Derek Vincent Smith
You might say that Pretty Lights has had a busy year. It would be true, but it would also be a massive understatement. By any standard, the prolific beatsmiths have spent their 2010 going from strength to strength. For starters, they have lived up to their promise to release a trilogy of EPs: Making Up A Changing Mind, Spilling Over Every Side and the final installment, Glowing in the Darkest Night, which was released in late October. That work ethic has hardly been confined to the studio, however.
PL has spent a good chunk of the year on tour, playing a number of notable shows that included a sold-out Red Rocks appearance. They are currently touring the United States, playing a series of dates that will include a pair of New Years performances in Chicago alongside indie dance darlings Major Lazer and Holy Fuck!
Indeed, it’s been a breakout year for the alter ego of Derek Vincent Smith, the founder of the Pretty Lights duo (along with Adam Deitch, who replaced Cory Eberhard as drummer this year). In fact, Smith would now have to be considered one of, if not the, most successful musical exports of the Northern Colorado area.
Smith’s success is virtually unprecedented for a region that has historically had a tough time breaking artists nationally. The reasons for underexposure are many: geographical constraints, relatively small population size and, if you believe the cynics, perhaps just an overall lack of talent.
Not that any of that matters today. The studio wizard now finds himself firmly cemented as a full-blown underground sensation sitting on the cusp of mainstream success. How did he go from an anonymous bedroom producer to a headliner of major festivals and a full-blown national force?
First and foremost, he made hot beats. Smith’s aforementioned EPs, along with full-length releases Taking Up Your Precious Time (2006), Filling Up The City Skies (2008) and Passing Behind Your Eyes (2009) have solidified his standing as a top-notch downtempo producer. His songs tend to be a tapestry of hip-hop, funk, electronica and whatever other odd ends he can fit in, and most come with a readymade crossover appeal. His 2006 single “Finally Moving” has become a certified classic and has proven to have a ubiquitous kind of appeal – nowadays you’re liable to hear it being dropped at any time on any dance floor.
Without a proper outlet, however, all of that music would have never seen the light of day. And that’s exactly what it seemed the case might be when labels initially showed little interest in Smith’s music. So he decided to take a drastic step.
He gave his music away. No, seriously.
It’s similar to what Radiohead famously did in 2007 when they self-released In Rainbows on their website. The album could technically be downloaded for free, but users still encouraged fans to donate what they thought might be a fair price. But unlike Oxford’s alt-rock titans, Smith’s gambit was arguably greater. His Pretty Lights project was a largely unestablished act lacking a built-in worldwide fan base.
Nonetheless, he went ahead with the decision. Over the years, anyone who has read a glowing review of Pretty Lights, heard his name through word-of-mouth or come across a song of his on their local college radio station could log on to prettylightsmusic.com and download anything that Smith has ever produced. It’s all there and, with a couple mouse clicks, it’s all yours.
The best part is that it’s all free, and that’s true whether you’re just looking to sample one song or if you’re a die-hard completist who wants the entire catalog. Donating is still encouraged, of course, but ultimately Smith wanted to put out his music and decided to circumvent the traditional means of doing so.
Obviously, it worked. Smith may have sacrificed financial gain in the short-term, but he has more than recouped those losses with his recent success. His business model has shown a new way of thinking about distributing music in these modern times, and that artists do not have to go through traditional channels to gain recognition.
Which conveniently brings up perhaps the biggest, most important landmark for Pretty Lights in a span of unprecedented success: prettylightsmusic.com registered its 1,000,000th download in September.
Amidst a year packed end-to-end with triumph after triumph, the milestone download is a shining confirmation that Smith’s pro-bono experiment could not only be done, but that it could be done successfully.
As a show of appreciation, the lucky 1,000,000th downloader was treated to VIP passes to Pretty Lights’ Las Vegas date on November 27.
For that fortunate fan, getting free music paid off big-time.
For Pretty Lights, so did giving it away.
Check out www.prettylightsmusic.com for more information.
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