How To Get Signed

[Sonika]

@cogidubnus - great, but is it honestly not a major twat move to follow up with an email saying "did you listen to it yet?"

I mean to my understanding if a label is going to listen to a tune, they'll listen to it on their own time.


Some nagging little ass asking them if theyve listened to it yet isn't exactly going to help matters, isn't it?


I may be completely wrong, I don't really know, just seems like common sense.

[BoldEquation]

I got my first track signed this year purely off posting it to a Soundcloud group. I had posted up a couple tunes and was building my followers etc
for a little while, plus I had already made a bootleg track that was gaining some attention. A small but sort of established label from here in Canada
asked for one of my tunes to be included on a compilation. I hesitated for a bit, thinking maybe other labels would contact me as well but I just went
with it... a good decision because as soon as I announced I had a track coming out on Beatport it opened all kinds of doors, people were interested in
what I had and I started getting remix jobs and asked for more original tunes.
I've still been learning and trying to better my own productions all year but I've had a pretty good release lineup, and additionally I kept doing free
tracks on my soundcloud.
In August I was lucky enough to have my EP featured on Beatport and the title track made it to #20 on the dubstep chart, staying around there for a
few weeks. One thing that surprised me was the sales figures for the release. I won't get into any specifics, but I really had no idea what to expect,
they were great for the charting track, but for some of the other tracks on the EP that I had really put time and heart into, I would have almost been
better off to release them as free tunes so they can at least get out to a wider audience. Either way I'm grateful for the success I've had so far and
it only motivates me to work harder at my music, at the same time I'm having more fun than ever.

Soooo long story short, just stay dedicated to what you're doing, make your music as good as possible, then make it even better than that.
Get a following going on soundcloud, enter remix contests, send tunes to labels and dj's. One thing I never do is followup with a label or DJ,
just send them your stuff and if it's good enough they will get back to you. Eventually you'll get blog attention or featured on youtube channels and
labels will take more interest in what you're doing and be asking you for more work then you can keep up with.

[Sonika]

@bold equation - thanks! I've been wondering this for a long time, what's a good way to get your soundcloud account out there and get a lot of followers??

My soundcloud account en ce moment has around 20.......that's lousy.

How do you build a following (other than obviously putting out good tracks....duh)

[grillwrecka]

i've never signed anything, but I would think it would be a good idea to submit to internet radio shows like on sub.fm and what not. You can look at the schedule, find out who's doing the shows, find their website, and submit stuff to them. I just know that one time I was listening and asked if I could submit a track, and they said, "sure we take submissions, send it to our soundcloud". I know I'm always trying to get track IDs during the shows from the chat room. Plus those guys wanna make their show stand out by having the most underground exclusive type shiz. Just sayin.

[Sonika]

cool man thanks for the reply thats a good idea

[cogidubnus]

@cogidubnus - great, but is it honestly not a major twat move to follow up with an email saying "did you listen to it yet?"

I mean to my understanding if a label is going to listen to a tune, they'll listen to it on their own time.


Some nagging little ass asking them if theyve listened to it yet isn't exactly going to help matters, isn't it?


I may be completely wrong, I don't really know, just seems like common sense.

I've had people send those follow-ups a few hours after the original - now that is a twat move, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone following up after like a month or so - shows a bit of initiative and there are much more twattish things you can do. Other labels might well feel differently about that, so use your judgement I guess and probably don't do that with someone like Hyperdub.

[JFK]

How come Silkie is a dick?

He is an arrogant dick head.

He once posted on his facebook about how white people were far more likely to be rapists than black people.

I hope he reads this and gets his pants in a bunch.

Hey Silkie (gayest name EVER by the way) FUCK YOU!!!

[Naan_Bread]

[knotoo]

Lol this thread just took an interesting turn. Things are about to get gully!

[Widowmaker]

How come Silkie is a dick?

He is an arrogant dick head.

He once posted on his facebook about how white people were far more likely to be rapists than black people.

I hope he reads this and gets his pants in a bunch.

Hey Silkie (gayest name EVER by the way) FUCK YOU!!!

lol, have you ever met him and actually spoke to him though? why would anyone take what anyone says on the internet seriously?

[rorz9992]

There are a lot of better reasons to make music than because you are looking to get signed

[JFK]

How come Silkie is a dick?

He is an arrogant dick head.

He once posted on his facebook about how white people were far more likely to be rapists than black people.

I hope he reads this and gets his pants in a bunch.

Hey Silkie (gayest name EVER by the way) FUCK YOU!!!

lol, have you ever met him and actually spoke to him though? why would anyone take what anyone says on the internet seriously?

Yes, and all he did was slag off one of my friends and act like he was the biggest badman around.

And saying "why would anyone take what someone says on the internet seriously" is quite simply the most retarded thing I have ever heard in my entire life. Fair enough if people want to mess around and have a laugh, I enjoy that as much as the next man, but making racist comments is unacceptable, be it IRL, on the internet or wherever.

Im suprised that you would say that actually Widowmaker, your posts are normally a tad more well thought out than that.

