The amount of promos I get each week, as well as the amount of tracks I’ll hear on Beatport, Juno, Trackitdown, etc, etc that are absolutely shockingly boring and/or sh*te.
YET, there are talented producers on here (see Sonic World Cup) who are struggling to get their tracks signed??
Makes no sense to me.
Mate i been wondering that for ages too, Its who you know, not what in this industry lmao
Another thing i’ve noticed that I find weird, is out of all the tracks I get, pretty much all the remixes arn’t too dis-similar from the original, usually the only real change is the drums or what not.
YET when there is a remix competiton, they always expect remixes which are completely different from the original, almost practically a new track altogether.
Makes no sense.
I know the remix comps that increase otherwise decreasing record sales, its clever marketing though init.
Takes the p*ss when some labels try charging producers for the parts, what next? DJ’s paying to play for promotions??
yeah there was a bookashade remix “comp” on beatport a while ago where they were chargin for the parts - wtf? ran a mile personally
i think i actually paid for parts in a comp once. wally lol
ive never tried to get a track signed so not aware how difficult it is yet. gulp scared now! lol
roben you should know from working where you used to work that crap has been being released for years. i lost count of the crap that we got offered in the record shop from distribution companies.
i hear and read people talking about the market being flooded with crap at the moment but its always been this way its only recently people have noticed because we have lost the local record shop “Crap Filter” now anything any everything gets through to the listener. before when we had the record shops you didn’t get to hear the crap because we knew it would stay on the shelf and never got anything in that we didn’t consider to be a good track or sell-able , the record shop would have been dead long before now if we all put the crap on the shelf’s that was offered to us by distribution.
although that being said we still got people in asking for tracks that most would consider to be vinyl only worthy of being a lamp shade
You’re on the right track mate but slightly off 
The thing with Vinyl was it costs at least (depending on how many units you needed) around £2k to press and send out to the record stores (postage), of course this figure often was more, so record labels could not gamble like they do today. They had to make sure the track was good enough that it would make the costs back as well as profit.
Now with the digital era, there is practically no costs involved, no costs of pressing, no cost of P&P, in fact rarely even artwork these days either. Vinyl sleeves used to costs a fair bit depending on what style you got. There is so little to it now cost wise there is not as high risk for labels, so they can release practically anything now.
So your ‘filter’ - as it were - used to be the record label, but sure, the record store did do their fair share of filtering too.
Thing is, even from my mailing lists, they do a ‘filtering’ process, but still surprisingly send out a lot of crap. It’s only really the individual record labels who send tracks to me who send stuff which are actually any good.
I know beatport have some kinda filtering, but only really regarding the record label. The label must have already proven itself with some releases before they can put anything up on Beatport, but then after that, the label can pretty much put up whatever they like.
[quote]roben (15/06/2010)[hr]You’re on the right track mate but slightly off
The thing with Vinyl was it costs at least (depending on how many units you needed) around £2k to press and send out to the record stores (postage), of course this figure often was more, so record labels could not gamble like they do today. They had to make sure the track was good enough that it would make the costs back as well as profit.
Now with the digital era, there is practically no costs involved, no costs of pressing, no cost of P&P, in fact rarely even artwork these days either. Vinyl sleeves used to costs a fair bit depending on what style you got. There is so little to it now cost wise there is not as high risk for labels, so they can release practically anything now.
So your ‘filter’ - as it were - used to be the record label, but sure, the record store did do their fair share of filtering too.
Thing is, even from my mailing lists, they do a ‘filtering’ process, but still surprisingly send out a lot of crap. It’s only really the individual record labels who send tracks to me who send stuff which are actually any good.
