Following everything that’s happened the last few days, I thought I’d take this opportunity to set the record straight, and lay down exactly what my thoughts are regarding Breakbit, how we’ve gotten to this point and what my plan is for the future.

Through 2007, my personal website, mrSimon.co.uk had evolved into a place where you could immediately view extensive information about my discography, download it and then for a short period, stream and rate music on the site itself. Though soon I had to close the site following financial problems, and my own personal motive to start my career in the media. One I had settled back into my new working life, my mind wandered back to mrSimon.co.uk and the music player I had set up. I was planning to get it back up and running, but figured why should I limit the player’s development to just my music, which is when I decided to establish a netlabel.

The label began in October 2008, as ROFLtrax.com. I initially began the site, with an assorted artist roaster, of people I had met from various internet communities like Sheezyart (mrJames, DJ Rilstix, Girl A (AKA Avalium)), to people I had found in my travels on the internet (Kid Caustic, The Debuter, Trutsch). There was no clear aim for the label, as I personally just wanted to develop the site and get things started, with content of any kind. Though I intended to eventually raise the quality standard in the future, I thought this unmoderated first few months would be fun for everybody.

A few months into ROFLtrax’s operation, I finally decided that I wanted the label to focus on internet meme and fad music and albums, a place that ultimately, if there were a popular song making the rounds, you’d come to ROFLtrax to find it’s MP3. Ontop of that, by browsing the producer’s artist hub page, you could find their non-internet music also. With this ethos in mind, I signed up various YTPMV artists (Sawtooth, Nuthacker, McMaNGOS), and hoped that the roaster’s combined popularity in the Youtube Poop community would elevate the site’s popularity. Though visitor numbers rose and “In The Zone” found success, this approach was a failure, as artists would often be ashamed of their work of this nature. Through this stage, the “ROFLtrax community” started to develop, from fans of Youtube Poop in 2009.

It was established that most artists wanted to use ROFLtrax as a place to truly develop their creative skills to an increasingly professional level. Artists like mrJames, niceplum and Vaervaf represented what I wanted the label to be all about, as they explored music production with a clear vision.

When I had my next roaster review, I decided to drop artists from the label, who had little interest in dedicating their time to the label (Kid Caustic), weren’t producing music to a high enough quality (DJ Raiku, The Debuter) or who’s non-meme work I felt didn’t stand up in comparisons with other artists (Sawtooth). In the coming months, I signed up various new artists, from fans of ROFLtrax to more discovered talent (Airon Tokzic, Breakmaster Cylinder, DM DOKURO).

It was at this point that I realized, the name ROFLtrax no longer has any relevance to the label, which is why I decided to relaunch the label under a new name. The question I posed myself was, now the label is taking itself serious as a music-first production collective, what exactly do I want it to be?

Eventually, I settled with the name Breakbit, as the name combines ‘Break’ (as the majority of the label were influenced by both manic Breakcore as well as traditional Breakbeat trip-hop and house) and ‘Bit’ (as almost all artists had some element of video game influence in their music). It’s a name I strongly still represents the label today, and shapes the type of music we hear here.

I relaunched the site with a greater emphasis on the artist, with customizable artist hubs promoting their entire discography, as well as pulling Twitter feeds and Youtube channels from around the web. I personally feel this is and remains one of the strongest elements of the site today.

After our initial launch in July last year, October was our biggest peak to date, the site’s popularity never being better, with quality releases such as “D-Mode-D – Just Love” as well as “McMaNGOS – Mick Mangles”. In the coming months however, I started to lose focus and made various mistakes. Though we had a number of extremely talented artists, I neglected quality control by signing artists onto the label, simply for being fans of the site and having an active presence on Twitter and album comments. In addition, the album comments section did not ignite site visitors as I had hoped it would, and as a result, the site’s only ‘visible’ community were the artists themselves, who would often debate, argue and threaten others based on whether they thought they had a rightful place on Breakbit.

