Aardvark Records - home page

Chairman  Andrew Reeve (ex-EMI) founded Aardvark Records in 1999. His initial vision was to champion bands based in Cornwall. In those days, to say that Cornwall wasn’t on the music industry’s radar would be kind. While the UK was indifferent, his belief and ceaseless efforts began to bear fruit in Europe…and caught the attention of Alex di Savoia in London.

Alex joined the Aardvark team in 2003, first as Head of Marketing, progressing to Managing Director (2005) and then to CEO (2009). With over 20 years of marketing, promotion and public affairs experience gained from years in the FMCG advertising, fashion PR and band management arenas, Alex saw the potential hidden within the label…and quickly set about turning that vision into reality.

Since his band management days in the mid-1990s (Blue Moon Entertainment), Alex always knew that digital music would level the playing field between savvy independent labels and music publishers and the major labels. The internet provided direct access to music lovers around the world, by-passing traditional routes like terrestrial radio, print publications, and music television channels; which were the gate-keepers in breaking new and original music.

With an industry on the verge of being broken, Alex decided to smash the traditional record label and music publishing business model in 2005 and created something untried, untested and unknown – largely based on digital audio and video formats, technologies and digital distribution networks. It was also based on building a transparent and sincere relationship with the people who dug and bought the label’s releases.  A record label that wanted to be their mate? It was bold, it was innovative and it flew in the face of all that major labels held sacred. Andy got the vision and couldn't have been a more supportive champion.

Undeterred by the range of reactions within the industry, ranging from polite indifference to outright sneering, Aardvark persevered. The upshot being this new business model worked.  The public not only got it. They loved it. 

An early adopter of social media and social networking, Aardvark’s relationship with the music buying public deepened. That’s a relationship that means the world to us and our artists. 

In our time we've racked up a series of firsts. We were one of the first record labels to use podcasting. We were one of the first labels to support internet radio. Other firsts include: providing music videos to YouTube, Daily Motion, iAm:TV, ROO TV and a host of other online music video entertainment websites; providing full tracks on MySpace, ReverbNation, Sonico, Orkut and Last.fm; setting up a blog to share our thoughts about music industry developments and news; and using widgets for people to share our music and our videos with their mates.

Our business model laid the groundwork for taking our releases to a global audience.  We watched as one independent label after another crashed and burned trying to break their releases in the UK. We even tried it ourselves once or twice with middling results. With excellent relationships with press and media outside of the UK, it made sense for us to concentrate on these markets.  Fortunately for us, North America, Australia and Latin America would always play a key part in our business model. 

While we’ll always champion the UK independent UK music industry, our presence and reputation are firmly established outside the UK’s shores.

Aardvark is a Fair Trade record label and music publisher. This goes beyond ensuring our artists receive a higher than industry average royalty split. It also means we do our best to ensure that expenses are handled responsibly and are kept to a reasonable level. 

We're also a Green label. While it is unlikely for any international label to be Carbon Neutral in the near future - our aim is to get as close to that benchmark as possible. To achieve this we've were early pioneers in the digital realm. We've invested heavily in digital music and audio solutions - partnering with some of the best businesses in the field.

Not ones to rest on our laurels, we've traded in our previous model for a newer model. Innovation is what keeps us going; it keeps things fresh and exciting for us.

And lastly…we're not about big advertising spend or huge marketing budgets or telling people what to buy in order to look cool. We're just about adventures in music.