Sometimes there are exceptions, and Ipecac might have to shell out a little more cash up front for an album's production process. 'But when you start with small expectations you'd be pleasantly surprised.'

'If you're looking to get instant rich, we're the wrong place, because we're not going to give you a big advance,' Werckman says. Records that have sold only about 1,000 copies have turned profits, he adds. Werckman estimates that he sends about 80% of Ipecac's artists royalty checks every six months. Still, it's rare for a band to divorce itself from Ipecac. But there's a catch: 'Likewise, at any moment, we can stop selling our records.' 'At any moment, any of our bands can take their records and leave,' Patton says. Instead, Ipecac pays higher royalty rates and has licensing deals instead of long-term deals. The label might cough up a couple thousand bucks to help a band pay for its recording process, but it doesn't dish out the kinds of advance payments the big record companies pay artists. Patton himself does a lot of recording in his home studio, so that saves a bunch right off the bat. Ipecac keeps budgets down when it comes to promotion and production. 'They are the most successful record store we have.' 'The Melvins tour constantly,' Werckman says. Ipecac focuses on selling through its online store while depending on its touring acts to push albums. But production costs haven't really gone up, according to Werckman. Even though the label was founded just as digital music platforms like Napster were altering the business, Ipecac's fans still want something physical - 'like a fetishistic thing,' Patton adds.ĬD sales are down across the board, as big retail chains such as Best Buy cut back on inventory and smaller stores struggle to survive. 'Yeah, it's old fashioned and maybe we're dinosaurs in that regard,' Werckman says. Both co-owners have to agree on which albums to release.Īs the industry becomes increasingly digital, Ipecac still puts a lot of time and care into its physical media releases, including compact discs and vinyl. Patton, who splits time between Northern and Southern California, is the 'creative fisherman' who seeks out new talent, while Werckman focuses more on the nuts and bolts of the business. It has only two employees outside of Patton and Werckman: one in Los Angeles, where much of the music business is located, and another in New York, which is home to Ipecac's distributor. The label is based just outside of Berkeley in Northern California, where Werckman lives.

That's also not what we're comfortable with.' 'That's not really what is expected from us from our fan base. 'We don't feel the need to throw thousands of dollars into our overhead and say, well, we've got to have a music video that's going to be on YouTube and get views on Vevo,' Werckman says. Werckman and Patton also maintain a lean and simple business model.

Ipecac stays profitable by bucking industry norms - and not just by deliberately seeking talent outside the mainstream. The label's website boasts connections with more than 100 acts, many featuring Patton himself, including this September's 'Corpse Flower' with French pop composer Jean-Claude Vannier. Ipecac grew into a magnet for artists with really personal or experimental projects that might not otherwise catch on. 'If we were really going to be setting this up as a label, he'd want to be involved,' Werckman says. Other artists struggling to find a place for their own outside-the-box music, even despite their own solid track records, caught wind of the project and wanted in, including Osborne and the Melvins, who had been a massive influence on the grunge genre that spawned bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. Patton says he had three or four records at the time for which he couldn't find a home, and coming up with Ipecac came from 'getting turned down by other labels and saying, wait a sec, we might have to start creating our own universe, where this can have a home.' Bungle bassist and co-founder Trevor Dunn. 'We just wanted an outlet for Mike to put his releases out.' Ipecac's first release was the self-titled debut from Fantomas, a supergroup featuring Patton and heavy-music veterans guitarist Buzz Osborne of the Melvins, drummer Dave Lombardo of Slayer and Mr. 'To be honest, Mike and I did not set off on starting a label, per se,' says Werckman, 54.

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