Towards the end of the year, I dropped Vaervaf from the site for making unjustified comments towards other artists on the site, and then signed Tomoe to the label hoping he’d make an adequate replacement, with his similar approach with music, and his large internet presence. A few months down the line though, I realized that the community had now become a higher priority than the music itself. In the following months, I dropped Tomoe from the label, as I felt his music had not developed into a quality suitable for the site, and I opened an offer to Vaervaf, allowing him a place back on the site, to which he agreed. I then set up the ‘Send a demo’ page so that the application process would not be as chaotic and random.

While all this happened, I thought hard about how I could prevent the community gaining greater presence on the site than the music. After all, I had relaunched ROFLtrax as Breakbit, with the intention of giving musicians a place to host their discography as they develop their music; and so we come to today. I’ve started to implement these changes, however following a lack of communication, there have been many misconceptions, leading to artists quitting the label outright.

I want to address those misconceptions right now.

Since I relaunched the label as Breakbit, I’ve wanted our output to represent top quality, diverse electronic music from dedicated musicians. Tracks ranging from traditional genres like trance and house, to more experimental forms. We’ve had some absolutely killer releases from the likes of Breakmaster Cylinder, DJ Scratchin’ and glue70, however their music has not met the success I would have like to have seen. Instead, we end up with threads of irrelevant discussion on album pages, and blog posts which generally give the site a bad reputation.

With the changes I am implementing, I’m not trying to introduce a ‘new vision’ for Breakbit, I am instead trying to roll back to the ethos we introduced with the introduction of the site last July. As expected, the artists deeply invested in this broken community have displayed outrage, but the artists I truly care about, and wish to aid as they further develop their music have not expressed any concerns. Part of this whole situation is down to my messy communication however though, so I hope that this blog post will publicly make everything absolutely clear. So here goes.

Firstly, I am giving the artist roaster another review. In the past I’ve usually been much too hasty with my decisions, and the sudden nature of my updates have caught both artists and visitors off guard. Though I stand by my decisions, I tackled this unprofessionally. This is why late last year, I introduced a 6-month probation period for new artists. When artists are signed, they have six months of dedicated time on the site, during which I cannot drop them for any reason, unless they’re producing clearly socially unacceptable / illegal material. I have warned several artists in advance that I intend to drop them from the label, as requested in the past, and I have discussed this artist roaster update with artists over IM for about a month; but still, it’s provoked an uneasy reaction with the artists. Chinese whispers have become fact, and suddenly the label has lost all value and integrity.

I still intend to carry out this roaster update. Below are my honest, and open opinions regarding each artist currently signed to Breakbit.

