A fully transparent, community-funded record label. 🫡⚔️
The music
industry
is broken.
Middle-Class Musicians are becoming extinct.
Music streaming was meant to democratize music. But instead, it made the existing problems even worse.
By stripping artists of any physical products and only paying a fraction of a penny per stream in return… the only artists capable of making a living from their music were a handful of superstars with the backing of the major labels. Often times even those artists weren’t seeing a large % of the money due to predatory deal structures by their labels.
The “musical middle class” was effectively eliminated, leaving countless of the most talented artists without a sustainable path to build their careers.
So we decided to build an alternative.
We believe artists should own their own music.
So we leveraged our background in online education and community building to build the first fully transparent, community-funded record label that all artists can participate in.
We then use profits from these education and community programs to sign artists to 0% deals.
🫡⚔️
Meet the team:
Michael Gilbride - Founder/CEO
Michael Gilbride is a former Wall Street trader who quit his career in finance in 2020 to pursue his solo music project, "telco". After years of releasing and promoting his own music, Michael became the General Manager of the online music production school, Mastering.com, where he fell in love with education.
After years of building Mastering.com, Michael used his background in online education to build MAD Records, the first education-funded record label.
Reid Sorel - Head Producer
Reid Sorel is one of the best emerging producers in Nashville, TN. Reid completed his music production degree at Belmont University in 2021 and has cut over nearly 100 records already with artists such as Twinnie, Camille Parker, and Dan Marshall.
Preston Pakola - Lead Eningeer
Preston Pakola is a founding member of MAD Records, an artist in his own right, and a favorite amongst students in our education programs. Preston recently completed his certification as a recording, mixing and mastering engineer at the online audio school, Mastering.com.
Christiana Alaire - Featured Artist
Christiana Alaire, a free-spirited, curly-haired artist from Georgia, brings power, range, and authenticity to her unique "Soultry" music—a blend of old soul and her southern-rooted upbringing. Christiana signed with MAD Records earlier in 2024, and is currently performing regularly throughout Nashville, TN.
How does it work?
Artists pay a monthly fee to join the MAD Records Community, where they’ll get access to daily events (such as studio livestreams, songwriting workshops, promotion +marketing tutorials, networking events), as well as our 10-week Artist Development curriculum.
They also get access to exclusive opportunities for their careers (live show opportunities, studio time, and more.)
Most importantly, they get a real community of artists that are focused on helping each other, rather than competing with each other.
