Current music magazines have always been on the scene for the latest young upstarts, major new releases, and great cutting-edge music. They have to get to the next best thing before all the other rags, traveling the globe, weeding out the good and the bad, and generating fervor through readers. That’s their job. But then what else? Easy. Start a record label.

It’s an avenue that makes perfect sense. Magazine staffs, like their readers, can be considerably anal and obsessive when it comes to good music, and these type of folks rarely go more than a few albums without saying, “I could put out better stuff than this shite!” Lately, magazines have put out releases from rather choice artists. Vice Records, offshoot of culture and music publication Vice Magazine is at the forefront of the magazine labels, releasing music from well-known alternative artists such as Bloc Party, The Streets, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. And although without rosters as big, Fader Magazine’s Fader Label has released albums by hip-hop poet/emcee Saul Williams and UK rock band Editors. Not to be outdone, Filter Magazine’s Filter US Recordings boasts a low-key, yet impressive roster including Icelandic indie darlings Sigur Ros. How are these journalistic mavericks putting out the notable acts they’re reporting on?

“They’re all much more than just magazines,” says Adam Shore, General Manager of Vice Recordings. “Selling records helps when you have a built-in audience, but it also helps when you have marketing.” What Shore means is get the notion out of your head of a few music geeks holed up in a small office. All three magazine entities have their fingers in many other pots, not just music reporting. Shore’s company Vice is more of a media company, putting out their free magazine as well as boasting a publishing division that has released a few books, and a brand new online television station, vbs.tv. Let’s not forget that all this is also paired with the success of the music label.

Consider Filter much more than a magazine as well. This entity manned by magazine publishers Alan Miller and Alan Sartirana have scored mild successes with Filter US Recordings in a Sigur Ros EP and their release of the soundtrack for the film "Shopgirl", but their notoriety lies elsewhere. Known as Filter Creative Group, the company has enjoyed a slew of accomplishments in marketing, featuring an impressive list of past and current clients. With noteworthy marketing campaigns such as the "Ren and Stimpy" DVDs, the film "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", and Honda’s latest car, the Fit, the Filter name has its share of clout. Folio Magazine even reports that Filter co-founder Alan Sartirana spends between $5,000 and $15,000 on marketing for parties at the Sundance Film Festival.

Make no mistake, each magazine is more outfit than just publication, and also have the right people to take care of business. Poet and recording artist Saul Williams will attest to that, being good friends with the people at The Fader, which along with the magazine boasts a film and a record division, which put out Williams’ most recent self-titled release.

“The people who run The Fader Magazine are actually record execs. Rob Stone was the A&R(Artist and Research) that signed Biggie, and John Cohen, the other half of The Fader, was the A&R that signed Jeff Buckley,” says Williams. “The reason why Fader has its affinity towards music is because it’s run by people that were in the music industry that escaped it because they didn’t like it that much. Then with the burgeoning of all this independent shit, they decided they could start a label.”

Adam Shore, who was also an A&R at TVT Records before Vice, believes that since these three entities are run by such capable individuals, who better than to put out records.

“I really care about the people at Filter and Fader. They’re all people that really care about good music,” says Shore. “Magazines are going through a hard time and so is the record business. It would be nice if both areas can grow together.”

With sentiment like that, there hardly lies any conflict of interest with the magazines and the artists belonging to their sister labels. Vice Record’s artists have made a number of appearances on the other publications, with Bloc Party gracing a recent issue of Filter and five other artists making Fader’s cover. The connections are even through the labels as well, as Shore says Fader Label will be releasing a 7 inch record featuring a song from Vice’s own Black Lips.

But although these publications are putting out exceptional records with the help of experienced people, it’s not to say that these indie labels won’t ever go the way of the shady record exec.

“It totally makes sense [that music magazines should put out music], I’m all for it,” says Saul Williams. “But at the end of the day, once any artist they put out experiences a huge amount of success, before they know it, they’re more on the executive side than they ever bargained for. It’s all inevitable if we put our energy in that direction. Fuckin’ Jimmy Iovine, who runs Interscope and puts out the Black Eyed Peas and all this shit, used to produce Patti Smith albums. He used to be very cool, at one point.”

For now, these labels provide an outlet for current artists to stay away from the warped reality of the record industry. Williams, who is just putting the finishing touches on his latest album, has not yet found a label for it, but strongly considers Fader as an option. As for dealing with the record business, Williams says it may not be the fault of A&R’s, but rather, American fans and the music they prefer.

“Here in the states, we have this fast food relationship to everything. We want instant gratification, whether it be from a song, or whatever,” says Williams. “I don’t know. We need psychologists to analyze this shit, not poets.”