2026: An outlook (so far)
Hi friends, and happy new year! Hope you're having a peaceful winter, and the start to your year is already showing signs of good fortune and prosperity! We had an incredible 2025 and, even though it'll be tough to pull off a year like that again anytime soon, we still have some cool stuff we're working on.
As an independent artist-run label, we have LOTS of big dreams, but also have to do a lot of math around how and when we can execute on them! But the priority over here is always to treat the ideas with the excitement, and ambition they deserve, so we wanted to lay out for you what we're cooking up (even if it might take us a while to get it out there).
More Paul Chin to come
Head honcho Paul Chin dropped his newest EP, PROFESSIONAL, last fall. It's been well received, spawning lots of great conversation with fans, and officially the very first release uploaded to forthcoming co-op music marketplace Subvert. But heads will remember that PROFESSIONAL isn't the only entry into his current era of friendship breakup music; there's another chapter coming soon!
Additionally, Paul is gearing up to get busy for the Year of the Horse. He'll be DJing back to back nights at ROM After Dark in February, then debuting a new live set at Wavelength Festival 2026 in March, before heading back to Asia for another tour in April (dates to be announced soon).
Sanzuwu Trading Cards
If you follow us on Instagram (and you should!), you might have seen our teaser, but we're working on developing a line of Sanzuwu Trading Cards! Long before the record label even came into the picture, Paul was on a seemingly unending quest to figure out how to make download codes an actually desireable offering at the merch table.
More than a decade later, the entire world is going crazy over gachapon, blind boxes, and maybe most importantly... Pokémon cards. So, in keeping with our love of artists making cool things, we're working on printing unique download codes onto trading cards, and giving fans something to chase when a release doesn't have a vinyl or CD version!
No timeline as of now for when these will be ready, but we're working on getting the artwork together, and sourcing printers to make sure we can deliver the best quality collectibles to fans of our music, whether they've been riding with us for a long time, or they encounter us for the first time at a show.
Rumi Deluxe
To be quite honest, this is the one we have the least runway on so far. Do we want to bring Rumi to vinyl? Definitely. Do we have some great producers from across the Go Yama cinematic universe lined up to contribute remixes? Absolutely. Have we sold enough music or stickers to put us in a position to mix & master more tracks, plus press a couple hundred records? Well, not yet, but I think you guys can help us with that!
There are lots of paths toward vinyl that are available to independent labels like us, but it ultimately comes down to what you, our audience, wants. Would you be down to support a crowdfunding campaign? Perhaps this year you considering joining our paid support tier, Sanzuwu Circle. Or have you been hesitating on buying the album, waiting for a physical release? Maybe you don't even collect vinyl, so it kinda doesn't matter to you?
Tell us what you think! We'd love to hear from you, to get a sense of what you want from us, both in terms of things to make, and ways you'd like to support us.
Speaking of ways to support us, every cent we've ever made, no matter what currency, ends up in our Wise account! We use Wise as our preferred financial partner to make getting paid and paying our collaborators easier, especially working with people around the world! We don't do much sponsored promotion at all, but we're happy to share the tools and partners we really believe in, so thank you for supporting the companies that support us!
Deeper roster and more catalogue!
So, I know there's a bit of a cognitive dissonance in jumping from breaking down how much it costs to run a label and release music, to "we want more artists and albums to pay for", but the expense has always been a fixed element of the business, and therefore ultimately secondary to the mission – establishing a trusted and creative home for the most unique music we can support.
Sanzuwu Group is 100% independent, but our roster is comprised of two veteran producers – Go Yama and Paul Chin – who have lives and responsibilities outside of music. In fact, we believe allowing artists to spend time outside of release cycles allows them room for inspiration, resulting in the best possible art! So, we're also very interested in finding the right artists to join our collaborative little circus, so that we can keep a somewhat steady flow of music to our supporters.
Again, like all things, there are lots of paths toward this. There's also no fixed timeline on when we might add to our family, but if the right opportunity to collaborate with any other artists (and, most importantly, the vibe is right) presents itself, we're very much in the market to grow our crew!
Anyway, that's all from us. We're really looking forward to an exciting and prosperous 2026. Hope you have a great year, and that lots of great music that speaks to you finds its way to you!
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