White labels and dubplates in general hearken back to the sound system culture that originated in Jamaica [1]. Mostly a means of getting the newest songs fastest; record something in the morning, press your dubplate that afternoon, play it out that night. The unofficial nature of the recordings makes it easier to hop around copyright stuff and not clear samples, etc. The song Alicia by Mala jumps to mind [2], I don't think it's ever seen a proper release because of the heavy use of Alicia Keys samples.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_system_%28Jamaican%29 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpV7radKuwo

Again, I don't see how pressing a physical recording is making anything faster. It's a step that's entirely unnecessary if you distribute digitally. It must be more of a tradition, or a desire to mix on turntables, or possibly a way to do a limited/controlled release that is not easy to redistribute widely as a digital media file would be?

Combo of all of those, really. Particularly the exclusivity bit, songs that get pressed like that generally aren't things people are trying to share. For instance, dubplates use acetate and not vinyl, and are really only good for about 50 plays. Lots of exclusives becomes the reason to check out your party vs the one the people a few blocks down are throwing.

He did say this, but maybe it wasn't clear. It's faster because you can skip the meaningless bureaucracy associated with obtaining copyright permission for a tiny run - a lot of dance music samples other music. If you try that with a digital release, it can bite you if it blows up.

No, he means like if you write the flac to a flash drive. Just write it to a digital medium, rather than go to the trouble of pressing discs.

Dance music is typically released in a stepped fashion - a handful of DJs will receive exclusive dubs, followed by a small release on white label, followed by a general release.

This is a mutually beneficial arrangement for DJs and producers. DJs can increase their audience by playing music that can't be heard elsewhere; This exclusivity provides promotion for a track before general release.

Radio DJs have a habit of speaking over the middle of an exclusive track, to prevent it from being ripped and used by other DJs. Exclusive dubs often mention the DJ by name in the lyrics, a tradition originating in the Jamaican sound system culture.

Vinyl releases are also much more profitable, which can be very significant for niche music with a relatively small market. A typical track download nets the record label 50-70p, but a 12" white label can net £3 to £4. If you only expect to sell a few thousand copies in total, a limited vinyl run can make a big difference to the bottom line.

>Why is this done? Tradition? Certainly it's an extra expense that releasing in pure digital format would not include -- and it's not like all the music is not mastered digitally now anyway -- nobody is mastering on tape and cutting and splicing....

Actually lots of artists master on tape.

What most don't do is track and mix on tape -- but there are some that do that too.

(and mastering doesn't involve "cutting" and "splicing" much -- that would be mixing).