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How did you get your track released?
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| Smoke Sarno |
Sup all.
I would love to hear your story about getting your fist track released by a label. What steps did you take?
How long have you been producing? Did you know someone that knew someone? Where is it being sold?
I have been producing electronic music for a few years, and havent had any success getting any releases.
Not that i have tryed to shop my stuff around much.
I guess in some way im looking for a bit of inspiration. So i would love to hear your story. |
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| Omega_Blue |
| moved to production studio. |
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| skyhunter |
| quote: | Originally posted by Eric J
If you (honestly) think your stuff is good enough to be released then you cant get a release if you don't submit material. However, be honest with your music and don't try too soon. If it's not good enough then you should wait before trying to submit stuff, just so eole dont associate your moniker with crappy tracks. |
I think this is very good advice. Like, very very good. Submit your music when you are sure it's awesome. |
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| Prototrance |
First release was a remix I was asked to do by a friend who had already signed the original mix. He had been let down by another remixer and needed a favour.
First solo release I simply sent a 320 kbps MP3 of my track to a label A&R person who was asking for prog' trance / house tunes.
This then led to remix work for this label.
Other solo releases have been signed by maintaining contact with certain people at labels who I have remixed for. By keeping in touch you can circumvent the 'use our dropbox and we'll get back to you' approach to demos and get hold of the yes people immediately. It's no different to any other workplace, as long as your work is good.
Be honest in your communication with labels. Stating your new track is an innovative blend of psy-trance and post-rock ambiance never heard before is just going to annoy them........ if they read it at all. In my experience if they like what they hear they'll be in touch. |
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| BECK |
| i won a remix contest and my remix got vinyl release. that was cool. from there it all went downhill. never signing anything again. |
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| Storyteller |
| quote: | Originally posted by Smoke Sarno
Sup all.
I would love to hear your story about getting your fist track released by a label. What steps did you take?
How long have you been producing? Did you know someone that knew someone? Where is it being sold?
I have been producing electronic music for a few years, and havent had any success getting any releases.
Not that i have tryed to shop my stuff around much.
I guess in some way im looking for a bit of inspiration. So i would love to hear your story. |
At a certain time I thought i was ready to release my tracks. I contacted a few labels that were releasing music by guys I know. I told the label's A&R I got forwarded to their label by those guys which wasn't exactly true but it got me a 100% response rate in return :D.
From there the let downs came flowing in, but there was one guy being really helpfull forwarding me to other labels that seemed more appropriate for my music. Due to this guy I got my first 2 releases signed to labels I initially never even heard of but have been well respected in the prog-house scene.
I'm not sure how it is now, but 6 years ago, near the end of vinyl for most of the EDM scene it was really hard to get that first track signed. After that it was quite easy.
My music is being sold on all the regular EDM shops I think and some other ones like Itunes.
I signed my first track when I was producing for about 10 years. Most important is just to have fun :). The getting signed thing was a goal for me a while but I realised that's not really so anymore. Most labels are crap anyway and the pay is horrible. There's better ways to get your music out there.
My first track I made which I considered to sound pro (called Book of Fairytales and made in 2005) has recently been licensed to Armada for some compilation which ironically is called proghouse 2011. Furthermore I had the chance to release music on some of my favourite record labels and some really popular artists like Gareth Emery further down the road which was brilliant. |
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| Richard Butler |
It's relatively easy to get signed to smaller labels. I was damned lucky my first went to a large label, just luck though. Took me one year after getting my DAW, but I had been messing around with electronica for years - just not with a proper focus and drive.
Mad4Brad has a point about originality. If you were a label owner, there is not a lot of mileage in signing tracks that sound like others in style and astetic as other tracks already out there. |
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| tehlord |
I never sent any tracks out to labels.
I did send one to a guy on here once asking for an assesment as I knew it was't ready but he couldn't be bothered to get back to me despite claiming that's what he was 'all about'
I waited until labels started coming to me.
