Independence Rocks: A Conversation with Hopeless Records' Louis Posen

Hopeless Records' founder Louis Posen stopped by to talk about why independent music continues to matter in the age of streaming

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This week I’m talking to Louis Posen. Posen never expected to be in the music business. But a school assignment led to him directing a video for NOFX, which launched a short-lived career as a video director. A rare ocular disease, which led to blindness, inspired him to focus his efforts from visual to audio matters. The switch was fateful.

For the last 30 years, Posen has led Hopeless Records, one of the most well regarded alternative labels around. Over the last few decades, they’ve nurtured the talent of everyone from All Time Low and Avenged Sevenfold to New Found Glory and Sum 41. Earlier this week, we sat down to talk about the origins of his accidental career, how we can get independent artists paid, and why punk music just won’t go away.

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In a sea of acquisitions, Hopeless Records remains an independent label. First, can you tell me what it really means to be independent today and how that definition has changed over the decades?

To me, independent is the ability to make your own decisions, to take risks on artists that other people — especially larger companies — won’t take a risk on. I have a long-term view of artist development in genres that might not be popular in the mainstream. And that’s always been what independent meant. There might be a grayer area now that there are so many DIY distributors, but I think that is more independent labels versus independent music.

You mentioned your long-term view of artist development. I feel like over the last decade, larger labels have given up on development and just want to sign people who already have audiences. What is your take on artist development in this day and age?

We’ve been doing the same type of development for 30 years. We are always thinking long term. We want artists to see their vision through and make a living from playing music and connecting with fans. That hasn’t changed.

In 30 years, the industry has gone through so many phases. We’re clearly in the TikTok phase, especially for the majors. They want to capture viral moments then move on. That’s not our strategy and never has been.

Speaking of TikTok, some songs in your catalog have found virality. All Time Low’s “Dear Maria, Count Me In” is quite popular on the app. Will you go out and foment a trend if one of your songs is bubbling up on social media?

We’ll take any spark and use that to build momentum. Momentum is the biggest part of artist development. We want to bring music to a wider audience. TikTok is just one platform to do that on.

@hopelessrecordsForever mood. @All Time Low

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Beyond “Dear Maria,” we’ve had a bunch of songs go viral in southeast Asia, of all places. But our purpose isn’t to chase viral moments. It’s to build a sustainable career for an artist.

I always find it fascinating when an artist goes viral, gets a deal, and then they’re thrown on a stage and it’s clear they’ve never played live before. How important is live music in artist development for you?

So important. The emo and alternative rock world are still based on live performances and connecting with fans in person. Social media is important, but artists need to connect with their fans in person. It’s very rare for an artist to develop a career over a long period and not be on the road a lot.