It was over a year ago that the idea for new club label One More Tune came about. And now, finally, Warner Music UK has officially launched its pet project to loud media fanfare and feverish industry speculation.

One More Tune – branded OMT – aims to sign and develop exciting club talent around the world before firing it towards mainstream commercial success.  It also aims to stake a high-profile claim within the big brand compilation market. But then there are additional designs on the credible underground, not least through releasing well-appointed material at dedicated download hubs like Beatport.

Warner’s ‘crack’ dance squad is headed by Anton Partridge, who worked for nine years at MCA/Universal in radio promotions and A&R (his stellar dance signings including Livin’ Joy and E-Motion) before progressing to management and his own company; a company which currently represents The Shapeshifters and Gramaphonedzie.

The Shapeshifters

Partridge will be wheeling ‘n’ dealing alongside DJ and producer Mark Hadfield, a long-term associate with extensive, top-flight club experience. Hadfield has toured with The Prodigy, recorded as the highly successful Rhythm Quest and LOVELAND and run labels before now alongside Partridge (King 12 Recordings) and the mighty Pete ‘PWL’ Waterman (iconic imprint Eastern Bloc.) Last summer he and ‘Retro’ DJ Paul Taylor released Ibiza smash Other Side, as Rox & Taylor.

“We’re confident we can make OMT work,” Partridge suggests. “We’ve got a lot of knowledge and experience, and a firm idea of where we need to go. We just have to have faith in our abilities and the market.”

There’s certainly been plenty of time to plan in those 12 months it has taken to get the label off the ground. Many commentators are wondering if the perceived delay is down to recessionary pressure. In turn, they’re asking if it’s wise to even be launching a new label in the first place – OMT might well be major-backed but the economy remains delicate….

“We think it’s a good time to be entering clubland,” Partridge counters. “Dance music has never been so strong in terms of commercial viability. What I mean to say is that it is no longer being seen as inferior to commercial music, because it is that commercial music now. It is from the dance arena that many of today’s chart hits are coming.”

Warner Music isn’t the only major label aware of that it seems.  Only last week EMI announced a gargantuan money-spinning deal with David Guetta and wife Cathy to globally market their popular Ibiza Fuck Me, I’m Famous night. Part of that deal will include branded compilation and music releases.

David & Cathy Guetta

Def Jam superstar Rihanna, meanwhile, was guest performer on peak-time TV show The X Factor earlier in the month and delivered a new single, Only Girl (In The World), driven by electronic four-to-the-floor. Def Jam’s parent company is major Universal, and their flagship artist’s new dance-orientated outing follows a wave of similarly-vibed hits from huge US chart stars such as Usher, Ne-Yo (another Universal head) and Black Eyed Peas.

It is arguably the Peas’ association with dance don David Guetta that has set this significant transformation of the American R&B-pop landscape in motion; a landscape traversed by hordes of fans on both sides of the Atlantic. It didn’t seem long ago that dance music was confined, more or less, to the city limits of Chicago, Detroit and New York, but today that’s no longer the case and mainstream music execs are sensing whopping sales.

Partridge quotes a phrase Hacienda legend Mike Pickering coined at this year’s International Music Summit to define club music success – ‘one foot on the dancefloor, one in the charts.’ It is very much the mantra, he says, OMT will be following: “Our first few tunes will be Beatport-orientated, as we really want to establish our credible club credentials before widening horizons.”

The label’s first release - on November 24 - will therefore be a joint one alongside Steve Angello’s Size Records, the Angello, AN21 and Max Vangeli remix of Pendulum’s The Island. Further ahead will come Adrian Lux’s Teenage Crime, licensed from Axwell’s Axtone imprint, and an official re-release for Hagenaar & Albrecht’s Erick Morillo and Kim Fai-supported Won’t Let You Down. All respectable stuff….

Steve Angello

And yet Partridge remains keenly aware of his situation: “We have the freedom of an indie label” he states, before adding: “we also have the muscle of a major, and will therefore be in the business of creating hits.”

It’s not quite that straightforward on clubland’s underground where all those comparatively tiny independent underground house labels are currently struggling against raging economic headwinds. On the eve of Bedrock’s 10th anniversary this summer, John Digweed highlighted some of the difficult ‘streamlining’ decisions he’d had to make in terms of label staff and administration.

More recently, iconic compilation label Renaissance entered into administration. Following its launch in 1994, the label had built up a fearless reputation for cutting mix albums from the likes of Sasha, Digweed, Satoshi Tomiie and Hercules & Love Affair. Recession was quickly blamed for Renaissance’s sad decline; in particular, slowing sales of physical mix CDs.

Whilst underground artists and imprints will always have their place in the dance music firmament, there is much to suggest that the balance of power here is wildly swinging to commercial forces – partly because of cultural shift, but also financial necessity. With that comes the risk of alienating those hugely significant numbers of battle-hardened, non-conformist club followers. It’s a pivotal time for the scene.

OMT’s early quality-controlled Beatport releases will be followed by commercially-minded dance compilation packages, some mainstream-minded mining  of Warner’s extensive back catalogue for remix work – think Everything But The Girl’s 'Missing' and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 'Otherside' and chart-targetting artist development.

“I’m hoping that we don’t butcher the back catalogue” Partridge jokes. “It’s a tricky job choosing the right projects to remix and refresh, so we’ll be putting a lot of thought into them.”

He promises that a similar, cautious approach will be taken with regards to the compilation market. One of OMT’s first projects will be a ‘superclub’ package brandished under the collective banners of Gatecrasher, Cream and Pacha. The first two brands, of course, are contracted to Warner’s affiliate stable Rhino UK. Partridge is, he claims, looking to create a genuine reflection of the clubland experience.

Gatecrasher

And yet the project’s pop ambitions cannot be denied. “Of course, don’t misunderstand me, there will be some big-hitting tracks on those compilations” Partridge confirms. “I think that if they’re done well then pop-dance albums have a great place in the marketplace.” To many, OMT’s ‘superclub experience’ will feel a world apart from the kind of material Renaissance once proudly outed.

Partridge does, sagely, point out that clubland’s changing landscape has forced even a major like Warner to change the way it operates:  “We’re definitely not going to be throwing our cash around, or entering into silly chequebook wars. Dance music is getting more and more popular but what we’re doing remains, on one vital level, a bold move. The dance heyday of the 1990s has long gone, and we’ll be running our ship tightly as result.

“A lot of the majors have failed with dance music over the years because of all the ridiculous money spent on elaborate remix packages for their big pop signings - £15k here… another £15k there… silly money. Those labels never made a decent return on their investments. We’re determined to do things right, and with the music’s best interests at heart.”

It only remains to ask if there will be a launch party later this month for One More Tune’s monumental, game-changing arrival onto the dance music scene. “Absolutely not” Partridge closes. “I’ll only want to party when there’s something to celebrate; Mark and I have a lot of hard work ahead. Look, it’s going to take time to establish ourselves as serious contenders on the dance music circuit, so we’ll get the first few releases out and then start to think about credible, long-term repertoire development. We’ve got a two-year plan.”

A BIG two-year plan, don’t we know it….

Words: Ben Lovett

One More Tune’s first release – the Angello, AN21 and Max Vangeli remix of Pendulum’s The Island – is out on November 24 and is included on Size Matters mixed by Steve Angello & AN21