Hi All,
i’m guessing a lot of us here are aiming for, or have already secured deals with Record Labels with published tracks. I would be interested to hear from anyone about their experience with this and any tips or hints about what works / does not work. One thing I find about sites like Soundcloud is it takes ages to build up your reputation enough to get noticed and i’m wondering whether there may be easier routes to market…
record labels don’t want tracks that have been publicly posted to soundcloud.
you can post a preview, but as soon as you post the complete track the value drops big time.
just wanted to point that out. i actually havnt signed a track yet so there are others here that would know more then myself on the whole process of signing a track… but I am planning on sending some of my new stuff to a couple labels in the next few weeks.
from working in the business I can tell you that you need to make sure your **** is together before you start sending stuff out. first & foremost you need to make good music… at least good enough for the label you want to get signed by. then you need to make sure you ducks are in a row… do you have a website? have you taken care of your social network presence? Do you have updated headshots or are you using your high school yearbook photo? Are you sending the right type of track to the right label? Armada is not in the business of doing minimal tracks and Tool Room doesn’t make epic trance anthems. Do your research on the labels, artists and business side of it before you actually start sending to people. Find out who the A & R guy is and make sure that the letter/email you write is personal and not some copied letter that you send to 100 labels.
if you want to get noticed, then make sure your ducks are in a row. if you think about it as though you were the A&R guy working at the label and you read your own email, viewed your own profile, and listened to your music… would you sign it if you were them? if the answer is no to any of these questions then you still got work to do.
long story short. don’t waste the time of people by not having your stuff together.
I’ll tell you about my experience…
Thats it 
Its pretty bad tbh record deals dont mean **** nemore because any idiot can set one up. What you want is a record deal with a bigger label atleast then it gets your name out there…
Also ive found the time it takes from getting a track signed to it coming out can be really long, make sure you try and get a confirmation in your contract as to when the track will be released. This avoids the label continuously pushing your tracks release back just because some other tracks have come along…
You will find tho the bigger labels tend not to do this as much…
This thread pops up about once a week. We should make a “Getting Signed” sticky…
I think everybody could have a different story to tell you
UV is right (for once :P) about labels not liking public tracks even though I have one track which is public which a certain label is interested in - so again no defined rule there
My tactic is building up a reputation - chatting to label owners and other producers who have a similar taste in music as you online via Facebook and souncloud -but i don’t just go straight in and say hey I have track do you want to listen for a release - I play the long game and charm my way in (yes I can be charming if the need arises)
Start making a list of labels of the kinda of music they release - if they have soundcloud accounts comment on their tracks as well as the producer
Ask producers who maybe at the same level to remix a track and you do the same for them - that way you can pull both your contacts together - this has worked for me
You say you want an easier route to the market - why? what’s the rush? Its damn right impossible to make any decent money in this game, so I presume you want a release for some sort of recognition or prestige - nothing wrong with that and maybe your tracks are so hot that any label would want to pick them up. For me I make music because I enjoy it and if I get a release all the better
So I suppose in a nutshell - there is no fast track to get released
But this is my experience and others may tell you different 
Theres no magic bullet…
Also if your tracks are good enough they will come to you…
[quote]slender (18/03/2011)[hr]I think everybody could have a different story to tell you
UV is right (for once :P) about labels not liking public tracks even though I have one track which is public which a certain label is interested in - so again no defined rule there
My tactic is building up a reputation - chatting to label owners and other producers who have a similar taste in music as you online via Facebook and souncloud -but i don’t just go straight in and say hey I have track do you want to listen for a release - I play the long game and charm my way in (yes I can be charming if the need arises)
Start making a list of labels of the kinda of music they release - if they have soundcloud accounts comment on their tracks as well as the producer
Ask producers who maybe at the same level to remix a track and you do the same for them - that way you can pull both your contacts together - this has worked for me
You say you want an easier route to the market - why? what’s the rush? Its damn right impossible to make any decent money in this game, so I presume you want a release for some sort of recognition or prestige - nothing wrong with that and maybe your tracks are so hot that any label would want to pick them up. For me I make music because I enjoy it and if I get a release all the better
So I suppose in a nutshell - there is no fast track to get released
But this is my experience and others may tell you different
[/quote]
yeah the whole soundcloud posting thing isn’t 100% with all labels… but definitely a lot of em.
also rushing to get signed is probably not that hard. just sign your track to some no-name record label and then you can tout yourself as the 2nd coming of tiesto.
lol, i see people actually doing just that on facebook all the time. its hillarious.
BUT if you wanna get signed to like Armada or Tool Room. to Slender’s point, there is definitely some schmoozing that goes hand-in-hand with getting signed 2 a big label.
Another point that nobody EVER brings up is this…
If your plan is to be a professional producer then waiting for your first release is the best thing you can do. I’ve had 2 labels hit me up in the last 6 months about 2 different tracks on my soundcloud. But you only get 1 first release. It’s kinda like popping your cherry, except that it’s documented online (beatport, trackitdown, etc…)… So if you rush to put out a track (knowing that the track is muff cabbage) then that will be the “first” track that is posted to your beatport artist profile… So in 2 or 3 years when your music is much improved, you will be hating yourself for signing some garbage track (that will make you next to nothing $$ wise) and having it on your beatport profile. Would you rather bang the fat chick eyeballing your cheesesteak right now or wait for the super hot blonde that might or might not let you donkey punch her?
