Editor’s note: Pete hails from across the pond and every day is knee deep in the muck of trying to make a go from labels/music in the modern age. His latest video from his new prod co. is a great blend of tip-top animation and Enon-ish dance dance. He wanted to say a few things so we gave him some space and he gave us this. Check it!

Love The World from Karoshi Bros. on Vimeo.

Well the shots certainly have been ringing out in the Wild West town of Musicsville, the saloon bar is full of despairing workers, shirkers and lurkers but the band still plays on.

What we have seen since the emergence of iTunes, MySpace, YouTube and mobile interoperability is a music market constantly evaluating and adapting to the progress technology has generated in our eclectic little lives. Quite literally, you can run but you can’t hide – it’s everywhere!. It’s brilliant that the real number of audiophiles is increasing, but as an entrepreneur in the business of making money from recordings it has only been a fortunate bend-over-backwards ability (Part time jobs plus lots of smiling in the face of adversity), which has been allowing me a solo flight by the seat of my business pants.

In short, I run 3 small independent labels whilst swimming in the tides of technology, waiting to catch a wave and surf back into some sort of sales based safety. With each of them Paperecordings, defDrive and my new imprint called We Are Woodville, I strive to offer a platform to audio & visual creatives from which they can express themselves while I make sure their work is rewarded from sales and public performance. Now, it is my hunch that airplay royalties signal the future for music and visual creation, whether it be the recording of tunes to the production of video; there are more radio stations, live venues and media outlets than ever before and internet radio is starting to have to ‘pay to play’ and soon enough the same will be happening to MySpace, YouTube etc, hence the impending growth in video making and marketing. Live venues are also responsible for the rejuvenation of music in the noughties as they offer experience on top of the ‘flat’ audio format, yes surround sound is just around the corner but it’s not immediate or attainable yet; and as for the proliferation of social networking and media conversion: I don’t have time to go into it! What time is check out, at Habbo Hotel?

The first video I commissioned was a lo-fi effort on a Super-8 for a single release for Paperecordings called Are You Sure Joe?, which was a bit of a giggle but showed how easy it was to make a film to music, however bad! I’m the one in the Elvis mask – or is that Mr.Presley? The second came about when I signed a track from the US for my defDrive label called Hot Flashes by a band called 33Hz and directed by Fluorescent Hill, a stroke of luck and a fab piece of filmmaking.

Now my latest venture by a band called Karoshi Bros. is where my audio and visual ideas can come to fruition. Instead of spending the money I would usually spend on manufacturing a 12 inch vinyl (1-2k), I commissioned an animation from Quay in Newcastle which has blown my socks off. It was shot using stop/start technology and layers footage of the Tyne river and urban decay from the North East, with animation and drawings. It’s brilliant – check out the HD version of Love the World - the video. The video has just been play listed on MTV2 & Dance, plus Pete Tongs Fast Trax show. It’s building hits on YouTube and generally getting views. It’s had more effect than any 12″ would have had any day in today’s broadband landscape.

My point is this – What with Radiohead releasing their album free on download, Madonna signing a deal with the promoters, Live Nation and Ash ringing the bells of doom about the album death format, the independent music sector needs to revalue itself, pick itself up and begin to work together. Audio and visual collaboration is offering the real deal for the consumer and it’s only now that it’s become viable to deliver it together in one quick tasty package – check I Love Video ; and right at the time that the collection societies are getting their act together for the rights owners. Phew – together we can win out.