Paying netlabels?

minimal house · Post by **minimal house** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 6:06 am

i think charging for net labels is a bad idea. Actually a TERRIBLE idea.

For one, I would not pay for mp3 releases. Its hard enough selling the music as it is now. Honestly i would like more people hearing my music than getting a $50 check or whatever. Its the ultimate promotion tool!

When i did my first net release on textone, it was hard for me to grasp the fact that people on 6 continents and over 20 countries are listening to my music. I think if you charge for net releases, you put all that to an end.

Plus it gives up and coming artists a chance to make some noise outside of the political bullshit that goes on behind record labels (like who you know or where your from etc). i gotta go now, but ill have more on this topic.

::: b a r e m ::: · Post by **::: b a r e m :::** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 7:22 pm

I agree

zkreso · Post by **zkreso** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 3:32 pm

I personally wouldn't pay for netlabel releases as I don't even buy vinyl/CDs ( and no, I don't download them illegally either )

I know several people who run netlabels who aren't rich. So I don't think the costs can be THAT high. Sure, you have to pay for the traffic to your website, but archive or scene.org will host the largest loads. I think the artists and netlabel "managers" deserve to get paid for their efforts and their time, but as long as making music isn't their full time job I don't feel too bad for them ( sorry musicians )

Music Junkie · Post by **Music Junkie** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:39 pm

I agree with alot of what has been said and what pheek said about getting together instead of starting a new netlabel makes the most sense. Netlabels are a community not an industry, to me you have the stuff you can buy in stores and then you have netlabels that are free. I think there should be more limited cd's released along the lines of what thinner does occasionally. That way you could still get the music but if it is something that you want more than just an mp3 buy the cd with the nice cover art and all. Also alot of poeple say who cares keep it free and I agree to a point but there needs to be some sort of business diagram along the lines of mp3.com but different. i'm drifting a bit, I don't think netlabels should charge solely for the mp3 but to have a real cd sent to you for $10 would be cool and if you get like 5-10 cds from a netlabel send that person a t-shirt for buying the music. I think people need to band together to make it better not charge and then turn it into competition because then we just have another money hungry monster on our hands.
Also on a sidenote netlabels are def the minor leagues for the big guys so if you never get paid for a release on a netlabel surely someone will notice some of the great production work. for example pheek i believe pheek is doing some stuff with Hawtin???

instabil_netlabel · Post by **instabil_netlabel** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:48 pm

pheek wrote:Happy label = happy artist = better music.

sorry pheek... i´ve alot respect of your works but this idea is to simple... by the way, i´m not sad to produce music for free... far from it!

my thoughts: a netlabel is a label for free... its a playground for producers... its a playground for a web-designer... its a playground for a photographer to design covers... thats all. i´m the artist, webdesigner and the photographer in one person for my netlabel and i´ve alot of fun!

dou · Post by **dou** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:24 pm

i would NEVER pay to get mp3's.

imo a netlabel is a place where producers release their stuff in order to get themselves known into a greater number of listeners, or if they ve already succeeded in that, to release stuff that they couldnt (for various reasons) or didnt want to , on real labels. or even just to have fun as instabil already claimed

if u think that u ought to be paid for these stuff print cdr's,cd's or even better vinyl.

dou · Post by **dou** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:57 pm

btw i know there are some netlabels that charge for their releases like jeff bennet's kung fu dub and neurotron's night drive music.
i'd love to hear their opinion on the subject

pheek · Post by **pheek** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:56 am

instabil_netlabel wrote:
pheek wrote:Happy label = happy artist = better music.
sorry pheek... i´ve alot respect of your works but this idea is to simple... by the way, i´m not sad to produce music for free... far from it!

Actually, that idea NEVER came from me. There is a lot of talks about this issue around me and I'm one of the main people who is FOR free music. Don't get me wrong, I believe in netlabels but I also believe that as a community, we probably can get our artists a bonus to help them out and support them. As for now, Archipel do so by releasing occasionnal physical releases, which is, to me, very fun and exciting even if you lose money doing so.

I fwd this thread to some people who want to make changes in their netlabels. I think most of them were talking about selling hi-quality version of the tracks (ex. wav or 320kbps) and still giving music for free. Maybe this discussion will make them think a bit.

But I believe in the ressurection of a system similar to mp3.com...

ah.