Looking for a Label

Anything that doesn't fit into other topics goes here!
I'm starting to look around after some labels that'd be willing to participate with me. I wanna get LMMS sound higher.

I guess there are some people having similar concerns here in LMMS community, let's share who and what we know :)

---

I'll share a piece of advice that a friend of mine who makes a living out of mixing other people's music told me.

If you want to get your music released by a label, you've gotta make an EP ready to distribute. 4-5 tracks including one remix. Ask someone to make a remix of your song and include this on the EP. Make the best out of it and then submit as a demo. The point is it has to be ready for release, labels don't want to spend a year polishing your stuff, when they have people who come in with mastered EPs ready for publishing. Also - keep the tracks secret. Don't publish, don't even send out files to pals, play it live to your friends and family in your home/studio, but don't hand them "WIP master" CDs. You can publish short snippets of the tracks, but it's still better to do that after you've agreed on the release - this way labels have more options to promote this stuff. It's gotta be fresh, it's gotta be new. Good luck!
unfa wrote:The point is it has to be ready for release, labels don't want to spend a year polishing your stuff, when they have people who come in with mastered EPs ready for publishing.
I believe it is somewhat common for labels to offer mastering services (free or discount) to get people to sign with them. So if you don't have your tracks mastered yet, you should at least have them mixed "ready-to-master". You know, leaving enough headroom in your mix and such. Requirements can vary per label.
unfa wrote:Also - keep the tracks secret. Don't publish, don't even send out files to pals, play it live to your friends and family in your home/studio, but don't hand them "WIP master" CDs. You can publish short snippets of the tracks, but it's still better to do that after you've agreed on the release - this way labels have more options to promote this stuff. It's gotta be fresh, it's gotta be new. Good luck!
They will want some degree of exclusivity, like having your track signed and published through their official label channels only, for the first x amount of days.

Music promotion channels on Youtube could be an alternative to labels. The big ones out there like https://www.youtube.com/user/MrSuicideSheep operate like netlabels, with online demo submission forms and favoring digital promotion/distribution over physical methods.
Dark Horse studios here near Nashville offers free studio time, for anyone who wants to record a demo.
http://www.darkhorserecording.com/

http://darkhorseinstitute.com/dark-hors ... udio-time/
The studio time offers recording time for student recording engineers, and to the people that need a demo recorded.
So I gathered everything I needed, including a tall glass of motivation and the proverb "you will always miss if you never shoot", and contacted one of the biggest independent labels out there to submit my first demo to them.

A few days later.
Hey Carlo Tas,

We want to start by thanking you for your interest in working with <label name removed>. We have listened to your your track submission and have decided that we are not interested in signing it.

Please feel free to submit more of your music in the future. We listen to every submission!

Submission
[House] caLRo - The Next Mission (Original Mix)

Best wishes,
<label name removed>
Does anyone have made demo submissions before? In this instance I was pretty much "cold calling", since I didn't have any prior contact with the label and I don't know anyone working in the industry. Anyway, moving on now.
Spinnin Shit - Toilet Pool

https://www.spinninrecords.com/talentpool/

I've done some reading on this unusual type of demo submission system, with one outstanding conclusion: it's a waste of time.

The platform gives the impression that Spinnin is just too lazy to listen to all the demo submissions themselves (not that all demos are worth listening, but that's a different story). The idea of producers peer-reviewing each other's demo submissions is absurd, since most of them lack the professionalism and expertise of someone who has been in the record label (a&r) business for years. Also, the platform has an XP reward system as if it's some kind of game. It reminds me of those pesky Facebook games in which you have to spam your friends in order to level up.

The result: a bunch of <insert big artist name>-copycats flooding the platform with shitty tracks and "voted, please vote back" comments.

If you're on it and have made it big, congrats, if not, leave it. If you haven't heard of it until now, I apologise for not being able to erase this post from your memory.

If you disagree with this platform being a waste of time, I'm willing to debate.
@caLRo -in respect to your post of 18. sep, why did you remove the label name? In general i am very much against context-changing edits, in fact prohibited, but i read this as if you dont want to list them, because they are un-interesting. I dont agree. The fact that they-at all- responded, is actually quite impressive! They even invite you to contact them again. I really think that is quite unusual.

Love your post from 20. sept. looks like you really have a good understanding of that platform. thank you.
musikbear wrote:@caLRo -in respect to your post of 18. sep, why did you remove the label name? In general i am very much against context-changing edits, in fact prohibited, but i read this as if you dont want to list them, because they are un-interesting. I dont agree. The fact that they-at all- responded, is actually quite impressive! They even invite you to contact them again. I really think that is quite unusual.

Love your post from 20. sept. looks like you really have a good understanding of that platform. thank you.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that the reply I got came from a standard template that they will send to all rejected demos. The only adjustments were the name and submission. They probably do this because of the large amounts of demos being submitted every day. I think the same applies to other big labels out there. It would be interesting to test if this is the case.

So if anyone can pick their best (or worst :P ) track and send it to a label, and share the reply here, I would appreciate that. We can then compare. :)
I made a demo submission to another (smaller) label, and managed to get a more personal response this time. It seemed that my sound was "too underground" and that they were looking for something more commercial, preferably with a nice vocal.

I guess next time I have to try a label that is more into underground and experimental, and less commercial.

And so my quest for a label/promo continues.
Got my first promo support from a small promo channel! Track will be released as free download in a few days!

https://youtu.be/wdCte5WoQPA
caLRo wrote:
Music promotion channels on Youtube could be an alternative to labels. The big ones out there like https://www.youtube.com/user/MrSuicideSheep operate like netlabels, with online demo submission forms and favoring digital promotion/distribution over physical methods.
so in theory, do you have to have a license to publish others' music on your youtube channel? (Or would that interfere with copyright...? Or would it interfere with copyright if you made money off of it without permission from the artist?)