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Oldschool = more aliases?

Why is it that when I browse Discogs for 10+ year old releases most of them are by some alias of someone that has like 25+? Why was this so widespread back then compared to now?

Due to contracts with labels?

right now is not about music, it's about marketing. You have to have your name widespreading mouth to mouth constantly. If you have several related projects it's hard for people to follow you. Right now you have to schedule your releases to be apparent. All the newcomers this year(or previous ones) to the edm scene have something in common:

They released a "hit" and flooded the market with several mediocre songs, then released another hit and boom. Instant top 100.

I guess the records would sell anyways back then, nowadays you need more of a brand.

quote:

Originally posted by Rodri Santos right now is not about music, it's about marketing. You have to have your name widespreading mouth to mouth constantly. If you have several related projects it's hard for people to follow you. Right now you have to schedule your releases to be apparent. All the newcomers this year(or previous ones) to the edm scene have something in common: They released a "hit" and flooded the market with several mediocre songs, then released another hit and boom. Instant top 100.

This.
Take Oliver Lieb for instance. He released Fragile in 1993 under his L.S.G. alias which became an instant classic. But simultaneously he released the equally good track "The Fall" under his Superspy alias.
And the year after he released loads of great track under many aliases such as The Ambush, Mindspace, Paragliders and Spicelab. Seems like people back then didn't had the massive urge to market your name everywhere.

Ferry also has a few, like >30

u had one alias each "project" or genre of music/style. todays producers hardly managed to put together more than 5 tracks and if they do theyre all the same so theres no need for other aliases. also theres the label thing but i think more theres the project or style aspect of it and producers of that time made 5-10 tracks a month, putting all of them out under the same name would steal attention from each of them.

OMG, tell me about it. Trance was so much better back then, you know? The aliases just meant the artists were more into their ART. Today is so plastic, it's all marketing and silly baubles to attract the ignorant plebeians.

There's nobody operating under numerous aliases today at all. None. Not compared to the oldschool. God, trance was so good back then...

It used to be soooooooo gooooooood

Aliases are less feasible these days because of Discogs and the internet. Back in the day, people could use them for several years before anyone figured out who it belonged to. That's just one reason among many...

quote:

Originally posted by Rodri Santos right now is not about music, it's about marketing.

oh.

Back then only 5 people made music, so you kind of had to create loads of aliases so people thought an army of different producers churned out that many records.

Now there are 50 million producers active in Belgium alone (roughly 5 producers to every inhabitant or so), and you don't need that any more.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira Back then only 5 people made music, so you kind of had to create loads of aliases so people thought an army of different producers churned out that many records. Now there are 50 million producers active in Belgium alone (roughly 5 producers to every inhabitant or so), and you don't need that any more.

Just won the thread, IMO!

enydo and Lews, thank you for your contributions.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Lorenzo+Carpella
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Torben+Schmidt
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Alfred+Gregl

These are some names I stumbled upon while searching for a couple of tracks I remembered from way back.

Lira why would you want people to think there were so many different people making music?

Chode; go a little deeper, why would they not want people to know who was making the music? Were they ashamed?

Rodri and Rebel; while it does explain why producers needs to stick to 1 name these days, being about the music doesn't really justify or explain why people felt the need to have a gazillion different aliases and groupnames.

quote:

Originally posted by Redd Lira why would you want people to think there were so many different people making music?

Because PLUR was supposed to be "plural", but they never got enough people to finish the word - it was just a hippie making music in his basement, which explains his peace (he had no one else to fight with), love (he was rather egocentric), union (he didn't want to be sowed in half) and respect (beats me).

Did I post this in the c0r? Or is this just a stupid question? Please enlighten me.

