In just a few years, what it means to be a self-managing, self-booking, self-promoting musician has changed radically. In this interview, Edition Records founder Dave Stapleton shares his view on why musicians need to think like creative entrepreneurs, build real relationships and take a long view of their careers.
Edition Records will turn 20 in 2028. Its founder, Dave Stapleton, has spent that time working with some of the leading jazz artists on both the British and international scenes, while navigating an industry in which the old routes to attention and opportunity have become far less predictable.
In this conversation, Dave talks about why many musicians need to become more proactive, strategic and organised — while remaining true to the music that makes them distinctive.
Edition is more than a traditional record label now. How do you see its role?
I thought a lot about what a record label means now, in 2026 and beyond. It can’t be just about distribution or promotion of the album. It has to be more about how can we support, build the right environment for artists to be at their best.
We’re guiding on live strategy or social strategy, but not necessarily doing that work directly; certainly giving them the infrastructure or the thinking behind it.
And then it’s publishing, and it’s thinking about sync, and it’s thinking about general audience-development strategy over a longer period. It’s kind of everything.
It’s moulding into a blend of part management in a strategic way, part booking in a live-strategy way: how can we develop the next 18 months in this city?
What is the roadmap for the venues, and how can we use the first gig to influence the third gig in that city over a year’s time? It’s much more holistic and forward-thinking.
If we can get them more gigs and help with that, if we can get them better socials, it’s all going to help us in the end by selling more vinyl and CDs and getting more streaming. It’s been about growing their artist.
It’s much more about the long term than it is just focusing on sales of vinyl and CDs, although of course that’s what we’re trying to do and that’s where our income is. It’s not always the primary goal.
What does an independent artist need to do to build that same kind of long-term career?
It can be overwhelming, but I think you’ve just got to break it down and start with the end in mind: where you really want to get to.
Then get as good as you can get at the bits you can definitely control, that AI and algorithms and all these things won’t influence, which really is your proactivity and your mindset and how you approach it day by day.
The practical things are: build your network; build your relationships with the really important people who can make decisions and can help you enter the next space.
Persistence and consistency are the next important things. There’s no magic bullet here. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, you could get that really big feature and it would mean you could get an agent, which means then you could get another 10 or 15 gigs on the back of that.
I think that’s much harder to achieve now. It’s about looking at all those little micro-wins that you can get over a long period of time: a new contact somewhere, or a new relationship with a venue or festival.
Use the one playlist you do get into to maximise something else. Or if you’re doing a gig in Hamburg, invite the booker from the next venue that you want to play to that gig.
It’s trying to think through those more lateral-thinking, proactive things, and really taking control of your own business. Artists are artists, but they’re also their own business. You have to think through and break it down that way.
How should artists judge whether those efforts are working, when results often take months to appear?
I’ve definitely experienced that. You can do a lot and feel like, “Is this even working at all?” You don’t really know. I’ve tried to change our success parameters. Rather than measuring your success on the playlist or the wins or whatever is coming, you adapt it to your proactivity.
At the end of the day, have you done everything you can within your ability and your energy on that particular day? Have you done everything you can to move it forward a little bit more?
If you’re doing that, if you feel instinctively you’re doing that, the chances are there’ll be a knock-on effect. Sometimes it just takes three, six months, or a year even to see that success come to fruition.
Everything happens from a decision or an action. It’s nothing else but one of those two things. If you start making good actions based on where you’re heading, and good decisions, then it’s going to help get there eventually.
You say relationships matter more than sending unsolicited demos. What does that look like in practice?
Very, very rarely have I signed from an email through our form. It’s really about the people you meet. For me particularly — and this may not be the case for every record label — we’re working closely with the artists.
I want to know it’s a collaborative process, we can connect, understand and get along. I’m inspired by the human being as much as the music.
People ask, “How do you network? How do you get in front of people when everyone’s around the world?” It is difficult. But I think most people in this business are in it for the music.
People are busy and haven’t always got time, but most are willing to give a little steer if you ask in the right way: “What’s the best way to do this? How can I do this? Can I borrow 10 minutes of your time?” Be respectful.
It was something I did a lot in my early days. I used to live in Cardiff and come down to London by train twice a month just to have days of meeting people, trying to get to know them and going to as many events as I could. It paid off, because that’s how I started to meet people.
What does Edition look for when considering a new artist?
We’re looking for things that feel more curated. I don’t want to put out music that’s just another album from another artist. I feel like it needs to be more thought through, more curated, more defining in an artist’s career, and something really interesting to say that hasn’t really been said yet.
There’s so much music being put out all the time, and it’s very hard to get behind it if it sits in that middle lane where it’s comfortable. It doesn’t have to be an easy, accessible listen. It’s just about something that’s different: a blend of instrumentation, a different way of approaching it. It’s really hard to define.
That comes from you as an artist. If you dig deep enough, you’ll find the answer in yourself by being honest to yourself, rather than thinking, “I’ve got to produce an album like Brad Mehldau.” That’s not going to be it. I’d much rather sign a piano player who sounds like themselves than sounds like Brad.
Watch the full interview
Jazzfuel PRO members can watch the complete conversation with Dave, including his practical advice on building a sustainable income mix, approaching promoters, and organising an artist database through the online community. Find out more here.
