When one’s looking for a label to send your music to, you click on the “Contact” button and most of the time all they say is something like “If you’d like to send us your demos, please send them to the following address : . We accept both mp3’s and audio cd’s”.
Uhm … what about the MUSIC GENRES they accept??? Most labels don’t even mention this. And if you have to decide this by listening to clips from their current pool of artists, there’s either no clips at all or way too many.
Pretttttty frustrating.
And ofcourse there’s 1000s of labels you can choose from (even by narrowing it down to your favorite genre), so you’re basically looking for a needle in a haystack.
I just wish labels would be more clear as to what they expect from music producers.
Why waste your time with labels that you know nothing about in the first place? Or to think of it from the label’s point of view, why would they be interested in someone who knows nothing about their label or work? If you don’t even know which genres they are working with, then I think you should be doing some more research for a start.
Anyway, many labels really only deal with a certain genre, or certain subgenres, so it shouldn’t be very difficult for you to find something that fits what you are doing. Take some artists who are making music which is similar to your own stuff - this shouldn’t be too hard since you probably already listen to them anyway, right? Now look at which label(s) they release on and then you have a good starting point. I don’t think you will get very far if you’re just trying to find random labels to submit to, so your first step is probably to do a bit more homework.
A good place to start could be record shops, either in real life or on the internet. Go to a place like http://www.juno.co.uk , then look through the genres which are a good match for your own music, discover some labels which are releasing good music in that genre, etc.
For example, if I was making some nice techy drum&bass in the style of Teebee, I would search for his releases there and I would immediately see that he has several releases on the Subtitles label. Now if I search for the other releases on Subtitles I immediately see some other artists I enjoy, such as Chris SU, Phace, Noisia, etc. So just from a few seconds of easy searching, I already know that Subtitles could be a good place to submit some dnb tracks.
Teebee is on my AIM list, he accepts dubplates in mp3 format. He does not accept them from me mind you. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible to get a response from him unless you are NOISIA. Which brings me to my main point…
I run a label, unsuccessfully and unprofitably. Up front, I can tell you I will not accept your demo because you don’t live near me, I’ve never heard of you, I don’t know if you play live shows, I don’t know if anyone shows up at your shows, I don’t owe you drug money, or a favor. I’m in a city, and friends with, guys who work for bigger labels. As good as any demo they will get, they have to do invest their time in their already established artists and you’d have to wait at least a year for them to consider you, develop a deal as no one is going to put out undiscovered talent that is irrelevant to their own geography. It’s a huge risk. Will you tour to support your album? Do you have the chops? The personality? A demo in the mail will not reveal this.
The reality is, in the internet world of free music everywhere, labels are probably not interested in your demo unless you have some sort of credibility factor with them. That credibility will not be some random demo in a pile with every other “never heard of you”
You need hype via thousands of people already saying you are the best and already going to your underground gigs, or you need to start hanging out drunk/stoned/high in the same place as the guy who runs the label you want to be on, possibly being the guy playing the music in that spot.
1st : try to get some DJs which play music you like, they mostly have a good overview about labels and can give you names. If you are a producer and don’t buy records regularly it’s hard to keep track of this. Or give them your music and ask them what label this would fit to. Keep in mind that this music is mainly made for DJs.
2nd: myspace. I think it’s easier to get in contact with producers/labels you like this way.
3rd: To me it seems that most labels nowaday are a “local” thing, so check what’s going on in your neighbourhood. I found a great label in belgium (aroma) which is releasing music close to what I (want to) do, but I wrote them a mail some time ago and they replied that they are just a bunch of people from the same area and not really interested in people from 1000km away. pity.
It’s been an LONG time since I’ve bought a cd (I think the last one was the Citizen-X soundtrack). But anyway I can’t say I know anyone in the music business to give me a headstart.
Yeah I gotta put up a page there sometime, but I’ve got some pretty decent music “frameworks” going on right now that I should finish first.
There’s a label about 30 minutes from where I live but I’ve never really been sure what they’re into. And I’m not really that much of a talker to just go in there and ask what kind of stuff they’re doing. I’ll have to buy some cd’s there, see what they’re selling.
One day though, I asked them if they had any Industrial and they didn’t know what that was!
save up for a while and start your own label…? Thats what i’m aiming for one day. Mainly because I’m so f***ing antisocial and will probably never approach the random people with my music =)
