Music fans, asked to name the biggest dance label, may well think of or Republic (Taylor Swift) or Capitol (Katy Perry). Now they may add to the list the name 418 Music, which Billboard ranked above Republic and Capitol in its 2018 list of Dance Imprints.
The Philadelphia-based label was at No. 7 in the overall list, making it the No. 1 Independent Dance and Club Imprint.
In 2018 alone, 418 Music, owned and run by Chief Executive Gino Caporale, had 17 charting records and more than three million streams.
Caporale, 51, he has been involved in the dance-music business on and off his whole life, starting in the 1980s as a DJ in the Philly club scene and Q102 radio; working as a Billboard reporter; also producing, remixing and editing the likes of Depeche Mode and De La Soul. After a break, he started working for another independent label in 2012, “seeing the mistakes and cringing at the lost opportunities.” After making a connection with INgrooves distribution, he decided to start his own label, even though the industry was declining.
“In the beginning, we didn’t have a lot of money to invest, or much time to work,” Caporale says in an interview. “We did most of our recording at night with local artists. But I knew I was on to something. When I left the business in the early 90s, it was about vinyl, CDs, and the artist. When I came back, it was the start of the ‘EDM DJ’ as the star, MP3 downloads and the early stages of streaming. There were aspects of the business that were totally foreign to me, like the Internet as the venue and the importance of social media. But for everything that changed, the fact still remains that a great song is a great song.”
In March 2014, Caporale met Grammy-nominated house-music producer StoneBridge, who has since done many remixes for the label and introduced him to Krista Richards and ZHU, Sted-E & Hybrid Heights and Crystal Waters, of “Gypsy Woman” fame. Caporale had to decide if to take a financial risk and sign Waters to promote her single “Synergy.” He did, and 11 weeks later had his first chart-topper.
Krista Richards’s “Can’t Be Stopped” was produced by the up-and- coming producer ZHU. After six months, the track had minor interest, with only 170 downloads and 20,000 streams. Then ZHU signed with Spinnin’ Records, and released “Faded,” one the biggest electronic tracks of 2014, and nominated for a Best Dance Recording Grammy. With the interest in ZHU, people began searching for anything with his name and found “Can’t Be Stopped.” Caporale said: “It put us on the map with tons of downloads and it currently has 1.3 million streams on Spotify. This was the break that the label needed.”
The label has had four other chart-toppers, one in each year: In 2016, Crystal Waters ft. Sted-E & Hybrid Heights with “Believe”; in 2017 by Scotty Boy & Lizzie Curious with “You’re Not Alone” and in 2018 by Scotty Boy & Lizzie Curious with “Shine Your Love.” The latest, “I Don’t Need Your Love” by Bleona, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart this month.
In the Billboard year-end dance label chart, 418 was behind six major labels including Atlantic Records, Hollywood Records, Columbia Records, Island Records, Astralwerks and RCA.
Caporale continues as a DJ and is a guest remixer on iHeartRadio’s weekly “Hollywood Hamilton’s Remix Top 30” show that airs on more than 100 stations. Running 418 Music is his priority, looking at global growth, subsidiary labels in related genres and crossover to the Billboard Top 100 chart: “We have 25 artists on the roster and 30 releases coming in the first quarter of 2019, which is half of what we released in all of 2018.”
He says it is a myth that indie labels cannot stay afloat: “You look at Armada Music and Spinnin’ Records, and what they have accomplished. They started small like we did.”
