Worldwide community, eclectic platform, proud ambassador of the web world, Phuture Collective is definitely much much more than an average forward-thinking label. If you’re a Soundcloud junkie and you love good electronic music, you’ve for sure run across one of the Collective’s copious singles and compilations since its debut back 2015, but to be honest, music itself it’s just the tip of the iceberg under which it branches off a wide and articulated network dedicated to healthy human relationships and growth. In conjunction with the release of their tenth chapter, we asked Phuture founder, owner and project manager Michael about what hides under the surface, the present and future of the project, the whole url scene and more.
The term “collective” is one of the most popular terms in the recent years. Countless different realities have popped up with that name, which ended up meaning everything and nothing. What does it stand for in your name?
For us “collective” stands for a group of like minded individuals who work together under common goals. Phuture Collective is a group of nearly 1,000 artists who span the globe. Our SoundCloud is barely half of who we are – whereas most of our action happens on our online community, currently hosted on Discord. On our platform we synchronize, collaborate, motivate and inspire. With goals in mind to give everyone an opportunity to be heard – and never be alone.
You guys definitely live up to your name. How do you stay so ahead of the curve and continually find the next big sound or artist?
We have such a large selection of variety on our platform that finding music for any type of channels is no challenge – hence why we run about 10 SoundCloud pages of our own. We are continually adding to our catalog on a daily basis as new faces emerge and new stars arise. Personally I feel our quarterly issues help showcase new artists – as you may have seen certain artists like Sumthin Sumthin, chromonicci. ZenAware, Rohaan and more emerged directly from our channel.
Who wants to be like everyone else? Part of Phuture is to pave path for what we feel the sound of the future will be.
During the past year you released more than 50 tracks through 3 ‘Issues’. Why did you choose the playlist/collection format? Do you think that there’s the risk that, in a scene with so much daily competition, using the this format instead of single releases could end up allowing part of the material that you publish to be overshadowed?
Who wants to be like everyone else? Part of Phuture is to pave path for what we feel the sound of the future will be. Three years ago we thought the now over played and over saturated “future” type sound would be our future – but now we have evolved as that genre begins to suffocate.
Jumping back to the present, let’s dive into Issue Ten. You’ve announced that in the past months you ‘have been re-thinking, re-working & re-birthing who we are and why we’re here.’
What can we expect from now on? What will change and what will remain of the Phuture we know, after the Re-birth?
A whole new level of quality alongside more influence from our direct core of members. While our core continues to evolve based on who’s releasing a lot on our partner pages – Issue Ten and Eleven should make it clear who the main players of phuture are.
Will this transformation influence just the philosophy or actually the structure of the network?
The entire network. Now, if you want to be on Phuture – you have to do release on our partner pages first (Future Vibes , TYDE , Preconceived Notions, Presently Lifted , PIL Society, just to name a few). With so many people who want and deserve the spotlight, we’ve found it to be most successful to give the artist momentum on those pages first, and if they stay active, loyal , and creative through that process – they are ready for our main.
Fan burst is the only site that comes close but what does it for us is all of the social features such as comments and reposts. Fan burst just recently added reposts but it’s still another site like Spotify or iTunes where you can’t comment on the music – thus making it impersonal
Talking about structure and organisation. How do you relate with the current Soundcloud situation? Last year we nearly had the collapse of the whole platform and, after that, several questionable behaviors, last of which the bitrate decrease. Have you taken any measures against another possible SoundCloud breakdown?
We have backed up our music on Fanburst and looked long and hard for alternatives. It’s the only site that comes close but what does it for us is all of the social features such as comments and reposts. Fanburst just recently added re posts but it’s still another site like Spotify or iTunes where you can’t comment on the music – thus making it impersonal. Still if I were to pick any site as the SoundCloud killer – at no doubt is it Fanburst.
Do you think that there’s a valid alternative to Soundcloud right now?
Fanburst. And Bandcamp if they added messaging and social features like comments and reposts.
Recently you threw a show in Portland with an exquisite line-up that included brilliant acts like quickly quickly and Sober Rob. How did the event go down? Are you planning more events for Phuture?
It went really well! So far we have brought Great Dane, X&G and DIVERSA as well as Sober Rob to headline shows for us in Seattle and Portland. Our next show is in Portland in March 24th – and you best believe this one will sell out like our other two Portland shows.
Do you think that we’re at a point where the “url to irl” transition is starting to be possible? We already have examples like Brownies & Lemonade and Trap Nation that has been able to give the spotlight to the web community, locally and all over the world, on a massive scale. Do you think that smaller groups could be able to find a niche audience willing to support them going live?
Yes yes yes. We are already doing it! But it’s harder than ever if you just are getting started. Now if you are an artist you gotta have a big label or it’s with a platform for support.
It’s clear that Phuture invests a lot into networking. You have a solid and eclectic team that gravitates around you, the ‘Suture’ series going on with ‘Surreal’ and recently you teamed up with ‘Sus Collective’ for the latest episode of your own Radio show. Which other collectives/labels do you highly suggest to check out?
You said our favorites! Alongside PlayItLouder, Night Owl Collective, Crown Collective, Courteous and Midi Boyz. I know I’m forgetting some but those four have been our main support alongside Rauthentic since we began!
