Basically this is what I do and why I do it, what I don't do and why I can't/won't do it! Hopefully this will be useful reading if you are thinking of sending me a tape of your music.
As a member of the Diskant web collective I was asked to sum up Bearos in under 50 words. It felt like doing one of those tie-breaker competition captions but here's what I came up with:
"Purveyors of fine music from the West Midlands and beyond since 1998. We hope that a release on Bearos is the first step to outgrowing the label and moving on to bigger things! Temporary home to Jameson, The Regulars and Grover. Stopovers by Saloon, Lazarus Clamp and Yellow6."
Bearos was set up predominantly, though not exclusively, to work with local bands. This is because: I've always enjoyed local music in local venues - the place is bursting with talent - it's easier to work with people you can easily meet up with - you can hand them their 10% of the pressing and save postage - you can sell loads of records at their gigs and at local shops - you make friends and influence people....more to come as I think of them!
I can't do justice to some stuff i'm sent, however much I might like it. Some bands will have already outgrown the label even before they approach me. A lot of bands are in a more commercial rather than cult style or stage in their career. They need, and should be looking for, bigger distribution, pluggers, promotion, tours etc etc. I've neither the time, money or inclination to get involved with stuff like that! Perhaps you need a manager more that a record release. I always hope that bands will move onto bigger things from the Bearos label and actively encourage the next step.
I don't "sign" bands. My commitment to a band is the tracks we decide to put out on a single (I must admit that this gets a little blurred when you are working with local bands.) At the end of the day there's no ties, no commitment beyond that.
Bearos is a spare time thing. At the end of the day it takes a lot of time and effort and dominates evenings and weekends. I might like what your band is doing but if i'm not 100% in love with it I'll have to turn you down. When I say "feel free to send me further stuff in future" I mean it - I can think of at least two singles that resulted from second (or even third) tapes I was sent!
There's a group of us all over the country running ventures like this in a very similar way. A few will want to move onto bigger things and a few have - Fierce Panda for example. As for me, I'm stuck with the day job! Hope this helps - i've certainly enjoyed getting it off my chest!