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Root WaveINTERNATIONAL

NEW RELEASEGravity Riddim — nine voicings, one bassline. Out now.Hear the catalog →

ABOUT THE LABEL

A label carried across an ocean — from a Kingston yard to the shore of Puget Sound.

The story

Root Wave started in 2011 as a Saturday-night sound in Kingston — a mixing desk, a borrowed van of speaker boxes, and a circle of singers who deserved better than a handshake deal. Founder Robert Brown began pressing the sound's exclusive dubplates as proper releases, paying artists per sale instead of per promise.

When Delroy moved his family to Federal Way, Washington, the label came with him. The masters travel well: sessions are still voiced in Kingston, while mixing, mastering, and the business side run from the Pacific Northwest. Distance turned out to be the label's advantage — one foot in the source, one in a new audience.

Today Root Wave International sells its full catalog direct as lossless downloads. No exclusives locked to a platform, no algorithm deciding what survives. Just records, sold the honest way, to people who keep them.

“A record you own is a promise kept. That's the whole business model.”
Robert Brown · Founder, Root Wave International

WHAT WE STAND ON

Three commitments

Artists paid first

Every artist keeps the majority share of their sales, settled monthly, with statements anyone can read.

The master is sacred

We sell exactly what leaves the mastering room — full resolution, no loudness-war crush, no lossy shortcuts.

Ownership over access

Buyers own their files outright. If we closed tomorrow, every record we ever sold keeps playing.

HOW A RELEASE IS MADE

From riddim to release

  1. 1

    The riddim is built

    Bass, drums, and skank tracked by the Root Wave Players — live players first, machines second.

  2. 2

    Voiced in Kingston

    Singers and deejays cut their takes at our partner studio off Red Hills Road — the same rooms the sound grew up in.

  3. 3

    Mixed dub-style

    Mixes ride the faders in real time in the Federal Way room — spring reverb, tape delay, hands on the desk.

  4. 4

    Mastered twice

    One master for big systems, checked on a club rig; one for headphones and home. You get the right one in every format.

  5. 5

    Released direct

    Straight to the catalog in 24-bit WAV, FLAC, and 320 MP3 — artists paid the same month it sells.

THE FOUNDER

Robert Brown

Raised in Kingston, seasoned on sound-system culture, and now fifteen years into running an independent label the long way. Delroy still signs off every master personally and still answers the label's email himself.

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