This has been happening for years but is probably worse now than ever.
It seems to me that most of today’s digital labels consist of fledgling producers who can’t get their music onto a decent label and see the way out as releasing on their own label or a label which has no credibility whatsoever.
Beatport and the other digital shops are actively encouraging it by not properly vetting applications. In my view, this is the biggest single factor in ruining today’s electronic music ‘scene’.
When I started producing in 1998, vinyl was king. If a label was willing to sign your music it showed that they were prepared to risk £££ to get your music out there by arranging the mastering, shipping, artwork etc. A natural by-product of this was that most of the music in record shops was high quality across the spectrum of genres.
Setting up your own label to release your own music or others music should be reward for previous achievements within the scene. Your reputation should already be established. A key indicator for this is if you have to trawl message boards to find music to release or advertise in any way, you probably shouldn’t bother at all. The music should find you.
As producers, I would suggest that you send your unsigned tracks to your favourite 4 or 5 labels. If you get no response, it’s a fair bet that your tracks aren’t that great and you should go back to the drawing board rather than further perpetuating this epidemic by ‘finding a home’ for the music by agreeing to the first interested party.
Rant over 
[quote]e1123360 (29/11/2012)[hr]I would suggest that you send your unsigned tracks to your favourite 4 or 5 labels. If you get no response, it’s a fair bet that your tracks aren’t that great and you should go back to the drawing board [/quote]
+1
Fair point.
I guess this is always going to be a problem when music is effectively a free commodity!
However, if all these people keep setting up digital labels releasing **** music, it shouldn’t affect you too much - just focus on and buy the music that you love, and ignore the rest.
If no-one buys or even plays their music, surely sub-par producers will soon get the message?
I know i would!
id say if you had to stump up £1200 to set up 1000 vinyl pressings like you used to it would change a lot of peoples ideas as to whether their tracks where good enough or not. 
I’m used to trawling through 98% of crap with promos each week, so makes no difference really.
Looks like someone has been reading Dom Kane’s rant and copied it, lol
When / where was dom kane’s ‘rant’?
[quote]Roben (30/11/2012)[hr]When / where was dom kane’s ‘rant’?[/quote]
August / Facebook
Its annoying but everyone setting up digital labels is not killing the music industry. People downloading music for free is killing the music industry.
[quote]rampus (30/11/2012)[hr]Looks like someone has been reading Dom Kane’s rant and copied it, lol[/quote]
Dom Kane and I have had many a debate over the years and rarely agree on anything.
I do vaguely recall his blog on this subject though…
Phil summed up what I was trying to say in a nutshell. Many labels would think long and hard before releasing most of their music if they had to stump up their own hard earned to get it out there.
I accept the points made about trawling through the rubbish to find the gems and some would argue that’s part of the fun of music shopping.
However, I just find it a little unsavoury when there are tracks that are sonically horrible, with horrible remixes and horrible artwork infiltrating Beatport to the degree it does.
I’ve had 4 tracks (one on vinyl) released in over a decade of music making. There are producers around now releasing 3 or 4 tracks a month. There’s nothing wrong with being prolific but the majority of these types of producers are putting out garbage.
I would once again urge producers to have some pride in your work and don’t even release samples of your music until you are truly happy with it and feel it is the best you can do.
[quote]e1123360 (03/12/2012)[hr]There’s nothing wrong with being prolific but the majority of these types of producers are putting out garbage.
I would once again urge producers to have some pride in your work and don’t even release samples of your music until you are truly happy with it and feel it is the best you can do.
[/quote]
maybe not exactly on topic, but in terms of “the market clogging up with mediocre, sound-alike productions”, this article gives another interesting insight into the problem.
Dance-musics-creative-crisis
thoughts?
Yes, i think what it says in this article is exactly what is happening at the moment.
But i am coming to the personal conclusion, that if you want to make great music enough, you will just accept the fact that for the most part, there is no longer any money in it, and get on with it!
I think you have to ask yourself what is more important to you in life - money, or making music?
Personally, i know for a fact, that i would be more happy having alot less money in life, yet having more time to spend on making music, than i would devoting more of my life to making more money, yet as a result ending up with significantly less time available to spend making music.
I think alot of this argument is always affected by the fact that we have become a very materialistic, consumer-driven society - and we have all been ‘brain-washed’ into thinking that we can’t possibly be genuinely happy unless we buy lots of **** that we don’t really need!
Generally speaking, we all have to make a choice at some stage - do we go for the kind of ‘career’ that pays well (banking/business/corporate slave etc etc), or do we pursue something creative that we are genuinely passionate about- like making music?
You have to ask yourself - what would you rather you leave behind when you die - loads of valuable material possessions…
…or an impressive legacy of dance music with your name on it, that can be enjoyed by people for years to come?
I know which one i have chosen to go for!
natural order of selection in my opinion.
either you have it or you don’t. the problem is that people that don’t have it have ways to get it out there, thus watering down the industry, but don’t worry bad music is just bad music.
keep making great music and sooner or later it will land in the right ears.
great young and up coming producers have no problems sending there stuff to big labels and even if they don’t get signed right away they know it will happen one day.
