Six years ago, Spaceflight Records embarked on a mission that seemed truly out of this world: creating a non-profit music label that could give artists more equity and more proceeds while helping sustain them throughout their careers.
“In this industry, it felt like the equivalent of trying to go to the moon,” jokes founder Brett Orrison during a call from the label’s bustling HQ in Austin, Texas. “The joke is that labels are all ‘non profits,’ but we wanted to do it for real and have the focus truly be on the art.”
In a music business where artists get pennies for streaming revenues and can unknowingly sign dirty deals relegated to shady advances and royalty terms, Orrison instead focused on establishing 501(c)(3) status and creating an equitable recording contract that is incredibly artist-centric. And it’s paid off.
“Around 98% of our artists keep 100% of their profits, and they don’t reimburse us for any of our services,” Orrison shares, noting that’s the case with one of their legacy artists like the Toadies as well as an up-and-comer like their latest signee, J’cuuzi. Bands also have the chance to choose a la carte services from Spaceflight, whether it’s a full album campaign or one-off promotions or legal services. “That’s very different from other record labels,” affirms Orrison.
The idea came to him after years as a career front of house engineer who worked for touring bands like Widespread Panic and Jack White (whose own Third Man Records was a large influence) and at venues like House of Blues New Orleans and Austin’s La Zona Rosa. He’s also logged time as a producer and mixer and has seen the blood, sweat, and tears artists put into their craft while still struggling to maintain viable in a highly competitive and fickle environment.
“I was seeing the producer contracts, I was touring with bands, I heard all the stories of the inequities. And I saw some of my really great friends do really well around the world and not really be shown monetary value, which made no sense. It’s like, you buy onto a record for $5 and you sell it for $25, so how can you tell me that a band can’t make money from that? That’s their product. Where’s the other $20 going? I wanted to see if we could figure out a way to change that, even in a small way, just for Austin,” Orrison shares.
The spark for Spaceflight really came when he was working on a record for Austinite Kalu and the Electric Joint. “We made this really special record and brought in all these great people. It was such a great album, and we did not want to throw it off of a cliff like most Austin records happen,” says Orrison. Surprisingly, even with the long-standing South By Southwest conference and Austin City Limits spotlight, Orrison had found that local artists had little support from record labels, PR firms, and other necessary business partners who seemed to always put their focus on the obvious networks in Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville. “So we started Spaceflight just to make sure that that record would have some legs and so that we could get it out. It was a big trial.”
The experiment proved successful, but Orrison still thought there could be a way to do it better. “It’s a really hard business to break into without lots of money and lots of hard work so I decided to pursue a nonprofit to see if we could structure it in a way like a charitable organization, kind of like the ballet or the theater, where we’re more of a structural entity that can help artists that can come in and out of our ecosystem with record label services and distribution,” he explains. “It made a lot of sense to figure out how to support people.”
Today, Orrison has grown Spaceflight into a full enterprise that has worked with everyone from Heartless Bastards, Die Spitz, Urban Heat, Night Beats, the Sword, Christeene, and the aforementioned Toadies. There’s also now a nine-person team behind the label, including the Sword’s Bryan Richie, Rick Pierik of Nine Mile Records, and documentary filmmaker Sam Douglas. There’s also an advisory board featuring Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary, Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools, Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada and former MTV lead Matt Pinfield, as well as an internship program with the University of Texas. All of it has helped the label skyrocket. Since establishing in 2019, Spaceflight has supported 80 artists, engaged 400 musicians, distributed 56 vinyl titles, won AMA’s label of the year three times and developed partnerships with Austin entities like Austin City Limits and Levitation Festival. And their network continues to grow far beyond Texas.
“It started with all Texas-based artists, but it’s grown organically, and we definitely plan on supporting bands from all over the world,” says Orrison, noting that Spaceflight has also supported acts like Tsushimamire from Tokyo and Quincy McCrary from L.A. “We think that this idea has a lot of potential to grow and to be something that a lot of artists can use as needed. Not only that but many people are now hitting us up about opening their own non-profit record label, which is really cool because that’s my goal. I would love to see hundreds of non-profit record labels around the country to help artists properly release music without all the exclusivity.”
Below, Orrison talks more with SPIN about what makes Spaceflight an anomaly in the music industry, how he learned the ropes to become a label owner, and why he believes Spaceflight could be the way of the future.
Coming from the touring world is very different from running a label. What was the learning curve like and how did you get up to speed?
First, I talked to artists. That was the main thing, figuring out what they liked about their record label and what they didn’t like, and what was super helpful and what wasn’t. I was also helping a lot of young bands make records, so having those conversations all the time helped. Then I brought in Rick Pierik of Nine Mile Records to be part of the team, and I started bringing people on the advisory board, like Matt Sullivan from Light In The Attic Records and Dave Schools from Widespread Panic and Adrian Quesada from Black Pumas for guidance. I got on LinkedIn and immediately met some record label owners that I really appreciated. I took a trip to the A2IM conference in New York and met a bunch of people. It was really getting into the industry and figuring out what kind of walls there are for emerging artists and how we can figure out ways to go around them or over them.