• 2nnt: This artist’s work lacks identity and production value. I feel 2nnt no longer has a place on this label. I dropped him in December, however following public outrage, I hastily reversed this decision with little thought. I had intended to drop him in April following a warning, however we decided at the time to postpone this until late July so he could see the release of his upcoming LP. Should the work on this LP still reflect my opinion on his earlier works, he will be dropped from the label.
• ADSRe: Produces unique, traditional electronic music, which beams with identity. His releases are not receiving the attention I’d like them to, so the site’s new updates should benefit him. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• Billinski: Produces smooth music with a unique tone which sets him apart from artists of a similar genre. Though his productions have so far been samey, the quality is high enough to secure him a position on the label, and I anticipate his future works. His releases are not receiving the attention I’d like them to, so the site’s new updates should benefit him.
• Breakmaster Cylinder: Technically the most professionally produced music on Breakbit, I feel he deserves greater opportunities and recognition than Breakbit currently provides him. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• Bye-Product: One of the site’s biggest fans, I felt he deserved a shot himself following his months of dedication to the site. After some minor mistakes regarding video content, his initial productions though popular did not meet my expectations in regards to production quality. Tomoe has exactly the same story, however his work didn’t improve as I had liked it to which is why he was dropped earlier this year. Bye-Product’s new album ‘Religion’ arrives in the next few weeks. Regardless however, I intend to review Bye-Product’s work in November as his probation period comes to an end.
• Cahtun Rek: An anonymous alias for one of our former artists, he’s now decided make a dedicated shift from his meme-centric works to chiptune. However, I now question whether chiptune as a whole has a place on Breakbit, and I have not heard his new works for almost a year. I will be discussing this further with him, before I decide to drop him.
• D-Mode-D: Superbly produced releases from Renard Queenston that receive significant attention. However following creative differences, I doubt D-Mode-D will return to Breakbit, though I would not object if he did.
• DJ Scratchin’: Absolutly fantastical produced music from an artist with the greatest dedication to Breakbit. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• DM DOKURO: Estimated to be one of the top 5 most popular artists on the label (Based on artist hub pageviews). DM DOKURO has made stunning development that’s visible throughout his discography, which explores multiples genres, forms and moods. I personally feel though he has invested himself too much on the site however, and he’s now becoming quite upset. I’ve recommended that he takes a hiatus from the site for as long as he needs. Regardless, I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• DR777: A highly underrated experimental artist, which displays huge identity. His releases are not receiving the attention I’d like them to, so the site’s new updates should benefit him. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• glue70: Estimated to be one of the top 5 most popular artists on the label (Based on artist hub pageviews). My personal favourite artist on the label, his minimal glitch tracks are quirky and identifiable. His releases are not receiving the attention I’d like them to, so the site’s new updates should benefit him. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• Haktrak: His release has not impressed me as much as his demo did. He intends to release new material in the next few months. His 6 month probation ends in November, so I’ll be review his works then.
• Lucky Oddy: Though his music has pretty bad production quality, it’s appropriate for his style of music, which is quirky and comical.
• Mason James: Some of the sharpest trip-hop I’ve heard, Mason James settles nicely on the label alongside Vaervaf and Billinski. His releases are not receiving the attention I’d like them to, so the site’s new updates should benefit him. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• Max Gall: Though infrequent in his releases, every track is produced to the best quality. His releases are not receiving the attention I’d like them to, so the site’s new updates should benefit him. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• McMaNGOS: Though I am personally not a fan of the majority of his music, McMaNGOS continues to gain tremendous success and reception with each of his releases.
• MegaWatt Man: Produces top quality tongue in cheek music, but has remained idle for over a year. He’ has received a warning in the last few months that he will be dropped from the label if he’s not produced anything new by November this year.
• Neojock: An artist who joined early this year, but did not end up releasing anything or returning my communications. He has been dropped from the label.
• niceplum: An artist who’s soft soundtrack-based music I feel no longer has a place on Breakbit.
• Orangy: Estimated to be one of the top 5 most popular artists on the label (Based on artist hub pageviews). Orangy’s work is easily comparable to Vaervaf’s, though I personally feel it has greater identity and technical execution.
• ReeceA: A highly underrated artist. I intend to financially support him should he decide to produce a commercial release.
• Salt Octave: An band I picked up in the chaos of the last few months, who’s splendidly produced works I honestly can’t pin-point, but enjoy each time I listen to.
• Shroomhead1: A popular artist who’s works I feel has become samey and bland.
• Vaervaf: Estimated to be one of the top 5 most popular artists on the label (Based on artist hub pageviews). Though production isn’t as polished as I would like it to be, Vaervaf’s unique work explores a broad range of various styles, and is very well received by visitors to the site.
• The Viking Girlfriends: A collaboration between two very good artists, which truly benefits production. I intend to financially support them should they decide to produce a commercial release.

So currently, the only artists I intend to drop are 2nnt (Following the release of his LP), Cahtun Rek and Shroomhead1. I will have to discuss this further with these artists, however now for the first time since these opinions are open, now you can too.

In addition, I will now be introducing an age cap for new musicians. Artists must be at least 18 years old in order to publish music with Breakbit. Under 18′s currently on the artist roaster will not be dropped from the site.

