10 ways to get a proper record deal - Murderdoll blog #004

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Robot Criminal
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Post by Robot Criminal »

greenwoodsound wrote:For artists just starting out, this worked for me:

Go to juno/phonica/wherever, and stay up on the new releases in your genre. Make a short list of any labels you've never heard of who are currently releasing material with a similar sound to yours. Check out their back catalog; buy a track or two if it's digital.

If you're into the label after a bit of research, send out an email talking about a certain aspect of their sound you like, a little about yourself, and a link to private soundcloud demo tracks. Wait a week, if you don't hear back, go down the list or do some more research and add a couple more labels to the list.

This way you can focus your energy on the small labels that would be willing to release tracks from an unknown, and you discover a bunch of good (sometimes great) obscure tracks in the process.
def a good advice! Of cource try not to start molding your sound to someone else's (pun intended) :D
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Murderdoll
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Post by Murderdoll »

greenwoodsound wrote:For artists just starting out, this worked for me:

Go to juno/phonica/wherever, and stay up on the new releases in your genre. Make a short list of any labels you've never heard of who are currently releasing material with a similar sound to yours. Check out their back catalog; buy a track or two if it's digital.

If you're into the label after a bit of research, send out an email talking about a certain aspect of their sound you like, a little about yourself, and a link to private soundcloud demo tracks. Wait a week, if you don't hear back, go down the list or do some more research and add a couple more labels to the list.

This way you can focus your energy on the small labels that would be willing to release tracks from an unknown, and you discover a bunch of good (sometimes great) obscure tracks in the process.

Nice one and good advice indeed!
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Kiani
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Post by Kiani »

Interesting that you mention that B-side thing. I don't know how others think about differences between A and B sides, but in dance music I don't seem to notice them a lot. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never checked a vinyl thinking "ow, let's listen to the A-side, and maybe then I'll check the B-side too", but in non-electronic music I'm much more aware of this.

anyway, nice post!
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Murderdoll
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Post by Murderdoll »

Kiani wrote:Interesting that you mention that B-side thing. I don't know how others think about differences between A and B sides, but in dance music I don't seem to notice them a lot. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never checked a vinyl thinking "ow, let's listen to the A-side, and maybe then I'll check the B-side too", but in non-electronic music I'm much more aware of this.

anyway, nice post!
You're right Kiani, with electronic music it usually isn't about the a or b side but with vinyl I do sometimes feel that labels need to fill up the space with lesser tracks, resulting in an A (better quality) side and the so called B (lesser quality track).

The question is, why bother doing that? ..both from a label and artist perspective..
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Post by PsyTox »

I don't think this is the case with most techno or house labels (as Kiani says). If you only have one decent record to put on it, it's acceptable by dj's that you just release a one-sided vinyl.

In rock, hiphop etc. they definetely put in fillers. Hell, often enough a CD has two or three decent tracks and 9-10 fillers :)

Has less to do with the medium than with the style imho.
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Post by Murderdoll »

PsyTox wrote:I don't think this is the case with most techno or house labels (as Kiani says). If you only have one decent record to put on it, it's acceptable by dj's that you just release a one-sided vinyl.

In rock, hiphop etc. they definetely put in fillers. Hell, often enough a CD has two or three decent tracks and 9-10 fillers :)

Has less to do with the medium than with the style imho.
Yes that is true, now that you mention rock and hiphop, some styles certainly create extra crap just to create volume on a medium (be that cd or vinyl)..

I would definitely buy a 1 sided vinyl (if the track is good of course ;-)
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Luis Isaac
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Post by Luis Isaac »

The B side was always to give a different point of view of the track. Always more experimental and strange.
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Murderdoll
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Post by Murderdoll »

Luis Isaac wrote:The B side was always to give a different point of view of the track. Always more experimental and strange.
That's true regarding remixes.

But if an artist sends new demo tracks to a label he/she should decide whether to fill up a release with lesser tracks or just make the best ep possible, even if that means sending just two tracks to a label instead of four. Less = more.
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