About Switch Hit Records

Switch Hit Records is a musician-run cooperative record label focused on equity and sustainability.

Named for the player who can change up a baseball game with sheer prowess and adaptability, Switch Hit seeks to upset the music industry status quo. Our goal is to create an alternative model for how musicians working today might support each other in building vibrant, supported, and robust lives as artists and community members.

Where are we coming from?

We released music on our own or with small, predatory labels for almost a decade. While we learned a lot and had various successes, we felt isolated and at the mercy of an exploitative and increasingly unsustainable music industry.

What were we doing before?

We have always shared resources between ourselves and other musicians in our community, but we realized we wanted to codify and formalize that practice. We started Switch Hit Records as a collective in January 2023.

What does that mean?

That means: digital distribution of recordings, of course. Events and audience-building, yes. And it also means that artists signed to the label are encouraged to offer their skills to the collective. (One of our artists happens to be a website designer, another helps others write and edit grant applications, etc.). It means transparency around how money moves, education around alternatives for funding outside negligible streaming and touring income, and encouraging artists to release in a way that feels healthy for them.

We are especially invested in exploring tactics for financial equity: ie. How can one of us succeeding benefit the whole group? How can we begin the journey towards getting musicians paid fairly for their labor? How can we create an alternative economy here in our small corner of the music industry?

How does that translate in the artist agreement?

We don’t own masters, we don’t do predatory advances, we don’t pay ourselves, we don’t take any percentage of royalties until the artist takes home $5k. After they hit $5k the label takes 10%, and after $10k, the label takes 15%, which is our percentage cap.

What happens to the money we keep?

This is our collective fund! This money goes directly into a fund which pays for our minimal overhead (website fees, LLC fees, tax fees, etc). The rest of the money is for artists signed to the label: they can apply for non-recoupable grants from this fund to help them break even on touring, PR, mastering costs, child care, health care, whatever they need to continue their work and lives as artists.