Over the course of our operation, we’ve ended up with a number of artists who only want to be part of the Breakbit roaster, simply to have their name displayed with some of the other Breakbit artists, their presence on the site more important than their reception. This is a huge problem I need to correct. I ultimately decide to review the artist roaster, if I feel like their productions or activities are having a negative effect on the label, or distracting from other artists productions; be this through either outrageous actions on the site, or by generally poor quality music which devalues the entire Breakbit catalogue. This is my ethos.

So misconceptions regarding the artist review..

The internet can easily create an illusion of power. You only drop artists to satisfy your personal internet ego.

This artist review has nothing to do with a personal sense of power, for that I have Youtube and Twitter, where I have a greater more immediate reach. This is about raising the general standard on Breakbit, by tailoring the site to what would most benefit the valued majority of artists. By reducing the amount of mundane and mediocre releases on the site, projects which have had greater more polished amounts of development can continue to gather the attention they deserve.

You drop artists without warning them.

This was the case in the past, however following the public disapproval of my decision to initially drop 2nnt, I introduced the 6-month probation period for new artists.

Why do you sign artists you know you are eventually going to drop

I sign artists who impress me with their demo, and intend to follow development through. The 6-month probation period gives them the opportunity to gather fans and rise to the challenge of producing dedicated music. Whether it’s a success or a failure, in theory they will have gained something out of it, whether it’s production skills, or an audience who will follow them to where they head next.

You don’t review music before you make a decision to drop an artist

This is a rumor spread by The Brothers In Shit shortly before they left the label, based on two comments I made. This isn’t true. In the case of Brothers In Shit, what I was trying to express was that they were still in my ‘to be considered’ list of artists, as I had not listened to their music since the launch of “Soaked in Win”. Since I am immensely busy, I cannot listen to music with a critical frame of mind unless I’ve dedicated myself the time, which is sparingly short. As I worked through the artists, they decided to leave the label, before I could evaluate, and before they could fully understand the process.

Ultimatly, Breakbit is a place for people who produce music as a hobby.

Breakbit isn’t worth my time unless I can at least aim for something greater than that, which is what influences each decision I make in regards to the site, particularly in relation to roaster reviews.

Why do particular releases suddenly disappear, for instance, albums from Airon Tokzic, mrJames, DJ Rilstix and DJ Raiku?

These releases are from former artists no longer signed to the label. In accordance with our contract, old releases will remain online until either the artist requests it’s removal (For instance, “2nnt – BRUTALCORE”), or until I choose to remove them. In the case of Airon Tokzic, mrJames, DJ Rilstix and DJ Raiku’s previous releases, I took the decision.

Surely on a host with unlimited bandwidth and hosting, this wouldn’t be an issue?

We are currently experience regular CPU spikes with our host, who are reknowned for excellent service. I must take temporary action to reduce these spikes while the problem is investigated. So far this has meant reducing the amount of under-the-hood download tracking. Removing some legacy releases has helped in this respect, however the primary reason for this is to shift away from the ethos and ideals that ROFLtrax were built upon and instead focus on the dedicated releases artists published for Breakbit.

Secondly, I am working on a new update for the website.

There are currently some major problems with the site, though the majority lie on the front page. Firstly, preference is given to certain releases, and only a limited amount of releases are displayed. It seems currently that the only way for your album to get noticed, is if it’s brand new and fresh. Thus, the trend we’ve seen in recent months, is the ‘gold rush’, meaning if one artist decides to release an album, suddenly everybody else will at the same time in order to avoid getting neglected. I’ve addressed this problem by introducing the notion that only one LP can be released a week. Though this has helped, I intend that this new design will solve the problem.

Though we’ll be continuing to introduce exciting new features, such as a new player interface, music visualizer and shuffle mode, this update will visually represent this change in ethos.

Taking what was best about the refined design of ROFLtrax.com, the new front page displays the most relevant music to the viewer. This new design is both up-to-date and relevant for fans of the site, and inviting to new members. Blog posts no longer litter the front page with walls of text. Instead, blog articles are moved to the right in a list form. Blogs are not completly scrapped from the site however. Instead, they will live in a new section of the site.

