Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dakota Horbaczek. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Dakota thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I’ve had this thought a few times over the years but it always went away just as quickly as it popped into my head. I do still have a day job just for the basics and for more I can invest in DI Records. It was recent that this thought entered my head.

Recently I had to move unexpectedly. Trying to run the label and handle the stress of this move was a lot. Because I couldn’t split my attention to do both. Each required my undivided attention. I kept thinking to myself it would be easier for everyone if I just left DI. However my brain finally did the opposite of what it had done when I was a kid: force me to think positively. DI Records is my biggest dream and I dearly love everyone who is part of it no matter how long they’ve been part of it.

If I can build this big and wonderful thing with amazing people then having to find a new place to live quickly is going to be a cake walk. No matter how tough things look if you have the right people, the right family beside you then there isn’t on single thing on this planet you can’t achieve.

Dakota, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I always just describe myself as a fan of music who built a wonderful business filled with the best people. DI Records was built with the idea of quality over quantity. We focus on quality of everything not just music. The first thing we always look for after listening to the submission is the quality of the people. Having good music is always key but if you’re self centered and don’t care about other then it doesn’t matter if they have a top 10 hit. Everyone at DI Records in my experience wear their hearts on their sleeves and truly care about others.

I wasn’t always interested in the industry itself but I did love music. Back in high school I researched and listened to at least 100 to 500 artists of every decade starting in 1900. This made me a monster at music trivia obviously. After high school is when I started checking out independent artists. One of the bands I was into at the time were coming to Pittsburgh for the first time so I had to go. The show while awesome wasn’t exactly packed full of fans. So I did some research and saw a lot of indie bands had to do all the promotion themselves. That’s when I got the idea of creating something to help these bands and if I put in enough work could become its own label.

One of the biggest issues bands face is having someone to do the paperwork and dot all the eyes for them. Quite a few bands are great at this but most of the time they are creatives and should be focused on that not doing paperwork. So that was the first thing I thought of.

Our focus is making the world a better place through music touching on subjects that can help people in their darkest moments.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

It is a crazy simple strategy. Just talk to people and let them get to know you. Never hide who you are and most of all be kind. Everyone in the industry talks with one another and learn about new people coming up all the time. If you stay true to who you are and what you do then your quality will be known among your peers long before you ever meet them.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Honestly it is almost identical to how we built our reputation. We search for bands on our own all the time to chat, recruit and help. That is how we got most of our bands. We are fans first.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://direcordspgh.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/direcordspgh
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DIRecords1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@direcordspgh
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0nJn1yhvlddUDWpwGasUVB

Image Credits
My photo is by Shyan Montuoro. The band photos don’t have any credits at this time.