Madison is known for its sometimes radical, sometimes experimental out of the mainstream ideas, from politics to art, and now the music business.
Vesten Kollekive calls itself a digital distribution record label, and its name is not the only aspect of it that’s unusual. The name is adapted from Norwegian, and it means Midwestern Collective. The founders, Hendrix Gullixson and Aedric Donovan, take the collective part of the equation very seriously.
"The music industry that everyone thinks that they know is really screwed up. It's really bad, and we wanted to start something that wasn't part of the music industry and was more of a community," says Gullixson. And his partner, Donovan agrees. "What we provide is first of all, distribution, and second of all, community."
Since they’re founding earlier this year, they’ve signed their first eight bands, established a podcast, and put out several digital releases.
"The end goal is being able to continue releasing music and continue to pay those bills. Getting more music out there is the priority. If we make some money off it, that'd be great. If artists make money off it, that's even better" says Donovan.
