Michael Reinboth My advice is to send out maybe 20 CD-Rs to the distribution networks you know of. You can get names and addresses of distributors easily at events like Midem, where you get a guide listing most distribution companies from all over the world, or you talk to people running a label. They can name you the distributors they work with. Send out your CDs with a letter and do not forget to mention the name of your label. If you tell somebody that you are planning to start a label, but don’t have a name for it yet, they will not take you seriously. Selling records without having a distributor is a very hard business. You have to sell your records directly to the shops. And then you will have the problem that you won’t get your money immediately. The shops will take your records only on consignment. This means that you have to wait for your money until all these shops have sold the stock. Distributors work the same way, but the whole process will be easier for you. Until circa 1998, it was possible to press a quantity of records or white labels, sell these to some shops or distributors. But in the last few years the situation has changed dramatically. The distributors have stock problems and are clearing their warehouses. Nowadays, they will not buy your records anymore, not even a hundred copies. There are still some small labels left handling their business this way. But in most cases this does not work anymore. The other thing that really helps a lot is getting quotes and reactions from these people really helps a lot. If you can offer quotes from well-known DJs, DJ Hell or Gilles Peterson or Joe Claussell or Mad Mike [Banks]. If you have these connections it will help very much. It will be easier to convince the music business people. These quotes work like recommendations. It’s all about good contacts. When you are unknown, it’s incredibly hard. Audience Member A few years ago, maybe 10 years ago or something, it was popular for people to make their own white labels, like 500 copies and shop them around to a record store. Do you think that that's still a relevant test or beginning to start a label? That would be a first step just so you learn about record pressing or demand? Michael Reinboth Until 1998 or something, it was possible to press copies, maybe even 5,000 copies. But that’s changed dramatically in the last few years. At Compost, we get demos or mp3 files each and every day. For us, it’s impossible to listen to all of them. Always bear in mind: Ten thousands of tracks are made per day worldwide. So you have to be creative and find ideas how to present yourself. The best way will always be to approach people you already know. At least you should think carefully about the question: Which people may like your music? Audience Member What is better? Trying to license your music to an already established record label or releasing your tracks on a label of your own? Michael Reinboth This option is always to be taken into consideration. Try to go both ways. When we started Compost, we sold a few records on vinyl. At the same time we tried to get compilation deals. We asked record companies to help us out as we needed a little bit more exposure. With an interesting song, you will find a licensing partner. One thing that people also wonder about is if you are allowed to do a cover version of a song without asking for permission. Yes, you can cover any song. You don't have to ask anybody. But you are not allowed to change the lyrics.