“This is the biggest difference with most of the European record labels – the company belongs to the musicians and producers,” says Christian Müller, managing director of Red Brick Chapel. The artists can help shape how the company develops and retain control over their music. “They decide what happens to their music after production and how they are exploited financially.”
Red Brick Chapel has had some success. The Swiss indie band Mnevis has more than one million followers on streaming platforms in Germany alone. The folk singer-songwriter Long Tall Jefferson reaches similar numbers. Pop group Alois even landed on an American playlist, making their music available to a wider audience.
In the beginning, it was not a conviction about cooperatives, but a will to preserve and distribute control to musicians, which drove the founders. Müller, however, has since become a fan of cooperatives.
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