Do EDM producers that arent DJ’s even exist anymore?
Interesting topic. There’s a “bigger picture” to this. This situation of “more work, less money” is not just music, but is endemic to the broader economic system. Most of us (trust fund kiddies excepted) are in a “race to the bottom”, doing more and more for less and less, as that is what we have to do to remain “competitive”. Or earn a living even…
This may seem a tangent, but I’ve seen the same thing happen in IT over the 20 years I’ve been full-time in it. For the past 10 years, income has dropped continually in real terms as salaries stagnate and the cost of living soars. For example, none of those under-30 that I work with now can afford to buy a house. Yet 20 years ago, I’d say the majority of people in software were buying their first house around their mid/late 20’s. So in a totally different ‘industry’, it’s the same story. And I would guess that builders, writers, lorry drivers and caterers would say the same!
What seems to have happened is that distribution is skewed more than ever to a handful at the top of the heap, with many more sharing less at the bottom. eg the boring old Rolling Stones can charge £1,000’s for a gig, Harry Potter author is the highest earning woman in the UK, but the average writer cannot earn a living any more. Some people reckon that the internet has had something to do with this. My belief is that financiers are sucking all the money out of the economy, yet such is their power and control, I have no idea how we can stop them, unfortunately. It’s not just a “music” thing, it’s a “sign of the times” thing.
If the average wage was higher, there would be less piracy. I’m going by the UK, but when the cost of your accomodation goes from 15% to 40 or 50% of your wage (which it has for many), then you’re going to pirate whatever you can’t buy, aren’t you? Anti-piracy measures won’t help much, because the majority will just stop buying anyway. Eventually you’d sell less because piracy means people can try things out risk free and I think this could impact long term growth of interest in your music.
Meanwhile…race you to the bottom! (…whatever you can do, I can do cheaper)
Good contribution <A class=SmlBoldLinks id=_ctl2_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl12_smAuthorName onmouseover=“window.status = window.location;return true;” title=“View hazxan’s Profile…” onmouseout=“window.status=‘’;return true;” href=“void(‘’);”>hazxan!
I think you’re right - whatever is going on in society/economics at the time, is going to impact music.
And certainly we live in a society at the moment that likes to reward things like good-looks and ‘celebrity’ status - rather than ‘proper’ talent.
This is why alot of the highest-earning DJ’s are fairly young, pretty good-looking, and they tend to put more effort into their marketing and PR efforts than their DJ and production skills!
It’s a very worrying trend. I mean just look at people like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton, who are basically rich, famous and idiolised by millions for nothing!
Unfortunately the same is happening with DJ’ing and production.
We need to try and reverse this trend - and get back to a society that in the main respects proper talent - so the people who really are talented and capable get rewarded and can get on with the job of being creative and moving things forward!
[quote]davidmclean (11/12/2012)[hr]I think you’re right - whatever is going on in society/economics at the time, is going to impact music.![/quote]
I hope that when (if?) we get out of this recession, things will improve all round! We shouldn’t forget that for most, music is a real luxury item. Even for those of us who live for music, there isn’t enough time to listen to anything more than a small % of what’s released.
[quote]davidmclean (11/12/2012)[hr]This is why alot of the highest-earning DJ’s are fairly young, pretty good-looking, and they tend to put more effort into their marketing and PR efforts than their DJ and production skills![/quote]
I must be a rarity in that I am content to just try and produce. Too old and not good looking enough to DJ! 
Actually, I don’t get this “live act road to riches” thing at all, as I’ve done many gigs as a guitarist in a regular band and there’s no money in that either, apart from for a very very few at the top. I moved to production as it seemed like less hard work for an equally little reward.:)
Still, overall, it’s never been easier to get your own small studio and the equipment to produce decent quality tracks that you can actually sell on Bandcamp, Beatport etc. But the majority will only ever get “bonus” money from it, never enough to live on.
[quote]phil johnston (30/11/2012)[hr]id say if you had to stump up £1200 to set up 1000 vinyl pressings like you used to it would change a lot of peoples ideas as to whether their tracks where good enough or not.
[/quote]
Totally. Vinyl is a great crap filter especially in today’s climate
[quote]Roben (30/11/2012)[hr]I’m used to trawling through 98% of crap with promos each week, so makes no difference really.[/quote]
Ah definately, I used to buy lots if it to ha ha, but back then it was the only medium to dj with. Today though releases like that would send a label bust…
I made my first single in 1984, it sold 10 copies. I lost about £1,200 back then.
I never heard anything of it again for 20 years. Now its considered a cult classic and im earning money from it. (probably more than most people earn for modern day dance releases) and ive well recovered my original investment.
So, sending your music to a recognised label and it being rejected doesnt mean its bad music, it just means they dont necessarily get the music.
Modern technology allows everyone the opportunity to make music, without having to justify themselves to anyone else, there will be plenty of people who make great, quirky music that would never be signed because even dance labels have their formula, their “sound” and they arent going to risk time and money unless it fullfills their phantasy of what they are about.
Now you dont need to spend £1,200 on putting a record out, but if you seriously want to be heard, you would definately need to spend money getting your music heard above the “noise”.