I know beatport have some kinda filtering, but only really regarding the record label. The label must have already proven itself with some releases before they can put anything up on Beatport, but then after that, the label can pretty much put up whatever they like.[/quote]
don’t think i’m off roben lol i owned a record shop and was constantly sent crap promos from distribution companies and it was never very often we got offered a sale of return from the companies, so if we didn’t think it would sell we didn’t buy it
also i know that most companies paid for records to be press would be looking at the 2k mark at least, but you also had the guys that got tracks presses in Europe and got it done for under £500 the records would warp, jump, skip and scratch like nothing else but it didn’t stop them being produced.
electric soul is one that sticks to mind, was simply a kick drum with a piano key being jabbed for 9 mins no break build or drop but people still can in asking for it lol
also being a record store we noticed that distribution companies popped up every other week. always the same voices on the phone (different company name).
i was also told that with the fall of vinyl that companies at the time were willing to press tracks and weight for the money (it got that desperate for some) and i know companies that took advantage of this and never paid for the pressing of tracks.
i would list the crooks that i’ve had to deal with but my hands would hurt from all the typing
haha furry muff then brotha
It’s interesting to hear from the other sides perspective. You are right, you know what, a lot of distributers pulled fast ones over labels. I seem to remember the label i worked for saying they lost a lot of money once to a distributer down to it going bust (i think). Something like that anyways.
Dodgy business.
Sorry to butt in, i think this is interesting what you both saying, i have never worked in record shop and cant remember days when they existed like you talking about, but jeesh i didint know you would spend alot of time having to filter out the what sells from wont and about the music still be bad, i would have thought cause it cost more money to make music then that people wouldnt waste money pressing vinyl for something thats crap, well i got a little history lesson here 
Mingle with us oldies and that’s what happens hahaha
Roben’s point is very valid though.
As is the record shop aspect.
As now both of those points have been removed largely due to the digital age. There is still loads of good stuff out there, you just have to work harder to find it. Which imo isn’t always a bad thing as it weeds out the lazy DJs 
[quote]bangthedj (15/06/2010)[hr]Roben’s point is very valid though.
As is the record shop aspect.
As now both of those points have been removed largely due to the digital age. There is still loads of good stuff out there, you just have to work harder to find it. Which imo isn’t always a bad thing as it weeds out the lazy DJs :P[/quote]
haha yeah, just look at the beatport top 10, sh*t tunes bought by lazy DJs buying something just cos it’s in the top 10… even though more often than not, it’s crap.
I worked for 611 Records in Philly. Same situation that Jon talked about. Loads of crap sent that would never ever sell in the store. The digital age has all of the same problems.
Personally, I am new to producing (within the last 6 months), so I really don’t feel as though I am making tracks that are quality enough for me to even send out yet. I really feel as though I need to continue to practice my craft of mixing & mastering before I am ready to start sending out tracks. When I am ready, I will send 2 my DJ/producer friends first to get impressions & see what I need to improve. The last thing that I want to do is put out **** music. Its not why I am trying to learn this craft.
The problem with the digital age is that any joe-shmoe can create a label and start putting out tracks on beatport without having any real quality to it. Before when labels had to print vinyl it costs to much money for just anybody to do this. Now with the costs being basically 0, you see hundreds of **** labels & producers putting stuff out like its gold. Then on top of that you have **** DJs that actually play **** productions and continue the cycle. Its a big sh*t circle. One jerk after another, while all the while people continue to get an inflated sense of skill & accomplishment.
just my 2 cents.
What’s Carl Cox got to do with your comment about sht labels, sht producers, sht tunes and sht DJs???
hahahaha you nutter 
He may not be the best producer in the world but is easily one of the best DJs
[quote]roben (15/06/2010)[hr]What’s Carl Cox got to do with your comment about sht labels, sht producers, sht tunes and sht DJs???
hahahaha you nutter
He may not be the best producer in the world but is easily one of the best DJs :P[/quote]
lol. absolutely nothing. i’m a big fan of CC.
the pic has more 2 do about 611 records (the place I used to work). haha. he used to stop in the store when he was in the states. best show ever @ fluid in philly with CC and like 300 people.
haha. i am a little off my rocker, but my rath towards sh*t djs, producers & labels come more from my time as a promoter and the ammount of crap DJs playing crap music from crap producers being distributed from crap labels. then all of these crap people pretending as though what they were doing was the most original & noble accomplishments ever. other then that, I have a pretty open mind towards all music styles.