[Osario]

@bold equation - thanks! I've been wondering this for a long time, what's a good way to get your soundcloud account out there and get a lot of followers??

My soundcloud account en ce moment has around 20.......that's lousy.

How do you build a following (other than obviously putting out good tracks....duh)

chat to other producers, comment on peoples tracks, network, collab with people, get some youtube channels to put some tunes up and link to your sc, etc etc

[garethom]

Don't be scared about net labels either. There are some quality ones popping up, people like Broken Bubble, Warminal, Square Harmony and I'd like to think Night Tracks too. Just because a label sells stuff on Juno or Beatport, etc. doesn't make them any more legit, or mean you'll be earning $$$ from them.

Do a little research, ask them a few questions, that should be enough for you to work out if they're legit or not.

I think when people say "don't go for the first label", I think what they actually mean is "value your work". Say you have a track that's getting a lot of attention, all over blogs, mixes etc, a lot of people are asking for it. Think about how you'll feel if in 3 months time, that track you put days of effort in to is on a label that neither you or anyone else give a shit about. Seriously think about it. I had a friend who signed 2 of his tracks to a guy, the tracks were quality stuff, but they're now on a label that's populated with sub-brostep guff, and he regrets it. (His tunes are minimal dnb/garage).

Don't go with someone that expects everything from you either. My process for securing tunes for my label is to build up a relationship with the artist, tell them what we're about, a little bit about the previous releases, where the tunes will be mastered, what the artist is expecting, artwork for the release, and I'm entirely open about everything and what I expect. I wouldn't expect any other label worth the time of day to be any different.

[hutyluty]

It doesn't look good if your dsf history is full of posts continually slagging off other musicians

[Mr Hyde]

It doesn't look good if your dsf history is full of posts continually slagging off other musicians

I don't think any decent record label is going to check through forum posts to see if they will sign an artist or not (some big name dubstep producers have been banned from here). There really isn't much more to it all than making good music that people want to hear.

[knotoo]

It doesn't look good if your dsf history is full of posts continually slagging off other musicians

[Sonika]

Don't be scared about net labels either. There are some quality ones popping up, people like Broken Bubble, Warminal, Square Harmony and I'd like to think Night Tracks too. Just because a label sells stuff on Juno or Beatport, etc. doesn't make them any more legit, or mean you'll be earning $$$ from them.

Do a little research, ask them a few questions, that should be enough for you to work out if they're legit or not.

I think when people say "don't go for the first label", I think what they actually mean is "value your work". Say you have a track that's getting a lot of attention, all over blogs, mixes etc, a lot of people are asking for it. Think about how you'll feel if in 3 months time, that track you put days of effort in to is on a label that neither you or anyone else give a shit about. Seriously think about it. I had a friend who signed 2 of his tracks to a guy, the tracks were quality stuff, but they're now on a label that's populated with sub-brostep guff, and he regrets it. (His tunes are minimal dnb/garage).

Don't go with someone that expects everything from you either. My process for securing tunes for my label is to build up a relationship with the artist, tell them what we're about, a little bit about the previous releases, where the tunes will be mastered, what the artist is expecting, artwork for the release, and I'm entirely open about everything and what I expect.
I wouldn't expect any other label worth the time of day to be any different.

So a question for someone like you who runs the label - how do you find new artists? Do they send you tunes and you get enough quality tracks out of that to run your label, or do you browse YouTube or soundcloud or one of these forums to find new talent to sign?

[garethom]

So a question for someone like you who runs the label - how do you find new artists? Do they send you tunes and you get enough quality tracks out of that to run your label, or do you browse YouTube or soundcloud or one of these forums to find new talent to sign?

Bit of both man. I've also found people through suggestions from other artists, so might be worth getting involved with some groups or collectives on Soundcloud (not the massive ones that have hundreds of tunes posted per day) that are similar in style to you, help get your name around a little. If I see someone on soundcloud is getting a lot of plays and comments from artists I already know about, I'll definitely check them out. That's probably how I've found most of the tunes I've put out/am putting out. It helps to show that other people think your stuff is good enough to put out BEFORE you send it to the label.

Narrow down your search for labels to something you KNOW might be interested, rather than just a blanket of labels that will probably waste yours and their time.

[clifford_-]

How come Silkie is a dick?

He is an arrogant dick head.

He once posted on his facebook about how white people were far more likely to be rapists than black people.

I hope he reads this and gets his pants in a bunch.

Hey Silkie (gayest name EVER by the way) FUCK YOU!!!

lol, have you ever met him and actually spoke to him though? why would anyone take what anyone says on the internet seriously?

Yes, and all he did was slag off one of my friends and act like he was the biggest badman around.

And saying "why would anyone take what someone says on the internet seriously" is quite simply the most retarded thing I have ever heard in my entire life. Fair enough if people want to mess around and have a laugh, I enjoy that as much as the next man, but making racist comments is unacceptable, be it IRL, on the internet or wherever.

Im suprised that you would say that actually Widowmaker, your posts are normally a tad more well thought out than that.

behave son, your gassin big time