While all latest releases are displayed in a grid, with new uniform thumbnails of equal size, the new artist carousel (Image for illustrative purpose only) promotes the most active artists on the site. Ordered by artists who have most recently released an LP, the artist carousel displays the artists most recent releases and most recent blog post, as well as their logo and background image, with smooth animated transitions. I intend that at a glance, you can visit the front page, and immediately discover what is new and relevant. With this new front page, our content is the star again, the music.

Secondly, I want to remove all the drama associated with an over-indulgent internet community. From the start, I had not wanted the label to develop into what it is today, where the only active “community” are the artists, arguing with each other on albums. When I am trying to showcase music, this is the last thing I want.

This is why I have decided to moderate all album reviews from today. All previous album comments are no longer available. Though traditionally, websites with a considerable amount of content expand to include forums and other features, Breakbit is NOT a social network. From here onwards, I consider Breakbit’s development to stick closer to that of a web app, than a web site.

Reviews now need to be approved before they are displayed. Artists from here onwards will be encouraged to use instant messaging and email to converse about production, and short irrelevant comments which have nothing to do with the music are no longer accepted. Think of the new ‘reviews’ section for albums, as product reviews you would find on Amazon, or even iTunes.

I understand that this moderated approach may not be to everybodys taste, which is why I’m also looking into integrating a “social stream” in addition to site-exclusive reviews. I’d plan these social streams to grab comments made on Twitter and Facebook, and display them on the site. This would also benefit our artists, as their work is being promoted through networks of users.

With these changes in mind, as well as new features like Shuffle, I aim to make music the focus once again. So after all that, let me address some misconceptions regarding the new Breakbit design.

Why are you getting rid of blogs? For me, this is my best method of communicating with my fans.

Blogs will still exist on the site, however they will just not longer be displayed as full stories on the front page.

Why are you completly getting rid of comments?

Comments will remain in blog and news posts, as an unmoderated and immediate method of end-user communication. Album reviews are now moderated. Artist comments will be removed entirely.

I don’t see “Listen Now” in the mock-up. What’s happened to that?

This will be replaced with the dedicated ‘Shuffle’ page.

I don’t see the “Top releases of the week” in the mock-up. What’s happened to those?

Charts will now live on a separate page when the new site arrives, though the dedicated charts page will include customizable options (For instance, per artist charts, monthly charts, top releases of all time). The front page now only displays a set grid of latest releases.

I don’t see “Coming soon” in the mock-up. What’s happened to that?

I no longer want this displayed on the front page. I’ve yet to decide how I will implement this feature in the new site.

Artist communication on the site itself isn’t harmful!

Though I encourage this kind of discussion, artists have a number of methods to converse with each other, including but not limited to instant messaging, email, internet forums and chat rooms (Including Listening Room, and the Breakbit TV chat room). On the new site, I recommend that artists create blog posts, which others can then reply to.

You are killing the Breakbit community by moderating album comments

I’m confident that the Breakbit community lives beyond the album comments section. With album reviews, blog comments, the Facebook like button, Twitter share button and the dedicated Facebook page, our fans have a large range of options avalible to them.

I don’t believe you. This update is all about clearing space for ad’s! Ad’s will be the death of Breakbit!

I implemented ad’s as an experiment last December, to determine what kind of revenue the site would generate. Throughout the site’s operation, I’ve tried my best to place ad’s where they will gain visibility, but not hinder the core experience. Since ad’s are generating an adequate amount of revenue, they will be staying. On the new site, I have freed up some space and shifted ad’s up, however this is not my primary focus. With the philosophy of discovering new material in mind, I’m going to be placing as much ‘redirects’ in the right column as possible along with ad’s (For instance, ‘recommended releases’), so that users trust that the content they have arrived at a page for is always in the left. In this sense, the page design will not be as inconsistent as it is now.

Lastly, a few final misconceptions.

The label used to be called ROFLtrax. Why are you lying to yourself and trying to turn the label into something it isn’t?