My vote goes for the blonde.
I know a whole bunch of producers that wish they could delete some of their earlier signings to noname record labels, because when people view your profile they listen to your tracks and go WTF is this crap?
Take your time. There is no rush. I’ve been producing for a year and have yet 2 send out 1 promo.
i know that there are others on this board that agree with me about this.
[quote]slender (18/03/2011)[hr]I think - Blah, Blah, Blah… 
[/quote]
The Long Game - Dead right Mate
I’ve no experience of it at all… but you’re right, this is the common ingredient to most successful relationships, be it personal or otherwise.
Get in there like a Tick! :hehe:
Hope your not implying my post are too long ICN 
Never… its just that they’re boring! :hehe:
Ah no… Totally agree with everything you said Mate… Just fell asleep reading it, thats all :w00t:
Hey all,
Many thanks for this very useful ideas and viewpoints :D. Responding to a few points raised here kki’ll expand a little on my motivations. Not wishing to bore you all with my whole background thing! (which is here if you are interested! http://soundcloud.com/dj-in-transition) I got back in the game a year ago doing DJ sets on line for fun but soon realised I wanted a serious DJ / Producer future which could either be a sideline to my day job or become my new career. Taking stock of the industry and advice from others it was clear that securing DJ gig’s are pretty much impossible these days what with the sheer volume of the competition. So I decided that Production was my best option, not primarily to make mega bucks (which would be great!) but to help secure a reputation and regular live bookings.I have been Ableton training for around 6 months now and have a track which I believe has commercial potential - but of course that’s entirely subject to opinion!
So my dilema is now whether to push this track out there to carefully chosen labels or to hold back, develop my producing skills and stick with the Soundcloud option for another 6 months. :blink:
[quote]DJ In-Transition (18/03/2011)[hr]Hey all,
So my dilema is now whether to push this track out there to carefully chosen labels or to hold back, develop my producing skills and stick with the Soundcloud option for another 6 months. :blink:[/quote]
…and the only person who can answer that is you
I suppose you could put up your track on s/cloud to private ask us to listen too it and then take it down again
I also would say have at least 3 tracks done as alot of labels like to do eps at least in my experience
+1. Secret Links to SC to a few people FTW - Thats a good start / happy medium :)
[quote]ICN (18/03/2011)[hr]+1. Secret Links to SC to a few people FTW - Thats a good start / happy medium:)[/quote]
yah this is OK if the label says its OK.
the best thing to do is email/contact the label and ask how they want submissions.
some of them def want soundcloud links because it is easier then downloading a mp3 or wav.
the ones that i asked and prefered SC, also asked that I make the track private.
on the money as usual ICN & slender!
Who’s gonna know if you send it to a few mates?
Fk what anyone else says. Its just a fancy upload site. You can always make a new link to anyone being sent it “officially”.
Doesnt even have to be the “real” account either
[quote]ICN (18/03/2011)[hr]Who’s gonna know if you send it to a few mates?
Fk what anyone else says. Its just a fancy upload site. You can always make a new link to anyone being sent it “officially”.
Doesnt even have to be the “real” account either.[/quote]
,and you can delete the track so all comments disappear - see us techno militia are sneaky bunch
I’m the total opposite of UnitedVision, although we get along about music
I started sending out demos when I had been producing for just over 4 months… Needless to say I didn’t get any offers. But “getting signed” is such a mythic term for what’s really pretty easy these days. The question is, what do you want to accomplish? Do you want to move 100,000 records (probably shouldn’t be making dance music, but whatever…), do you want to tour, what?
Also, building a reputation is not necessarily the most important thing. There’s a lot of ****e on soundcloud with thousands views and comments. If you have a flair for the original and have a knack for making good songs, labels want that. The bottom line of the dance music industry, which is in many ways quite refreshingly meritocratic compared to Pop music or other genres in the music business, is that having a good song is all you need. I mean, have you SEEN Skrillex, Deadmau5, Wolfgang, Steve Angello? They’re not exactly pretty.
Never give up sending demos, and always be polite. If someone says “That’s the worst song I’ve ever heard”, fine. Let it go. Go back and work on it some more. Keep working on it. Go onto Beatport, go to the genre you want to produce, and get the e-mails of the companies with the top songs. That’s who you want to like your stuff. Even if you sign to smaller labels, you should have the confidence that your track is good enough, and that you’re not copping out by pushing absolute crap on a tiny label. For me, this meant looking around, e-mailing Big Fish, Plasmapool (although not anymore, ****heads…), Big Alliance, Burn The Fire, Crux, etc.
And look, it worked, at least partially, for me. Most importantly, live and learn. As someone probably once said:
“There’s no failure. Only revision”.
[quote]raymondsar (18/03/2011)[hr]This thread pops up about once a week. We should make a “Getting Signed” sticky…[/quote]
There is
[url]http://forums.sonicacademy.com/Topic20570-8-1.aspx[/url]
Well guys, here is the private link. I’m still working on the arrangement and mastering but the basic concept is there. There will also likely be royalty issues with the vocals but i’ll cross that bridge when and if it becomes relevant…
http://soundcloud.com/dj-in-transition/war-of-the-worlds-the-tripod/s-wzzVo