Then I started my own label as most (but not all) of the smaller labels are ing idiots who'll sign any old e and spend about 1 hour a week on promotion, if they bother at all. |
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| Nemesis44 |
Funny thing about the music industry, I used to be so driven by getting signed, but then I realised that probably the bigger thing in this business as it stands today is not getting signed but actually getting named DJs to play your music. Oddly enough getting signed and having a named DJ play your stuff doesn’t always equate to the same thing.
I have been producing for about 8 years, although I have been involved in other music projects since I was about 15 and have been a DJ for 26 years. It’s not until now that I can actually sit back and think... you know that actually sounds quite good. That’s the crazy thing, I think that you can get signed much sooner, but your music won’t have that maturity and very often you will sound like a clone of whatever else is around (There are naturally exceptions to this as some people are just talented as f**k).
I had my first singing in late 2006, the label approached me, in retrospect I probably wasn’t ready for this but my first release made it to no. 8 on Audiojelly. I was actually quite pleased with this and thought that I would see a fair return but earnings for this were surprisingly low, not that I ever saw a penny from of them anyway (Partly my fault). I went on to have a further 7 releases after that, although due to a dispute with the label (not getting paid) I had some of the tracks removed from the main sites. I now only have two tracks available out there but they are with labels I trust and people I know I can work with.
I have recently put pen to paper with Richard Butler under the Dirtbox Divas guise so this will be my 9th release in total. Never been as happy creatively speaking with the output as I am now. Working with someone is something I thought I would never do well but when I heard his music it kind of felt like the missing piece and it just feels like what one of us doesn’t do so well the other does really well. What I am saying with this is that, don’t dismiss the idea of working with someone, it is often a very sobering approach, plus you know that if you have a track that both of you like then the chances are that someone else also will.
My tracks that are still available can be found on all the usual sites i.e. Beatport et al.
My advice to you is to not make getting signed your main goal, at least not yet. Focus on producing something that you feel that you would honestly think back on and say ‘yes’ that was a good track. Don’t try to out do an original artist on their own sound, create your own sound. Richard and I have found our own way of doing things and I think the result would reflect that. We have had a number of favourable responses from even from some of the bigger boys out there even if they haven’t signed the music.
Had my first major DJ play by Judge Jules in 2004. This actually felt like a bigger deal than getting signed to be honest. It just means that people heard it, call me sentimental but I like the idea of my music being played and enjoyed by people in clubs. The track never got signed though. All I am saying is don’t loose sight of what it’s actually all about. We make dance music, you want people to dance to your music otherwise there is no point in making it.
As a result of both my DJing and releasing tunes I know quite a few people in the industry and could pretty much get most things signed through them if I really wanted. But it’s mostly smaller internet labels and as stated before, most of them don’t exactly go crazy with the promotion. There is a lot of music out there that gets signed that never sees the light of day because there are so many Mickey Mouse labels out there.
My advice is, make the music your number 1 concern and the rest will eventually fall into place.
Cheers
Nem |
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| Magnus |
| Much like Eric, a physical CD is what did the trick. The first signed track was from mailing out CDs to around 7 labels that put out the kind of music I was making. Months passed with no word but eventually, one of them responded and that was it. Then shortly after this happened, I got another track signed by handing it to a DJ after his set. I had the habit of handing out CDs to some of the bigger DJs when they would play in my area and it paid off. |
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| TranceLover007 |
Same with me, never was my priority to produce music only for releasing it to a label --> It is a fun, it is something I love to do and I was doing since I was 15 (long time ago lol, played solo guitar in a rock band for about 5 years), now whatever will come out of it would be a nice bonus.
Cheers,
Darek |
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| Rodri Santos |
| i won a remix contest but... i prefer big dj plays thats more important, if i want my tracks signed is because of this, and in the end i only want big dj plays not for the buzz (only) but just to spread my music, the kind comments i receive on my mail , soundcloud, youtube... that's the energy i want to produce. |
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