Lets face it, quality of tunes is just a point of view, with people like PVd and Armin Releasing tunes like "nothing but you" and "shivers" I see no wrong in digital lables signing up stuff, while you may not like all the realeases some of the finest tunes I have are from small digital lables.

E-TCR is different in that it releases on CD as well as digital, and has now started putting things out on vinyl too. It doesn't overpollute (for want of a better word) the scene by putting out too many releases, and it has consistently put out tracks that, if not to everybody's taste, can at least be acknowledged as quality. E-TCR is probably this way because it's only the digital arm of ATCR and Surface, two established labels.

Although I'm not familar with Real Music Recordings, it sounds pretty simlar to E-TCR. Neither of them is any worse at providing up with generic trance than Armind, or Vandit, for example.

ONION seems to have a point. However, there have been a few lovely new labels in the past year, most notably Intuition. New labels can break through from time to time, but vinyl labels tend to be good because they lose a lot of money if they aren't. Digital cuts so many costs that anyone can afford to chuck out rubbish, and it doesn't matter if it doesn't sell, because they haven't put much money in.

I can't say I care about the digital front, as I buy vinyl and will continue to do so as long as it's possibly to do so, but I can certainly see where you're coming from. Whether these labels are killing trance or no, there isn't a whole lot you can be doing about it besides voting with your wallet and not buying from them.

quote:

Originally posted by Floorfiller that's just been my experience. most of the time when i go and find a new track that i would like to get...they don't have it for download.

Agreed. And also, someone said there is a mixture of big tunes and small more "underground" stuff. You find the big stuff is whatever and the small stuff all comes from these small crappy amateur labels which are being discussed in this very thread!!1

___________________
Fortuna Favet Fortibus.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_Massive If you're talking about some of the most recent of their releases or perhaps those on the Platipus:Euro sublabel, I might just agree there.. can't really think of any of the old releases that are retarded though

I am talking about the sub label

Im caning Art of Trance - Persia at the moment

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Who's going to bother going through all those "releases" just to find the 1 or 2 good ones? Not me, that's for sure.

i can see exactly how you mean and have questioned this many times before, but i don't see it as purely a bad thing. DJs will have far more choice, and the ones who search the hardest will be rewarded the most. i personally find it far more satisfying finding something good after searching though pages of unknown tracks, as opposed to just picking up the new awesome vinyl release everyone's talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by isoterra i personally find it far more satisfying finding something good after searching though pages of unknown tracks, as opposed to just picking up the new awesome vinyl release everyone's talking about.

Thats what turns an average DJ into a talented DJ... Too many fags copying tracklists, only buying off big known labels only turns DJs into sheep...

Theres probably nothing better than rocking to a track at a party Ive heard for the first time... wondering what the name of the track is

quote:

Originally posted by ONION Too many fags copying tracklists,

C'mon man. that's not cool

___________________
M.I.K.E. IS GOD

Well, as has been posted in this topic already, a lot of the digital labels started recently are simply acting as a garbage can for tracks rejected by the big labels.
Obviously, some tracks are rejected by those big labels for not fitting within a certain niche (and those could actually be interesting), but the vast majority gets rejected for being plain old crap.
When it comes to trance, the new digital labels (I'm not referring to offshoots for existing trance labels or labels going digital -J00F- ) have an awful track record , to say the least.
On the other hand, when managed in the right way, these labels do have the opportunity to uncover that gem that could interest me. I just don't see it happening with the current digital trance labels.

quote:

Thats what turns an average DJ into a talented DJ...

Exactly. And it's what makes listening the most fun. As much as I find the underground mentality ("It doesn't matter how good it is, as long as no one knows about it.") apalling, there is a certain appeal to being one of the first people to like a song. Personally, as a producer, I'd rather have my music gain popularity from the ground up; give it a foundation, rather than let it take root from above, whereby my fame will be completely dependant on it being further promoted by the names that got me there in the first place.

On the topic, though, I agree with Aquarian. I don't think the electronic music scene will "die." so to speak. It will definitely be very changed by this change. The industry, by which I mean established labels like Netwerk, Platypus, MoS (generally ones that have relied on vinyl for the past few years), etc. will feel a great deal of pain, for sure, but they'll adapt eventually, if very slowly. Essentially, there will always be electronic music, but it's popularity will simply become more dependant on internet savoir-faire than on radio, TV, vinyl or CD.

[edit]
I'll say, though, that I like the fact you implicitly question their status as labels. Personally, I don't see any reason to continue the "label" tradition. Labels came from a time when it was difficult for a single person to get recognized outside of their own town through their own efforts. Now it's easy for one person to show his music to someone on the other side of the world through AIM or Yousendit; they don't even have to pay money to promote and distribute. The label grows increasingly unnecessary for this reason. Artists shouldn't act as their own middleman if they don't need to. No one said it was wrong to just release music as oneself.
[/edit]

___________________

www.jexmusic.com - My website

Last edited by thoughtlessjex on Mar-12-2006 at 20:23

I don't entirely agree with Nik here. I see the online sale of music and online-specific releases as actually very good things to happen to the scene as it is great for avaiability. It also raises the value of the DJ role since picking music becomes harder and more time-consuming - I see this a good thing for EDM altho it does make it harder for the general listener that prefers singles and artist albums to mixes.

However the fact that digital labels exist is nearly retarded. Hello, there are barely any costs of "publishing" a track online. On the digital era, there are two reasons to want a label: credibility and promotion. We can drop already the first since most of these labels are ridiculous, only the naive producers that sign their tracks to them think otherwise. Promotion however is a good reason, altho I don't believe neither these new labels have the capacity to promote artists adequately. I can only hope a new era comes soon (i have some faith it will come): when artists instead of signing their tracks to a label sign their tracks directly to the stores, *then* hire some kind of musical-specific marketing company to promote their tracks to djs and such. I'm not sure this would be a big advance, but I don't think the old concept of "label" is the most adequate to the digital era neither.

As for the quality of tracks, I don't think it has anything to do with the online sale of mp3s, but rather results from the huge avaiability of prodution software and the general desire to fit certain musical standarts so certain dj's can play the tracks.

___________________
sempre contra a corrente do jogo

quote:

Originally posted by paranoik0 I don't entirely agree with Nik here. I see the online sale of music and online-specific releases as actually very good things to happen to the scene as it is great for avaiability. It also raises the value of the DJ role since picking music becomes harder and more time-consuming - I see this a good thing for EDM altho it does make it harder for the general listener that prefers singles and artist albums to mixes.

Well... I did say I don't think the digital music business is bad in itself. It's the other things that come with it.

___________________
Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]