Infinite Vibrations - Student Article

Empowering Musicians through Independence -
the launch of Huddersfield’s independent musician’s entrepreneurial agency.

Written by Antonia Fieldhouse, February 2020
Journalism Student, The University of Huddersfield

In 2018 the independent record label Infinite Vibrations was founded by Josh Murphy and Lewis Daggers-Smith. In their time as a label, they have given a platform to “30+ musicians and artists”, and have now decided to venture further into the industry, relaunching themselves as a musicians entrepreneur agency. Through this agency, they will be providing an all-inclusive set of services to artists, such as music business education, branding, and press services, giving artists the means they need to grow and learn within the industry, whilst maintaining their independence.

I sat down with Josh and Lewis to learn more about Infinite Vibrations, and what their plans are for the business.

As individuals, what are your backgrounds within the creative and music industry?

Josh: I have a college diploma in music, and came to Huddersfield Uni to do a degree in Music Journalism, but I started my music journey at 14 when I started playing guitar.

Lewis: I’m a graphic designer and have been for the past 7 years. I study product design at the University of Huddersfield. I don’t have a background in music, in terms of degrees or certificates, however I am operating within the music industry.

So, on the back of this, what is it that inspired you to create Infinite Vibrations back in 2018?

Josh: Myself and Lewis met in first year, we were put in a flat together. It came to January time and we wanted to start something, as we were both very passionate about music and saw that Huddersfield had a very good music scene, but with a lack of support for musicians and artists. That’s where we wanted to come in and support their music, release it and really just give them a platform to be heard on!

As a label, who have you worked with so far?

Lewis: As a label up to now we’ve worked with over 30 bands, artists and producers. The likes of Pope, a spoken word artist from Huddersfield. One of the testimonials we got from him was amazing, he said “after working with Infinite Vibrations my faith in the music industry has been restored”. We’ve also worked with Collective Sessions, who are a music collective within Huddersfield, we’ve actually produced an album alongside them. We work mostly within the Huddersfield music scene but are branching out into the northern music scene.

As you mentioned with Pope saying you restored his faith in the music industry, do you feel like with a lot of the artists you work with, you are benefiting them and their careers?

Lewis: Definitely! I would say that through working alongside artists we try and provide them with the support, guidance and resources to apply themselves to the music industry. With musicians 100% of the time their music is brilliant, however when it comes to actually promoting themselves, releasing their music and the professional side of the industry, that is where they’re struggling, so we want to equip them with the skills so they can have a more fulfilled career in the industry and have some financial reward.

Josh: If you want a career in the music industry like most of these people do, then you have to think about the business side, and what we want to do is help musicians to be more entrepreneurial, and teach them the incremental skills that they need to know with how to release music, like Lewis said most of the time the music is fantastic but they lack certain skills they need to navigate the music business side of things, and that’s what we want to help them with.

What is it that triggered you to develop this entrepreneurial side of your business then?

Lewis: We operated as a record label for just under 2 years, and through working with all these musicians, we had gotten some experience and realised where we wanted to place ourselves within the industry, as we were making changes, and they were great, but we wanted to do more! That led us to a period of research, talking people in all areas of the music industry to investigate what the problems were and how we could fix them, which took us infinite vibrations 2.0, the entrepreneurial agency.

Josh: Empowering musicians through independence.
You mentioned some of the aspects before, but exactly what services will be provided?

Josh: We’ve got 5 main areas. Musicians career consultancies, where a musician can come in and we can strategise on the best way to move forward with their career. We’ve also got music business education coming very soon. This will be provided in an e-learning course, teaching the business side of the industry. There’s press and PR, which is my expertise in the company, and is such things like press releases, reviews, plug in to radio.

Lewis: We’ve got graphics and branding which is my speciality, for the most part I’m taking care of most of this. And the final service we offer is creative multimedia, so that’s music video production, photography, everything a musician needs to promote themselves.

Whilst doing all this, you also want to ensure your artists can remain independent with you, so how will you make sure they can do this?

Josh: Because we’re very different to a record label in that they sign an artist and have a lot of control over that artists career, what we’re doing is putting the power back in the artists hands. They have control over their career, and we can’t specify whether or not they remain independent, we can only encourage that independence because we see that as the best career path for them. We wouldn’t discourage our artists from signing onto a record label, but would possibly advise them not to sign with a major one, as this is where a lot of the problems stem from.

You also mention on your site that you aim to support not only artists but to become a network for all aspects of the industry, how do you aim to do this?

Lewis: We’re trying to be the agency of the music industry, we want to be able to provide opportunities for all artists and industry operative, so that if someone comes to us looking for a service we can provide them with a contact for that.

Josh: A lot of artists need other individuals in the industry, and we will analyse who we can put together for each artist to benefit their career the most.

Lewis: We are trying to build a network to provide musicians with the right people in the industry for them.

So, finally, what are your hopes for the launch event on the 28th of February, and if it is successful can we look forward to more events like this in the future?

Josh: We are hoping it will be a fantastic celebratory event for the company. In the future we have some plans for open mic night networking events, where we will be inviting industry members and allowing for contact growth within the industry.

Through their passion and dedication, it sounds as though Josh and Lewis have developed a solid business idea, and I for one am excited to see what the future brings for the company, and what the company will bring to the local music scene!
The Infinite Vibrations launch event will be held at The Parish on February 28th, and if you would like to find out more about them and what’s to come, head to their website at https://infinitevibrations.co.uk/.

For more information visit https://infinitevibrations.co.uk/