You mean to tell me joof and doof are different people.wtf

Producers came up with different aliases primarily so they could sign different contracts with different record labels, allowing them to release more material and make more money. This was back when you actually made money from record sales and before web labels would pump out dozens of releases every month. Now, producers make so little money from music sales that contracts aren't nearly as sacred - it's common to hear stories of labels failing to pay producers their royalties, or producers dishonouring their contracts and jumping ship. Contracts aren't as important because there's much less money at stake from record sales, and tracks become primarily a calling card for live gigs, where the real money is made. 10-20 years ago, most of these multi-alias producers made enough money from their record sales and didn't need to perform live, so there was no express need to link all their material to one recognisable and book-able name.

So despite the nostalgic, simplistic bullshit spouted in this thread, it's basically an issue of how to make more money, and really is no more honourable and underground than this much-derided modern "marketing". Hence enydo's response.

A lot of cheapy compilations would have a studio guy knock out a bunch of generic tracks to fill 3-4 CDs worth of music. To hide this fact, nearly every track would come with a totally different alias.

Here's a good example.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J So despite the nostalgic, simplistic bullshit spouted in this thread, it's basically an issue of how to make more money, and really is no more honourable and underground than this much-derided modern "marketing". Hence enydo's response.

It's pretty much all I see from enydo these days What "got me" was

quote:

There's nobody operating under numerous aliases today at all. None. Not compared to the oldschool.

No one claimed this anywhere, and as far as I know (I might be wrong since I don't follow trance except a few select lables these days) there are a lot less "compared to the oldschool."

I did get some valid reasons from your post Jack, thanks. Also Sykonee had an interesting point. I remember buying compilations in 00, 01 and almost always be piss disappointed except for 2 or 3 tracks on it.

quote:

Originally posted by Redd Did I post this in the c0r? Or is this just a stupid question? Please enlighten me.

Definitely the latter (regarding your second question).

I cracked a joke, distantly related to Sykonee's point, and you took it seriously (even after Eddie pointed out it was hardly serious). I then replied with an even worse joke to make it obvious I was kidding and had nothing to back it up. Do we even know producers nowadays have fewer aliases? How are we counting?

And, before you even get mad, the first question is hardly so serious and fundamental for the advancement of civilisation that it should be protected from some pointless banter. In case you didn't notice, Enydo and Lews weren't being serious either.

Thank you for being condescending enough to tell me they weren't being serious. Jesus fucking christ

I know you cracked a joke, I just TRIED to keep the tone of this thread not totally LOL I MAKE JOKES ABOUT ERRYTHING and kept asking questions. Sometimes even jokes have an underlying truth to them. Threads shouldn't have to be life or death serious for every c0r-whore not to piss all over it.

No we don't know, like I stated in my earlier post. I would love to be told otherwise.

quote:

Originally posted by Redd Thank you for being condescending enough to tell me they weren't being serious. Jesus fucking christ

A-ha! I knew you'd get it if only someone pointed it out to you! I'm glad you finally laughed at their posts, because South Park is really awesome and no one gave Lews' post the attention it deserves! Enydo's post was funny too.

quote:

Originally posted by Redd I know you cracked a joke, I just TRIED to keep the tone of this thread not totally LOL I MAKE JOKES ABOUT ERRYTHING and kept asking questions. Sometimes even jokes have an underlying truth to them. Threads shouldn't have to be life or death serious for every c0r-whore not to piss all over it.

"No, not the COR whores! They're ruining my beautiful thread and the 5 minutes of effort I put into posting it"

Sheesh, mate, chill out! If you keep talking like this, you may end up thinking you're important or something. As for the underlying truth, I'm saying the exact same thing Sykonee did (in both my posts) if you stop being so prickly about how you want your replies.

Meh, did you see me acting all butthurt until you decided to explain the most obvious shit to me? I dedicated a full 1 sentence in one of my post to sarcastically thank enydo and lews. I don't often see you post this garbage in MD so I actually had to check if I had posted it the right forum. Please continue to tell me I'm an idiot. Repeating what I write in your own words sure makes me look stoopid

The amount of shitposting on this forum is astounding.

edit: and keep telling yourself what you really meant by your posts was what Sykonee wrote, it all makes sense if you really think into it.

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