Rennie Jaffe
VP & Label Manager
relapse.com
Rennie Jaffe has been with Relapse Records for 10 years. Although the label (founded in 1990) specializes in heavy metal, it doesn’t focus on that style. In fact, the Relapse roster includes artists from a variety of genres, ranging from stoner and alternative rock to hardcore, grindcore, death metal, retro thrash and doom metal. However, the increasing popularity of extreme metal has made Relapse more mainstream, with acts on its roster appearing on magazine covers and getting videos broadcast on TV music channels, with some charting on the Billboard 200.
How is your label different from other labels?
We have our strengths and handicaps. We started as a niche label with extreme metal. And although we still release that style, we also cover other genres. Times have changed and so have we. We don’t really follow a strict point of view. We’ll get into anything that interests us and gets us excited.
How important is social media activity?
It’s hugely important and our artists have to be part of it. Our promotions department spends a large portion of their day maintaining social sites. Fans want to connect with artists, and social media is the way they do it. If an artist is not willing to put in a little time to connect with their fans, it can hurt their career.
How important are live shows and performance skills?
It can be a game changer, if their live shows are great. However, some of our most popular acts don’t tour. It’s more about the music. Metal fans, in particular, focus on the music and musicianship. So, they’ll buy CDs simply based on that.
Where do most of your sales come from?
Physical sales exceed digital downloads, probably because of the genres we work with. Fans of certain genres are more invested in the acts, and support them by buying CDs and merchandise. They want something they can own and hold. We used to release a lot of vinyl LPs, and they sold well. But, today, if I don’t think an act can sell at least 500 in vinyl, I won’t put them on vinyl. When we do, though, we offer a combination of colors for our vinyl releases—they’re really eye-catching.
How do you find new acts?
We get a lot of referrals from our roster acts. They’ll tell us if another act is worth checking out. We don’t really have any set parameters as to whom we’d be interested in. Everything goes before an A&R committee. And, if it turns us on, we’ll move on it.
How accomplished does an act have to be to get signed?
Relapse used to only sign acts that we could develop. That has changed, though, because of changes in the business. Now, the Internet allows us to know, pretty quickly, if an act will pop. In fact, we used to do three-record deals—now we might only do a one record deal just to see if anything happens.
What type of deals do you offer?
Historically, we offered traditional deals that included a three-album commitment, publishing and master ownership. But, that has changed. Now, we’ll do one-offs and even licensing deals where the act retains ownership of their masters. It really depends on what the act wants and what will work for the label.
How many acts do you sign each year?
Typically we’ll sign five to six new acts per year, and release 25 to 30 new albums.
Do you sign acts simply off their demo?
That almost never happens—it’s very rare. If we are interested we’ll contact them, usually to let them know we enjoyed their music and ask them to keep us up-to-date on their activities and new recordings.
What would keep you from signing an act?
If an act has unrealistic expectations, that could be a problem. Also, if an act resists being a team player, that will turn us off. We’ve found that proactive acts are usually more successful.
Do you see any new trends in the business?
I believe CD sales will diminish, but won’t ever go away. In fact, I think we’re close to the floor now. Even with all of the digital retailers and outlets out there, we still sell more CDs than anything else.
How do you like to be contacted?
Artists can go to our website and get contact information as well as view an FAQ list.
