Do you release music?

[Guest djnemo]

Hi everyone, I just wondered how many of you release music on a label, or are you planning on sending away stuff? Whats your artist name? Do you maybe plan to open up a label? etc. etc.

 

I am currently on the building up of a label. I have had one in the past, but due to my Distributor, I got screwed over and it ended up in disaster. Well, I learned since then that you should not trust those people (some of them I heard now from people that they are pretty good, and very trustworthy).

 

Anyways, it would be intressting to hear about your plans, or if you already are releasing stuff. Maybe you would tell us a little bit more about your expriences and so on?

[Guest .::E.P]

I only trust a very small handful of Labels. The rest are bedroom kids looking cool in their friends eyes because they have a"Label". 99.5% of all the "labels" in this scene are crap and should be banned due to lack of any knowledge about sale and marketing. Anyway it wont be long before labels have played their last tune. More and more artists will seek to online sale and skip they expensive links such as labels and Distribution.

[Guest djnemo]

I can see your point, we tried running a label, and the distro really screwed us by ordering more than they actually wanted. We printed the amount of records that they ordered and then they told us that they could not sell it.

 

Now, a couple of months later, a recordshop called me up (a major one) and asked if there were any more of the last record. I told them that the distro should have plenty of them in stock, as sales have not been very good. The person then told me that he had tried at the distro, and that they told him that they were out of stock for it.

 

Well, we didnt see any money from them, and every phonecall that I made was put on hold by the distro, sometimes they even hung up on me as soon as they heard it was me. I had people call there for me, but as soon as I had the person on the phone and he heard it was me, he said "i dont have time now..." and hung up.

 

Not very nice. I plan to have online sales, and do my own distro together with a friend that has 6 well established techno labels. This way maybe I dont get screwed, and I can get the artists what they deserve, and also maybe make some money for future releases. As I am a musician myself, I know what kind of time and money is involved in music making, and therefor I know how important it is that you get your money back, so you can work on new projects.

 

I have a sidejob, because I dont make money on music, and I will always keep that job, because this bussines (music) can be so dodgy at times.

[PKS]

I have to agree with E.P here.... There are so many bad labels out there pushing out tons of releases. Most of the releases have one or two okay tracks, or no okay tracks at all! Especially the amount of crappy full on releases has exploded the last years, but I also see it in other kinds of music I listen to, like drum’n’bass (a “jungle” of bad releases), progressive house and progressive trance, techno etc. The result of this is that the good quality releases sort of drown in the mud of crap... People have to dig really deep and use a lot of time to find out what’s worth buying! The result of that is that most people will not use time on it, and all they see is all the crap. Some will think it’s okay (just like all those who enjoy all the crap on mtv etc.), but the majority of people who are a lot into music, music journalists etc. will only see a scene with tons of bad quality releases... That’s one of the reasons why most music journalists look down on psytrance as a music style...

 

The psytrance scene has also struggled with bad distributors. But also the distributors has a hard time getting rid of all the crap... When a compilation has only one okay track, people will not buy it for full price, so they download it instead... I also think like E.P. said, that in a few years, most artists will seek to online sale to reduce the costs of labels and distributors... But I also think that many people will continue to enjoy the feeling of buying something in a shop, something with a nice cover art etc. they can study while pushing the button on their cd player... I think that a lot of people running labels have a very narrow releationship with music in general. They only listen to full on or only listen to progressive. They don’t understand the importance of listening to different music styles, get new ideas and inspiration from that etc. After getting deeper into various music styles, you will for sure get a better idea of the difference between a good release and a crappy one...

 

I have huge respect for artists and labels who dear to try out new directions. I think one of the best labels ever, was the Blue Room Released. They pushed out great quality stuff all the way, from ethnic Juno Reactor to full on Total Eclipse, experimental trance by Spectral to great quality psychedelic drum’n’bass by Deviant Electronics... Also Matsuri Productions had some great moments, like the Digitalis project by Seb Taylor... These days, such labels are really hard to find because of all the crap we have to dig through. Dragonfly Records is still around. I’m not always very impressed by their trance releases, but the Liquid Sound Design crew are getting better and better. In Finland, there is the Surreal Audio Recordings who are one of just a few psy labels these days, going new interesting directions and coming up with something good. They have released albums by Kiwa (their first album made me jump out of my chair, maybe because Kris Kylven, known as UX is involved) and Blowfish (by Graham Wood, also known for being part of The Infinity Project). So, there are still good, interesting music out there, but they often drown...

 

Personally I’m actually starting up a label in collaboration with the Freetransform crew these days. They have an amazing studio and have gained a lot of studio knowledge. Last time I visited them they were recording an entire choir:) Personally I have been collecting electronic music and writing about it for over ten years, so I think I can see the difference between good and bad (right and wrong to release). I have never felt a big need for being cool either. My intension with this label is to release great quality chill out/down tempo music, and the artists are first priority. The chill out marked isn’t overfloding of bad releases like the full on scene (except for all the crappy “Ibiza lounge chill” compilations you find everywhere these days). I can’t understand all those crappy labels that don’t put the artists as first priority! What’s wrong with people? I think there are just too many greedy people out there. Well, I’m just a music nerd who wants to see some pure quality stuff being released...

PK

[Guest djnemo]

Wow, this is exactly what I was after! Criticism in a creative way! I wish you the best in building your label up!

 

I know some people that have very high programming skills and also very talented with graphics if you should need it. In our "crew" we are not after the big bucks, but to get quality music and design out there.

 

I know exactly what you mean by that people need to listen to more than just psy. I have always been listening to all kinds of music, not just psy. And as a producer it has helped me a lot, since I get influences from everything from Jazz to Rock and Blues. The first thing that I really liked, when I was around 5, was reggae and dub.

 

Linton Kwesi Johnson is just the bomb, just as a sidenote!

 

Anyways, thanks for these replies, I hope to see more like these! And as I said before, if there is anything that you need, any of you, let me know, and I will see if the time is there to help out.