Rainsoaked Records is an independently owned and operated record label out of Southwest Michigan whose focus is to release high-quality music in digital format and make it available to the public at no cost. Just as we believe music should be.

We here at RR realize that the way people access music, as well as the social attitude towards music and the record industry, has changed dramatically in the past ten years. We aim to establish a modern (yet still commercially viable) method for listeners to receive the entire spectrum of an artists work without having to dig into their pockets or risk downloading with illegal, and often virus / spy-ware addled, Peer-to-Peer services.

It’s no secret in 2008 that the way the music industry operates is often times detrimental to the artists who work so hard to bring people such a beautiful gift. Those with the checkbooks tend to call the shots and, unfortunately, that’s usually not the fans or the artists. And granted, there is a reason for that. Producing quality records and getting them heard by the public is an expensive process, but we here at Rainsoaked believe that there are alternatives.

Sponsor ads, public donations, and merchandise sales are just a few ways other industries have thrived for years and years while still bringing their content to the public for free. (Heck, television has been ahead of the curve half a century.) And, while many streaming music sites have set a lot of groundwork for the idea, we don’t want people to only be able to listen to the music while visiting rainsoakedrecords.com. We want fans to have access to our artists’ free releases for their home playlists, on their iPods, in their cars, or anywhere else. Just as if they’d purchased the albums from their local music store or off an online downloading service.

We also believe that the way industry functions presently, while not only a strain on people’s wallets, is detrimental to the environment as well. To keep up with the high cost of CD pressing and recording many lesser-known artists have to tour excessively in order to make back that money, either for themselves or their respective labels. However due to changes in technology and the means artists have to promote themselves, this has become somewhat of an antiquated practice that simply costs too much in fuel and electricity. Don’t get us wrong, we love live music (in fact you’ll catch our staff scattered across clubs from Chicago to Detroit on any given weekend), but venturing all across America just to break even is crazy.

So, with CD sales plummeting and the cost of life constantly on the upswing, we think it’s time for a change. Music is a beautiful thing that should be shared with friends and loved ones. It’s the soundtrack to your life. It can inspire, make you laugh, make you cry, or make your whole day brighter (or darker, if that’s what you’re into.) We don’t think anyone has the right to tell you what you can or can’t listen to, or that you need to pay them for the right to hear it.

Rainsoaked Records is just a small part of the movement to get music out of high-rise offices and into people’s hands where it belongs. Which is an idea we couldn’t be prouder to be a part of.