Hi Phil (+ anyone else that knows a lot about this and can help).br
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So i have received an offer from a label to release two of my tracks.br
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The ironic thing is, that after a couple of weeks of sending emails to loads of labels and getting frustrated because i wasn’t hearing anything back, now that i have finally got an offer to sign the tracks, i am having some doubts about the overall credibility and professionalism of the label.br
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Can you please give me some advice about whether you think i should sign with this label, based on the following points:br
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(1) The label is called Beat Music Records, they appear to be a Columbia based label, although on Resident Advisor it says they are a Spanish label. In the contract, it says it’s governed by Columbia law though. They have quite a strong presence on Beatport, with loads of releases (probably about 400 or so) on Beatport dating back to October 2011 to present.br
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(2) I have checked out their releases on Beatport, and they seem to release tracks across a very wide range of Genre’s, taking in House, Techno, Tech-House, Minimal, Progressive House, Funky House etc. This kind of put me off a little, as it gives me the impression they maybe they just sign any old tracks, just to try and make money. Sort of quantity over quality kind of thing!br
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(3) Some of the tracks i listened to were pretty good, but some were pretty average and a bit cheesy. So again, i get the impression they are not super-fussy with what they sign and release.br
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(4) They have sent me a contract - main points are; br
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-they call it a 'digital distribution contract’br
-looks like you need to supply your own artwork for the trackbr
looks like they are saying they want rights to the distribution for 5 yearsbr
it’s for the rights to worldwide distributionbr
says i need to pay any ‘expenses’ related to my tracks - not sure what that relates to?br
they are offering 50% of the net wholesale price that they say they receive from the digital distribution service. This wording worries me, as i get the impression maybe they just send the tracks to a digital distribution service that then gets them on Beatport and the other big sites, maybe i could just do this myself and cut out the middle man? Don’t know much about this, so what do you think? Is this how it normally works?br
if the balance of my royalties is less than 200 US Dollars, they carry payment over into the next semester, until the balance is above 200 US Dollars, then they pay out.br
they charge 25 US Dollars for me making any changes to ‘the cancellation or elimination of sales of publications at the behest of the manufactuturer’. Is this standard for this kind of contract?br
At the end, it says the duration of the agreement is 3 years.br
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What do you think?br
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Any advice on this area you can give me will be welcome - i really know nothing about this kind of thing at present!br
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Sounds well dodgy to me.br
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I think you are right that all they are doing is forwarding your track on to their distributor. which you could do yourself.br
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The cost they are referring to are probably MCPS fees which gets deducted for each sale.br
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You should really be looking for someone you can have a phone call with, skype with, a mate of a mate… etc. some one you know is a real person with a label that is about the music etc. and maybe runs a night so you could get the odd gig. not just some sharks taking a cut for nothing.br
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or you could just stick it out yourself on your own label.
Thanks Phil. Yeah as you say, i think the temptation to just get your first track released and on Beatport is always SO strong for everyone that people often sign with labels that perhaps they shouldn’t.br
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I don’t want to do that, and i think from what you have said i won’t sign with this label.br
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Do you think it is a good idea to start my own label now though?br
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I was talking to a very good producer about it on Saturday, and he advised against it. He said it’s a lot of work if you’re going to do it properly, and also how am i going to be able to get the track lots of attention if it’s not on a label that has an established reputation and customer base?br
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But I’m interested to know your views on this?br
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My understanding is that it might only cost about £50-£100 to start a label? Is that about right?br
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I’m kind of torn on this one at the moment. What i mean is, i am thinking that if it only costs me about £50 to start my own label, and i then release these tracks on it, and use a distributor to get them on Beatport and other sites, at least my music is out there and i might get a little bit of attention and perhaps start some kind of following.br
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But on the other hand, I’m thinking is it really worth starting a label just for the sake of ‘officially’ releasing my tracks, when realistically they won’t sell enough copies to make any kind of money, and i don’t yet want to get into the hassle of trying to sign any other artists?br
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What do you think?
