Once upon a time, big labels were giving 0 opportunities to the upcoming talents. The most “famous” names were reusing their projects again and again as long as they were still worth it and everybody wanted to have a piece from that cake of endless money. One day, Hardwell’s label, Revealed Recordings, noticed this and tried to fix that (well, more or less) creating a new platform for new talents. The Community Releases were born.

Some years later, we are going to discuss the situation of the recently rebranded Revealed Radar. The original concept was great, but, like most things that look awesome when you plan them, it began to lose its power and freshness year by year, because doing something is not as easy as planning it. Even if the format has been updated multiple times, the stats and exposure were plummeting, mostly caused by the overcrowded market, inflated by 3 weekly releases. Just for making an example: Maurice West alone, as an independent artist, has more active listeners that the entire label (246 releases). In 2020, in a new upgrade, Community Releases became Revealed Radar, a more independent reality from the main label, just like Gemstone (for chillier releases).

Did it work? Well, analyzing it objectively, no.

First of all, the rebrand felt like a downgrade. When you had a Community Release, you were on Revealed Recordings. Of course, they didn’t promote it as a main release, but it was uploaded to the official Revealed profiles, just as Hardwell himself. Now, all the tracks are uploaded to a Revealed Radar platform that will need lots of years to reach the exposure of its father, which makes that most of the songs remain almost unnoticed. Secondly, Radar lost its identity. The three triangle logo and the Bebas Neue font were a legendary signature element, and they removed them in a useless search of a more “STMPDish” look which, personally speaking, is overused and generic. They didn’t only copy their visuals, but also their sounds. Right now, Radar is just another bass house label releasing repetitive tunes that are almost completely made with the Seth Hills samples. And we are not even speaking about stolen tracks and Youtube FLPs…

So… is everything wrong about Radar? Well, not at all. I must admit that the sublabel has improved the promotion of their artists on socials, even if the reachable target is smaller. It’s a reality that focuses more on the artists involved!

I’m pretty sure that this person analysis won’t impact on the plans for Radar, but I hope to see the manager taking again the right path and being in the position they really deserve. My best wishes to them.

What's Your Reaction?

0In Love0Happy0Not Sure0OMG0Angry0Sad