Burning Man Art Car Titanic’s End Is Launching a Record Label
Written by djfrosty on December 5, 2024
Burning Man art car Titanic’s End is launching a record label, Titanic’s End Records.
Justin Kan and Nicholas Parasram, co-founders of the label, tell Billboard the project will help fund the annual cost of bringing the art car to Burning Man. 50% of label profits will also go to Big Arts Organization, a registered 501(c) nonprofit created by Titanic’s End to create public art and raise awareness about climate change.
Titanic’s End Records will focus on house, Afro house and global music, with singles coming from the collective of DJs and producers that exist within the community, as well as artists from outside this world. “Success for us is if we help artists to bring the sounds we are listening to to a broader audience in the world,” says Parasram.
Distribution is being handled by the independent label and artist services of Warner Music Group. Coming in January, the first release, coming in January, will be a collaborative track by producers JK, Arabic Piano, ORSO and Maejor.
Kan, a tech entrepreneur who also co-founded Twitch, and Parasram, an artist manager and investor, also recently launched Thin Ice Entertainment, which focuses on talent management, content publishing and distribution. The art car itself is a co-creation of from Kan and entrepreneur Eddie Sellers. Designed in the shape of iceberg, it was built in San Francisco by more than 200 volunteers from the Titanic’s End Burning Man camp and debuted at Burning Man in 2022.
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Known as a Burning Man art car with one of the highest-quality sound systems at the event, Titanic’s End has hosted sets by LP Giobbi, Diplo, Acraze, Tokimonsta, Francis Mercier and many other producers from the global Titanic’s End community.
Like several of the other biggest and loudest art cars at Burning Man, Titanic’s End also hosts events around the world and plans to present label artists at parties currently being planned for 2025. (in October of 2023, it made an appearance at set from Fisher and Chris Lake that took over Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles and drew an estimated crowd of 12,000.)
Kan says “all the activities [outside of Burning Man], from Titanic’s End Records to events that we host ourselves, go to our non profit to fund bringing Titanic’s End to the playa every year.”
The label founders add that the team is also focused on creating opportunities for artists from a variety of disciplines to present their art in the world. “Music is one area,” says Kan, “but we are also excited about large format sculptural and LED art and to build more in-person events that introduce the culture to more people.”
“We are very excited to launch this label,” Parasram adds, “because our community has worked so hard to build Titanic’s End into an symbiotic platform and the label is our final piece of the puzzle for a truly connected [inside/outside Burning Man] experience.”