Since 2012, Indianapolis-based record label Joyful Noise has offered an annual series of flexi discs, which have featured legendary and talked-about indie artists including Of Montreal, Sufjan Stevens, Mount Eerie and Cloud Nothings.
Last week the label announced its 2016 series will be its final installment. Its end marks the beginning of a new chapter for Joyful Noise, label founder Karl Hofstetter said.
“We want to end it on a high note, and I feel like we’ve grown a lot as a label and our focus has changed,” he said. “I don’t want it to become a thing we feel like we have to do.”
The label’s final series will include former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, experimental vocalist Julianna Barwick and Bloomington cat Lil BUB.
Hofstetter began the label in 2003 as a freshman at IU and moved it to Indianapolis when he transferred to Butler University the following year, he said. Starting the flexi disc series nine years into the label’s existence marked a turning point for Hofstetter.
Artistically, he said, it offered an entry point for Joyful Noise to work with artists like Sebadoh, Half Japanese and Son Lux that would later become part of its regular roster. Financially, it gave the label more stability.
“That January of 2012 was when I went full-time with the label, and it was like, ‘How do I make sure I can pay my mortgage every month?’” Hofstetter said, who took out student loans to finance the label’s early years. “And the answer was the recurring income from the flexis.”
Since then, the label has expanded to include 15 employees, a Brooklyn office and, recently, a vinyl press, he said.
The business is no longer financially dependent on the flexi series, Hofstetter added.
As it phases out the flexi series, though, Joyful Noise has also introduced a series of seven-inch vinyl singles, which will feature unreleased songs from label artists and cuts from the label’s “Almost Live” sessions.
Hofstetter said it gives the label a more hands-on role in the creative process, as opposed to the flexi series, which has largely featured unreleased songs from artists on other labels.
“When some of our favorite bands come through... we ask them to come in and play a song and cut it that day straight to lathe and then do a seven-inch also,” Hofstetter said. “We can do something that’s more unique.”
The series, dubbed the VIP Singles Series, will debut this month with a cover of Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” by sludge metal band the Melvins and Le Butcherettes vocalist Teri Gender Bender, according to the label’s website.
In addition to the flexi and seven-inch series, Joyful Noise has also offered vinyl box set and cassette tape releases.
“In today’s world, where anybody can hear anything for free any time they want, it’s even more important to have a special, tactile, unique product,” he said. “It makes it into something else. Listening to Spotify while you’re jogging is a different experience than listening to a split-color vinyl box set signed by the band and limited to 300 copies.”
Hofstetter said he’s seen the popularity of physical media increase recently, to the point where vinyl plant delays have pushed back album releases. But even if a vinyl bubble is building, he said, he doesn’t worry about its burst affecting Joyful Noise.
“There might be a moment when frat boys stop buying Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ on vinyl, but for the people we cater to — they’re music nerds,” he said. “Music is a lifestyle for a lot of these people, and vinyl is the best way to experience it ... These people aren’t going to stop caring about music, and vinyl is the format that fosters that care.”