As I have described above, I am passionate about pushing the label in this direction. The label has had the potential in the last year to become something more, but today we’re still in that state.

If you’re trying to make the label more ‘serious’ and ‘professional’, why are you releasing remix EP’s like “Disruptor”, “HEAVY IS HEAVY TRAIN” and “Slowplane”?

I am not against artists having fun with strange and quirky subject matter and even using samples. What I am now against is blindly accepting unpolished and underdeveloped productions, as well as hastily signing new artists without and promise, with little to no thought. Releases like these make Breakbit what it is, and they’re not going anywhere.

I consider your comments towards Bye-Product in Listening Room and Twitter bullying.

This is the type of tone and language I usually adopt in internet chatrooms, which are usually perceived as tame internet trolling. The Breakbit contract technically covers these kinds of comments for DISQUS powered album comments only, however in this case, my comments were excessive and inappropriate. For that I want to publicly apologize to Bye-Product.

So with all that said, I plan to put in motion the artist roaster review on Monday July 18th. I’m currently focusing all my energy on my upcoming single, “Constant”. Personally I am uncomfortable with publishing the single on Breakbit in our current state, so I may delay it’s release a week or two after my Youtube and Bandcamp release. Once the single is out the way however, I’ll be focusing once again on the Breakbit update, and with any luck, we’ll have it out sometime before October. Until then, I hope this blog post, and the introduction of moderated album reviews will calm everything down.

I have an incredibly busy life. Once you take my full time job, house chores, driving lessons and attempts to maintain a fragile social life into account, I’m really not left with much time at all, to the point where it’s now more valuable to me than money, so I have to decide carefully what to invest in. If maintaining a drama-filled netlabel with no future potential is going to cost me more time, than just releasing my own music immediately on Bandcamp, then it’s seriously not worth my time at all. I’m turning twenty six years old this year, and I personally feel like I’ve just grown up. I am honestly too old and tired for this irrelevant and unnessesary internet bullshit, and it’s something I want to completely eradicate from the site.

My true vision for Breakbit, is to take everything right about the internet and everything right about music, and combine it into as best a netlabel experience as I can provide. Immediate avalibility, fast delivery and social connectivity to name a few factors. The problem is right now, I’m taking the worse of the two, the drama associated with overdeveloped web communities that live in their own little world, and thoughtless amateur music.

I never intended for Breakbit to be like most bedroom coded websites, a screen full of imaginary people that you tear your hair over. I always intended Breakbit to be a portfolio a musician could customize, fill with their music, tie with their online presences, then point people to. From the very start, when I established ROFLtrax.com out of the remains of my mrSimon.co.uk music player, my ethos was “What benefits one artist will benefit all”, and this proved true for new features, and to an extent, label promotion on Youtube. However, what I’ve now learnt is that also “What hurts one artist will hurt all”, and it’s my duty to maintain Breakbit’s integrity.

Without integrity, I have no passion for the netlabel, and without passion, I’ve no desire to run it.

Another issue is the threat of Bandcamp, which is increasingly making netlabels obselete. Once the drama is out the way, this will be my next major challenge. The question is, how does a netlabel benefit over Bandcamp, when it provides artists with the ability to manage and publish their content, and fans a number of versatile download options?

So far, Breakbit has been a means to tie together online presences with an artist’s discography, so before the end of the year, I intend to make it possible for artists to hook their Bandcamp account into the very core of the site. This would give them the power to manage their content, as well as develop a space they can fully customize and make their own. It gives all artists on the label to truly be part of a creative collective, and ultimatly it will create a whole new netlabel experience. This was my plan for this new update, however since the fabric of the site has begun to crumble, I will have to dedicate my time to the essentials first.

I’m sure I’ll alienate a number of long-time fans of the site with these updates, but if I want to maintain any kind of integrity, this is what I must do. I truly regret losing DM DOKURO and ReeceA over all this. I hope that they now better understand what exactly is going on, and I hope they decide to join us once again.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.