A non-profit record label is a rare feat. What does that actually mean and where do you get your funding from?
We got our 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, and that allowed us to open up for grants and partnerships. We’re funded by partnerships with the local community, businesses in the community, and grants from family foundations. We also throw around 50 shows or so a year and those come with sponsorships and that money subsidizes all of our work. We also do a lot of the work in-house, so we save money that way, though we will hire out certain things when we need to. But basically our structure is subsidized by donations and grants and that allows us to give the artist a much better deal on the back end of all the things. It allows us to have contracts that are one-of-a-kind.
Spaceflight notably offers artists an equitable recording contract model. How does it work and how is it different from the industry standard?
We stripped down all of the things in a contract that might feel like an artist is stuck in a situation with a business they might not want to be in, or where they feel like they’re taking on a big loan and don’t know how it’s going to work out. Our record deal is structured to be completely from the artist side. It lets the artist keep ownership of everything, including their masters. We’re there to help with administration, release management, and distribution, rather than taking ownership or licensing for long periods of time. And their percentages are much greater on the back end since we pay for the manufacturing and the PR and the shipping and distribution on their behalf using our split of the records. The artist is not responsible for reimbursement. We also have a non-exclusive sync deal where an artist is free to go shop their stuff and keep 100% of anything they get. Being subsidized, it allows us to basically give them all of their profits so they can have money to tour and sustain themselves because we define success in a way that’s different from the industry. To us, success is sustainability, whether you’re playing at your local club for 10 years or you’re trying to tour the world. Our goal is that all of our artists have some kind of sustainability that they didn’t have before they started with us
What are some of the other unique opportunities you offer artists?
Because we are an arts organization, we have a large community and are able to facilitate people creating together and working together, playing shows together. That’s what artists have told me is a big deal, being part of something in the community and having a lot more outlets or getting on stages they didn’t think they could get on. We also have Spaceflight TV, where we want to bring that long-form music television back. It will be part of an app that people can tune into or stream and buy the catalog and merch. We’re trying to go back to the original marketing and campaigns of a record label where we’re putting together a vinyl subscription and other initiatives to connect with the consumer in a much better way. We’re not really running out to spend money on streaming apps and Instagram buys and stuff like that. We have more of an early ’90s model where fans are. more connected to the artist in a more communal style.
Some of what Spaceflight is doing sounds similar to what Third Man Records offers. Was working with Jack White influential to how Spaceflight developed?
Absolutely. He’s a huge inspiration, and I’ve had many conversations with him about what I was trying to do. I lived two weeks at a time at Third Man Detroit or Third Man Nashville and was in that world, and went on tour for five years and saw it all. They’re so good at what they do. They want beautiful packaging. They want to put out amazing records. They’re there for the art. They do it well. They treat people well. So yeah, they’re a huge inspiration.
In fact one of the bands you worked with, Austin’s Die Spitz, just signed to Third Man Records. So do you work in conjunction with other labels in that example?
We have a structure where we can help a band in one small way or do an entire record release as a full label service. So with Die Spitz, we helped them release their first double EP that ended up being an LP called Teeth in 2023. We actually did it with a brand called Try Hard Coffee, where the band got their own coffee and sold the records; it was a really cool deal to help emerging bands that were popping off. The band was so active and working so hard and doing so much cool stuff, that we went ahead and kicked our PR team in. They rode that straight to the top and ended up signing with Third Man. It was a perfect situation and we’re super stoked for them. Something we didn’t do with Die Spitz, but we do provide legal services for our artists. We’ve moved artists on to bigger labels and helped them with their contracts. That’s something we pride ourselves on, to help them go to that next level. Because for a long time we couldn’t support bands after a certain point. The money is just not there as a non-profit. But now we can do that with the equitable recording contract that allows us to sign these bigger bands. Like Toadies who were coming out of a 30-year contract, saying, we’re still really active and we still make great music, but we don’t want to sign another 10- or 20- or 30-year contract. We’re filling the need for those artists.
The Toadies’ new album The Charmer comes out in May on Spaceflight Records. What else do you have on the horizon?
We have a jazz record coming out for an artist named Sarah Sharp. We just signed a new band, J’cuuzi, and their Recession Indicator LP is out July 14th. Coming up, we’re also putting out a record with the stoner rock band the Well.
The space themes behind Spaceflight brings to mind futuristic ideals. Do you think your model could be the way of the future?
I’m Gen X, so that should explain something about how we came up with the name. It’s also a play on words—space flight records are all the records of outer space, so the first woman, the longest walk, etc. With our “records,” we of course mean vinyl. I do think our model could be the way of the future, and we’ve talked to a bunch of really great people that share that same sentiment. It totally makes sense when you parse it all out, like, these are the things you can do for the artist, and these are the things they can do for themselves, and let’s do it together. The equitable recording contract is a great example: We spend more money on a bigger band that can sell records, and we take a small percentage from them that goes back into helping all of these other artists. So it’s almost a co-op, which is really helpful. The truth is the failure rate is just unbelievable in this industry, and indie labels are the ones propping up great artists. We need indie labels, and we think we’ve created something here that can work for all.