Getting sales on Beatport with a new label and artist is extremely difficult.br
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getting signed to a really god label is also very tricky.br
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It all really comes down to the quality of the track.br
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personally i think at the early stages of building your name you should be focused on building a good facebook, twitter, soundcloud, youtube following. give your tracks away for free until you have enough “fans” that it would be either worthwhile to have your own label or that a decent label would take an interest.br
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there is no real money in selling records unless you are up there with Rhianna etc. All the money is in gigs and you need a following to get gigs.br
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Yeah i think i agree with you, i think i might just hold out for a bit, keep making tracks and giving them away for free at this stage, like you said try and build a following, then when i have better tracks and that following hopefully i can either get signed to a better label, or start my own label.br
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Thanks for your advice Phil, invaluable as always mate and appreciated.
So do you reckon you have no chance of signin to a label unless you have a big following on soundcloud/facebook?br
I actually moved away from DJin and promoting because all that SC and FB promotion was doin my head in. Hate to think I would have to go through all that balls again as a producer.
you dont have to bash people over the head with promotion.br
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just post your tracks… chat to people etc. i think it does more harm than good spamming and too frequent updates of the same thing.
Having said that, in response to Sound Knights post, i do think that in this day and age with mass over-saturation, and so much stuff vying for people attention with the growth of the internet, great promotion is a necessary evil!br
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For example, i started a blog a few months back, and didn’t really know what to expect, but the thing i have learnt very quickly, is that you can literally write the best posts in the world, but if you aren’t pro-active and smart about things like posting on other peoples forums, replying to other peoples tweets etc etc, then your blog literally just sits there with virtually no audience.br
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I think it’s the same with music now - even if you have really good tracks, unless you have a method of promoting them really well in a pro-active way, i think you’re gonna struggle to build a decent following.br
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But like Phil said, i think it’s about having really, really good tracks in the first place, and then targeting the right kind of people, but not overdoing it by spamming everyone or bombarding them with too much stuff.br
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But i think in this day and age you need to be good at music AND promotion - rather than just good at music!
you look at someone like MAdeon… he posted up videos of himself doing these great cut up tracks on launchpad and got tons of hits which gets him siged to a great label. It was a very clever way to market himself.br
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Zedd just started doing all these free remixes… eventually he started getting proper ones and got a deal made his own tracks.br
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both these guys are super talented but the way they wen about getting noticed still applys to everyone… do stuff to catch peoples attention. br
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My tact when I think I’ve got something half decent will be to just contact all the DJs I know from my more frequent clubbing / DJing days and give my tunes directly to them. Hopefully even if they’re not interested they will be able to point me toward somebody who maybe, all about networking
Yeah clever stuff from the likes of Madeon and Zedd.br
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I guess if you don’t have lots of good contacts in the industry you really have to good something to stand out from the crowd just like those boys did!
Concerning the label, I have to agree it sounds dodgy. Good of you to do some checking up. Better to release on a good label then on a dodgy one.br
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Never pay a label to do anything for you. They should pay all in advance, and when sales come in they will deduct the costs they made.br
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That a label has a variety of genres isn’t that strange. Have a look at Snatch!, Toolroom, etc. It’s Beatport that label it with genres.br
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Promote your stuff to attrack attention is indeed a very good advice. You might attract a lot of attention by doing remix competitions, but even better is to make a remix/edit/bootleg of a big artist track that’s just released. The “early birds” get loads of plays on soundcloud.br
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You can always go with AWAL if you want your tracks released. Just have to promote it yourself. There’s plenty of ways to get noticed, its like there’s no formula for success. All i can suggest is do music while you enjoy doing it. Otherwise you get cought up in loads of promotion nonsense and you start hating what you do just because of it. br
For me main point is to have fun and enjoy it. If you can make a living thats great, if not still do what you enjoy doing.br
By they way this is a bit off topic, how about having a sonic academy competion? we can pick 2 winners, one by the SA staff and the other by members vote. And the winner can do a video of how he did the song and show how he learned what from what tutorial etc. What you guys think?
I think it would be a good tool for Sonic Academy to promote themselves, by showing how things that people have learnt from their website have been used to make a track.br
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Plus yeah it would probably be good for the members too, probably quite a useful experience!
Anyone here used AWAL?br
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Just had a look at their site, seems good?br
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Can anyone who has experience of them give me some feedback and guidance please.br
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Thanks,br
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David
Firstly just generally are they good and can they be trusted i.e. do they pay royalties on time, and are they professional etc?br
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Then secondly, do you see many sales through them? Do they do as they promise, and get your tracks on all the decent websites / online record stores?br
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And would you say it is worth using them? Do you see decent benefits from using them, in terms of exposure for your music and your profile as a producer?
