About Fika Recordings
Fika Recordings was set up in 2011 by Tom Ashton to put out music he wanted to hear. Fika Recordings attempts to be a transparent, ethical and nurturing place for our artists. We aim to provide all our artists with a complete financial breakdown at least every 6 months so they can see how their releases are progressing, whether they've joined us on a 50:50 profit share agreement or a more traditional royalty based agreement. Unassigned digital revenues get fairly distributed across our artists. We file our accounts with HMRC every year and pay our taxes. We strongly encourage all our artists to ensure they've registered with PRS/PPL so they can collect mechanical and performance royalties that are due to them - but we’re not here to do all your admin for you. And we'll try and encourage our artists to develop, to support them in what they'd like to do, and offer advice and guidance where we can. And go to the pub - we really do like going to the pub...
Demo submissions
We’ve never signed a band from a totally unsolicited demo.
We’ve released plenty of records from artists that got in touch along the lines of “Hey, we’ve just recorded a new record, here’s the link”. They’ve all been from artists we’re aware of to some degree. We might have seen them play live, or we might have heard them on the radio. We might have simply seen their name listed at a festival or at a gig we couldn’t make but would have liked to. Maybe they recorded with someone we’ve worked with before, or the guitarist used to play in a band we loved 15 years ago.
Some may have been established artists already, some early on in their musical career.
Are you ready to work with a label yet? You’ve got some profile, you’re making music, playing shows, people are talking about your music. Great. Still not taken your songs out of your bedroom yet? It might be too early for us to get involved.
What do you want from a record label relationship?
We’re looking for artists that we can guide, nurture and help develop. Artists that can become part of the community of artists we’ve worked with, either as a label or a promoter. That’s not just over your first record, but hopefully the next one too. We’ll be as involved as you want in the recording or artwork direction. We’ll put together a plan for press, radio and promotion, to help get your music in front of the right people, at the right time.
We’re not going to sign you and make you (or us, for that matter) rich. We’re not going to do all your admin for you. We do this alongside a full time day job. We do it for fun.
Is Fika Recordings the label you’re looking for?
It really does help if you’ve actually heard of us and the artists we’re currently working with. We’re an indie label. Some artists lean in a folk or alt-country direction, some in a rockier/punkier direction. We’re not going to know what to do with your jazz epic or your thrash metal opus.
What’s your band?
What do you sound like, and why should I care? Tell us where you are in your music career. Who’s written about you before? You’ve had radio play? Great. From what station, from what DJ? Toured or played shows with bands we know?
If you’ve read the above and still feel like it’s worth getting in touch, please do. We particularly encourage submissions from under represented groups of society, be it BAME, LGBTQ+ or otherwise. But no Tories please.
Email demos@fikarecordings.com with a link to your best song or two (streaming links only please, Bandcamp or Soundcloud are perfect, emails with WAVs attached will be deleted). Don’t send us the EP you released last year, we want to hear the new stuff.
Please don’t send demos to any other email addresses listed here, as I won’t find it when I’m looking to listen to the demos we’ve received.
Distribution
If you're looking to distribute Fika Recordings releases outside the UK, or are a record shop looking to receive wholesale copies, please contact distro@fikarecordings.com We may also interested if you're another label and looking to exchange or swap copies of your releases.
Gigs
Want to play a show for us in London? Get in touch via info@fikarecordings.com
Press
If you're looking for more information on our artists, releases and to receive promotional copies for your publication, please contact press@fikarecordings.com
Publishing
For publishing, licensing and synchronisation enquiries, please email publishing@fikarecordings.com
Shop
For questions around ordering our records or any problems encountered with our webshop, please email shop@fikarecordings.com